YMMV / Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

• Alternative Character Interpretation: V.VIII Pater is directly stated to be a sociopath in his arena bio created by ALLMIND. But some of the player base wonders if this is true. In the mission where he is fought alongside his superior, V.V Hawkins, he seems genuinely distraught if Hawkins is killed before Pater's AC is destroyed. This has made some players wonder if he is a sociopath, or if ALLMIND was just off the mark. On the other hand, Pater rather quickly gets over his apparent grief upon realizing he can take over his number in the organization, and upon defeat only expresses anger that he was taken out so soon after ranking up. Two interpretations were made: Pater really is a sociopath for brushing it off so quickly, or it's a coping mechanism to deal with the sudden loss. It's also implied that he may have multiple personality disorder, his mood swings along with his AC's name ("Dual Nature") and his emblem (a dual fetus) lending some credence to this.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Duels against other ACs can be hit or miss, and not even for using a Game-Breaker build that would make anything an anti-climax. Because they use the same parts and statistics as you do, this also means that unless they're a special boss encounter that specifically cheats their design a bit, most don't hold up against the same kind of punishment that regular bosses can; fights should rarely last even a full minute unless you and the AI keep boost-dodging around each other, trading weaker hits. It reaches the point that the Rank 1 Arena position, V.I Freud, is considered one of the easiest opponents of the entire Arena simply because his build doesn't have the eccentricities or gimmicks that pose danger to an experienced player. As a straightforward AC fight, he gets chumped easily by that point. It's somewhat more difficult against multiple ACs, but those fights are featured on New Game Plus routes, which by then, the player would have ready access to Game-Breaker builds anyways.
  • Pater serves as the boss of the "MIA" mission. The mission is short and not very difficult, which makes the inclusion of a Resupply point near the end of the level give off the impression that a difficult boss is coming, but Pater is encountered alone in a High Mobility LC at a point in the game where a lone LC is likely no match for the player.
• Award Snub: The game only getting nominated for (and eventually winning) "Best Action" in the 2023 Game Awards has attracted this sentiment, especially since From Software's previous work, Elden Ring, won Game of the Year the year before. That said, most acknowledge that it was a very packed year as far as quality releases go.
• Awesome Art: As expected from Fromsoft; the art team certainly used the studio's newfound production values to deliver a truly visually stunning experience, from the mechanical designs and animations of the ACs to the visual effects of the weaponry. However, special mention goes to the fact that everything in the game is modelled to-scale, as evidenced by videos like this, which have the game's assets ported to Elden Ring.
• Best Boss Ever: As expected from the Fromsoft team that made Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
  • AAP07 BALTEUS may be a harsh Wake-Up Call Boss, but is it ever a joyful fight. A Lightning Bruiser through and through, the fight is a complete thrill as you learn to dodge its Macross Missile Massacre and keep up with its fast movement. And the fight keeps escalating as BALTEUS brings on new toys, from even more missiles to a flamethrower. A suitably epic duel to conclude the first chapter, and a great introduction to Ayre.
  • AAS02 CATAPHRACT. It's basically the EC-0804 SMART CLEANER on steroids: a hulking tank whom you must Attack Its Weak Point. However, it stands out due to its sheer speed and its incredible amounts of More Dakka it carries, to the point that it's the best possible variation of a "Get Back Here!" Boss, and its insane collection of weaponry, whether it's its numerous Gatling Good or its multitude of missiles, make the fight unpredictable and exhilarating.
  • The AAP04 ENFORCER is a boss with no major gimmicks or any eccentricities associated. It's just a big robot that's really, really good at fighting. And that's why it's one of the best fights in the game; there's no real way to defeat it other than being good at the game's combat, and makes up for it by having one of the most varied, most fun movesets in the entire series. Agile, versatile and deadly, the ENFORCER is a great skill check before the game's difficulty really cranks up in its final missions.
  • The fight against the IA-02 ICE WORM is a breathtaking sequence. It's basically the best possible iteration of the Storm Ruler type boss recurrent in From Software games crossed over with a Big Badass Battle Sequence, as you must carefully aim the Stun Needle Launcher into the ICE WORM's face. This is already fun enough, but what makes the fight even better is the escalation provided as the ICE WORM pulls off more and more tricks out of its repertoire, from drones and eventually a Macross Missile Massacre. Making the mission all the more incredible is the memorable dialogue from V.IV Rusty, G1 Michigan and "Chatty" Stick. It's no wonder this boss is a fan-favourite!
• Best Level Ever:
  • "Destroy the Weaponized Mining Ship" is basically the Arms Fort missions from For Answer taken up a notch. Traversing the gargantuan EB-0309 STRIDER (which, again, is modeled to scale–so it is actually a continent-scale behemoth) is impressive as visual spectacle as much as it succesfully captured what made the Arms Fort missions great: that is, the thrill of systematically bringing down a colossal structure, only this time even larger.
  • "Breach the Kármán Line," the penultimate mission on the Fires of Raven route, which involves breaking through an entire interceptor fleet like the PCA ships first encountered in Chapter 3. The catch? You'll ride on the atmosphere's edge with unlimited energy. You'll be blitzing between ships like a Gundam protagonist who just got their Ace Custom while hearing the enemy panic over comms. Players familiar with For Answer may find it similar to playing on Regulation 1.15, being able to quick boost to their hearts content like they're back in a NEXT again. To cap all of that off, the mission then finishes with Rusty confronting you in his own upgraded AC for an epic duel.
• Breather Boss: The Smart Sweeper is a simple fight sandwiched tightly between Balteus and the Sea Spider. Very heavy durability outside it's small weak points aside, it can't really do much to you if you keep your distance from it, and its attacks have a heavy enough wind up that you should be able to avoid them easily enough. The only thing it really has going for it is that its active grinder hands really hurt, even if they just brush up against your AC, and that being close to it becomes more and more dangerous as the battle progresses; but once again at range it really can't do anything to you that you won't see coming a mile away.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: One of the most popular meta builds uses a tank-chassis AC armed with dual Songbirds and dual Gatling Guns. The tank chassis gives the AC plenty of health and armor to absorb damage while the dual Gatlings and Songbirds give almost unrivaled sustained and burst damage, respectively. An alternative build is swapping out the Gatlings for shotguns, to give the AC maximum burst damage.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • The PCA's Light Cavalry are tough Elite Mooks. The leader of a given squad can easily stagger you if you're not careful, and you will have to get in close and aggressive as they can sometimes dodge most attacks.
  • The autonomous grinder wheels found in the underground city have been called the return of the infamous Bonewheel Skeletons from Dark Souls, for good reason. They move fast, making aiming difficult, their charge attacks deal a lot of damage and can stagger you very quickly, and they have a flamethrower. The worst part is that they come in groups, and one particular group guards a part container containing the MOONLIGHT Light Wave Blade. They also all have Combat Logs, so destroying them all is necessary for 100% Completion.
  • The C-Weapon Drones, which you won't face properly until NG++, are a nightmare. Not only are they resistant to kinetic weaponry, they are also fast, faster than most ACs even, which can make hitting them a pain. They also have a unique kick move they can do mid-dash, and it will stagger. They also always come in pairs, so you can't just focus on a single one at a time without risking getting staggered by the other one.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Some have interpreted V.VIII Pater's behavior as not sociopathy, but due to Multiple Personality Disorder. The fact his AC is named DUAL NATURE adds some precedence to that interpretation, but it's otherwise unconfirmed.
• Draco in Leather Pants: The Overseer faction has gathered a non-insignificant following due to their Anti-Villain status. While the root origin of their goals is sympathetic, they are nevertheless actively attempting to cause a repeat of an extraplanetary calamity that nearly devastated humanity before and which the player knows will constitute an act of genocide against a sentient species that harbors no desire to harm them. Rationalizations vary, both from person-to-person and in comparing Western views on the matter to Japan's, but common trends include a sense of familial duty for 621 to carry out Walter's wishes despite personal reservations, a view that the existence of Coral will continue to bring out the worst in humanity and only ever be used for weapons, and the harsh wording that the first mission taken in opposition of them specifies you will be killing "Cinder" Carla... who just one stage before had rescued you from Arquebus.
  • Balam and the Redguns have their following too, largely because of the popularity of G1 Michigan. Many players have expressed a desire for a story route in which 621 sides with Balam over Arquebus just because of how likable Michigan is, while glossing over the fact that Balam is just as much of a cutthroat corporation as Arquebus is and that their goal to monopolize the Coral would put them at odds with Walter/RLF and force a confrontation with them anyway.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • V.I Freud appears for all of one mission in one route and that's all he needed to make an impression. His psychotic spin on the Blood Knight and his voice actor's enthusiastic and memorable performance instantly endeared him to the fanbase.
  • The Dafeng student pilot, owing to Johnny Yong Bosch's performance and copious amounts of Memetic Mutation as a money grind mission. The audible enthusiasm he puts into the fight and overall status as The Woobie gained him a lot of fans.
  • "Invincible" Rummy is an absolutely terrible fighter and overall of no importance to the plot but his Large Ham demeanour, delusional belief in his own prowess and general status as a walking fountain of Funny Moments make him one of the highlights of the early-to-mid game.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • The third ending, Alea Iacta Est, appears to be the game's Golden Ending... until Ayre utters her very last line in the game: "Main System. Activating Combat Mode". While some continue to consider it a hopeful and uplifting ending, others take this line as a sign that mankind's Forever War will continue after all, and possibly even more brutal than before now that everyone has the power of Coral symbiotes at their proverbial fingertips. Naturally, there's no official word on which explanation is the intended one.
  • Some fans are under the impression that Rusty may actually be C4-617 from the story trailer. Rusty somehow figured out that you were working under Walter within a few seconds of meeting you. His emblem is of a wolf, which stands out from the rest of the Vespers. All of the Vesper's names are references to artists or philosophers, and fans have found that the artist Leon Kelly has a painting named Rusty, Number 617. Also, 617 is noted as "Down" in the story trailer while 618-620 are noted with "Vital Signs Lost." However, this theory ignores some key details: Walter doesn't seem to think there were any survivors from his old team (Carla: "What happened to 617 and the rest?", Walter: "Their jobs. They did what it took to get us here."), Rusty's bio states he's been a member of Arquebus and the Vespers for some time, and it's strongly hinted elsewhere in the game that Rusty is a Rubicon Liberation Front sleeper agent who infiltrated Arquebus to stymie their efforts to exploit Rubicon 3.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The Elcano EL-TL-11 Fortaleza tank treads, partly thanks to its design origins and notoriety, is sometimes known as the "Wheelchair" and "The Joe Swanson Special".
  • For anyone familiar with Gundam, the VCPL Vvc-700LD Laser Drones are nicknamed Funnels. The Sazabi and Aerial are popular cosplay builds to use these weapons with.
  • The final boss of chapter 4, IB-01 CEL-240, got nicknamed "Robolenia" after a Malenia from Elden Ring, mainly due to both being Fragile Speedsters and also incredibly notorious bosses for one reason or another. Gundam fans will just call it Qubeley thanks to its oversized shoulders and drone-oriented fighting style.
  • The AH12 HC Helicopter tutorial boss has developed quite a reputation thanks to it's difficulty and slew of angry posts lambasting it's difficulty - therefore gaining the nickname "Filterchopper". Japanese players, meanwhile, have taken to calling it "Rubicopter-sensei" for the same reason.
  • Some people have taken to calling G5 Iguazu "Iguana" due to autocorrect changing his name to the latter. It has mostly stuck as a derisive nickname.
  • "Brainwife/Brainwaifu" for Ayre, as wordplays of "brainwave" and "wife/waifu" due to Ayre's nature as Coral wave mutation who's Invisible to Normals except 621. It is also common for player to refer to Ayre as "schizophrenic Vtuber", partly for that same reason.
  • The Pulse Blade is sometimes jokingly referred as "Butt Blade" due to its registration code being HI-32: BU-TT/A.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Zimmerman shotguns were hilariously brutal against normal enemies and even AC bosses. While all shotguns are fairly dangerous, Zimmermans had all of that, but also functioned well even at medium-range thanks to having both high damage and high stagger build-up. Its damage and direct hit adjustment were eventually nerfed and brought in line with other weapons while still retaining its other advantage of having an above-average ideal range, but once the 1.06.1 patch dropped they went back into this as the patch buffed most of the kinetic weapons.
  • The Hu-Ben Gatling guns are extremely effective weapons thanks to their very high DPS and the fact that their high rate of fire builds up the stagger meter rapidly. In addition, unlike shotguns and the Songbird, Gatling guns can easily engage fast-moving enemies or swarms of weaker fodder at short to medium ranges. This means they are very effective all-round weapons, allowing players to mow through regular Mooks while at the same time retaining high utility against bosses. Gatlings are also commonly paired with Songbirds, with players using them to stagger enemies quickly, so it's easier to hit them with the Songbirds.
  • The Stun Needle Launcher, despite seemingly being a gimmick weapon, still retains surprising utility; it does obscene damage and stagger, can build up Electric status, utterly obliterates health bars on staggered foes, and has the handy benefit of having its slow wind-up fake out the AI a lot of the time to take the hit. Using tank legs mean they can also be used on the go, alternating shots repeatedly and obliterating most foes in your path. Because it's a mission-related weapon, one is given for free, so you always have one powerful shoulder weapon for the rest of your playthrough, no matter how much you're budgeting.
  • The Songbirds shoulder-mounted grenade launcher is a double-shot artillery piece, releasing powerful shots with a large damage radius. By itself, it's deadly; with a heavy build supporting two of them, they can stagger just about anything when fired together, or at least do enough stagger damage that you can pop off the last with your normal weapons. Combine that with taking to the air and shooting at the ground for more evasive opponents to catch them in the radius and it's not uncommon to see dual Zimmerman shotgun paired with dual Songbirds to bomb and mop up anything but the most absolute fastest foes. Its damage was nerfed in the 1.031 patch while the Earshot received a reload speed buff to bring it further in line.
  • The Truenos needle launchers, received by fighting the STEEL HAZE ORTUS analysis in a third playthrough, are a pure physical force projectile that hit harder than Songbirds with their needle shots on staggered enemies, while having the range of the Stun Needle Launcher and reloading faster than both weapons. This is on top of being lighter and having enough ammo last most missions.
  • The Electric Discharge status effect. Tied to a few weapons, when the effect procs, opponents explode in a huge area of effect electric blast, dealing excellent damage. This status is a monster in duels, as it's unavoidable when it happens. The 1.031 patch indirectly nerfed it with all of the head pieces receiving buffs to system recovery, affecting how quickly an AC recovers from such status effects.
  • As demonstrated in videos like this one, the one-two punch of Laser Lance and Pile Bunker is an absolutely brutal boss killer, able to empty even the hardest bosses' health bar in two to three hits. Pack some mook repellent as your right-side weapons, practice your evasion routines for a bit in the simulator, and you can steamroll almost the entire game with little difficulty.
  • WS-5001 SOUP. It fires a salvo of ten missiles per shot. Being basically a portable Macross Missile Massacre already makes it a strong candidate for this status, but the implementation of it really shines. Unlike basically every other shoulder weapon, the SOUPs have a magazine system with a surprisingly quick firing rate; that means that the player can fire up to sixty missiles at the target in short succession, on top of obscene damage, reload time shorter than one would think and tracking that is far more effective than the low Guidance stat would imply. The main disadvantage is its relatively high weight.
  • WR-0999 DELIVERY BOY. While it suffers from slow reload times, high weight and low stock of ammo, the concept and execution of it is just incredible. Basically, it shoots a slow moving missile that periodically carpet bombs the target on its way for obscene damage, before the missile itself exploding in a blast of such power and impact it would make Edward Teller blush. The cherry on top is that the flavour text and weapon designation (WR-0999, R for Rummy) imply that "Invincible" Rummy dreamt this up in a Coral-fuelled haze.
  • WB-0010 DOUBLE TROUBLE, after patch 1.06.1, makes everything on the other end of it a complete joke. It's a chainsaw with a slow two hit combo, but what truly makes it break into this territory is its charge attack. Basically, it can be charged indefinitely, dealing contact damage along the way, and then it hits a 7-hit combo for absurd damage on opponents on release, especially ACS overloaded opponents. While it has its downsides, like high weight and EN consumption, it's basically the best thing available for stance breaker builds; it's like the Pile Driver with a powerful forward thrust.
• High-Tier Scrappy:
  • The tank legs benefit the most from the reworked mechanics. The new stagger mechanic is very powerful, and tank legs tend to allow for stagger-reliant builds more easily, and also have high stagger resistance as well. The removal of aiming being tied to the camera eliminates the weakness of their turn speed. Lastly, this game has much closer engagement ranges than previous titles, meaning tanks benefit from being close-quarters specialists. They also have fast ground speed and can fire heavy weapons while moving. Though they do have their own unique weaknesses, mainly in lack of air mobility, the sheer amount of damage they can dish out while still trucking on is a sight to behold, so the best way to counter them is to obtain AP advantage by hurting them and simply staying away as far as possible from them and wait until time runs out, which is easy to do if drones or missiles are equipped.
  • Dual shotguns, specifically dual Zimmermans, are one of the most commonly seen weapons in multiplayer due to their extremely high staggering power and pretty high power with a semi-decent range. Combined with dual Songbirds or dual Stun Needles, and you can chunk a decently armored AC for about half their health in a single volley, some even combine then with another pair of shotguns to capitalize on damage and the 2 second reload time the Zimmermans have, because of this builds tend to have a shield equipped to parry the hits they do without building that much stagger.
  • The "Rat" builds consisting of equipping as many missiles as posible on a lightweight build are a nightmare to deal with, they will depend entirely on the missiles to deal damage while they're as far as possible from their opponent, while pursuit with assault boost can be a way to counter them most of them will have equipped the HMMR alongside the use of the Basho Arms frame which maximizes the damage melee weapons can do, without affecting hand missiles as they aren't affected by the fire arm specialization stat to punish in case they get too close, paired with the Lammergeier tetrapod legs and hitting them will be almost impossible.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A picture circulating the Internet where Karl Urban and Viggo Mortensen are carrying numerous Mobile Suit In Action (MSIA) Action Figures only becomes more awesome after the former ends up in the live-action trailer of a giant robot video game.
• Life Imitates Art: A veteran AC pilot is chosen by a MegaCorp to take on a high-profile mission. They set him up to fail - but they didn't realise just who they were dealing with. Are we talking about the player-character in most of the AC games, or the real player Fireworks (see Memetic Badass below)? You be the judge.
• Love to Hate:
  • Iguazu has ended up on the receiving end of this due to how strong his hatred is of you, to the point that he ends up becoming the final boss of the Golden Ending just so he can kill you.
  • V.II Snail gets a similar reception due to the sheer amount of contempt he holds for you and his Smug Snake tendencies, while also being a genuinely deadly opponent. He's seen as a very entertaining villain, making it ultimately satisfying when he's finally killed.
• Low-Tier Letdown: Rifles and Machine Guns are very lackluster. Compared to other guns, these weapons are low damage, not great on stagger impact accumulation, too slow per projectile to hit the faster enemies, and often have to reload too early due to low magazine capacity. Compounding the issue is that every other weapon type either does their job better, or does something unique enough to warrant bringing instead. Handguns deal very high stagger with good accuracy at the cost of low ammo pools, Shotguns and Gatling Guns deal extremely efficient damage, and energy weapons typically hit harder across the board and deal with Overheat rather than reloading, among just a few examples. This leaves Rifles and Machine Guns with no niches to fill that other weapon types can't do, leading to them being incredibly underwhelming to use. Fortunately, the Balance Buff during the first patch somewhat mitigated this, making at least some of them actually worth using.
• Memetic Badass: The one born even before the game officially released: "The Fireworks of Shibuya" was chosen to play "Heavy Missile Launch Support" mission during a pre-release live event, and was given 1 minute to assemble his AC to play the mission which he got minimal information about^NoteIt was later revealed that he was expected to fail on his first try, receive some advice and more time to refine his build, and win the mission after doing so. He then proceeded to assemble his AC in time, effortlessly finished the mission in one go, ending it with punching through the carrier's bridge to destroy it. He was given this nickname minutes after the livestream, and was treated as the equivalent to Amuro Ray among the fandom.
• Memetic Loser: In spite, or perhaps because of being the True Final Boss, there are more than a few jokes and memes lampooning ALLMIND as being one. Highlights of the game that help reinforce this interpretation include: two separate weapons erroneously being listed as having the same weapon ID, being upstaged by a Jobber who hijacks the final battle, providing a pie-chart that closer examination has percentage values that don't add up to 100%, and most tellingly uses the implied fake identity of Kate Markson to flirt with you and subsequently praises the offscreen exploits of. The fact that their plan is entirely reliant on you agreeing to help them clinches matters.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Handler Walter's name's being shared with Walter White has not gone unnoticed by the fandom - doubly so with the statements about Coral being a drug in the pre-release material.
  • One of the infamous Handler Walter's hounds ^Explanation a line uttered in the gameplay trailer. Fans used it to refer to a selection of cute dogs and other animals. including Namco-owned franchise that goes by the abbreviation of AC.
  • "You gotta take Rubicon's blessings raw…" ^Explanation When ESRB released their T rating of the game, the rating summary included references to fictional drugs (in this case, the Coral being used as a drug). One of the example quotes used instantly began making the rounds thanks to its rather provocative wording.
  • Filtered by the helicopter ^Explanation In traditonal Fromsoft fashion, Armored Core VI's very first boss, the AH12 HC Helicopter, proved to be a massive kick in the jaw for players, leading to a slew of negative Steam reviews and angry Reddit posts about the game's difficulty. Also in traditional Fromsoft fashion, these posts and reviews were mocked to the ends of the earth.
  • "Guess you just can't beat the Institute..." ^Explanation The Sea Spider is a nasty cap off to the short Chapter 2, and every single time it kills you, "Cinder" Carla has this to say given the origins of the machine. For players stuck on the fight, it became the single way to denote to everyone else in a conversation exactly where someone was stuck.
  • "Got a job for you, 621..." ^Explanation Handler Walters opening to many mission briefings which was ripe for jokes either parodying the setting or Walter requesting mundane things such as going to the store.
    • "...Raven." ^Explanation Ayre's opener whenever she needs to say something, and being a very important figure in the plot, she says it a lot. Making it just as ripe for jokes as Walter's above opener, especially from those who aren't as invested into the story as others.
  • "I just... I just wanted a callsign of my own." ^Explanation The last words uttered by the trainee pilot in the Destroy the Tester AC mission. Due to the mission's ease and being by far the easiest mission to grind out COAM early in the game, you will be hearing this a lot. See The Woobie below for more.
  • Many jokes have been made about the player character being named "621", as these are the same digits as popular furry site e621. Multiple user-created in-game decals exist referencing it, including the site's logo and a pin-up version of their mascot.
  • The lady in my head that calls me studmuffin. ^ExplanationOriginally a meme from the Halo community about Cortana that caught on in the ACVI community due to Ayre's deep fondness for 621.
  • All Don't Mind or FAILMIND^{Explanation(spoilers)}ALLMIND becomes the True Final Boss on NG++ route, but with all those clumsy performances throughout the game (including those from Memetic Loser entry above), it's very hard for the players to take her seriously, and thus she is called the former in Japan and the latter in the West; in fanarts she's usually depicted as a Butt-Monkey who failed to achieve her plan. Her Japanese VA also took All Don't Mind as her pilot name when she started playing AC6......And her lack of experience playing the game just reinforced fans' depiction on ALLMIND being dumb.
    • Transexual Iguazu.^{Explanation(spoilers)}A Japanese player started to play AC6 due to being attracted by ALLMIND's fanarts alone, up until the last fight in NG++ when he was crushed by the fact that ALLMIND chose to possess Iguazu instead of him, even expressing his envy to Iguazu instead of the opposite. The result is the fandom plays up the idea of Iguazu-in-ALLMIND altogether, creating a new line of meme.
• Moe: Ayre is neither a pilot, a corporate liaison, nor an operator (even if she acts as one ad hoc), and thus constitutes as one of thew few true civilian characters in the series not involved in the warfare. Her idealistic nature contrasts greatly with every other character in the story. She gets a few Ship Tease moments with 621, such as remarking how missile battery explosions look like fireworks with awe. There's also a mission that's essentially an excuse for her to want to spend time with them without Walter, a sentiment she unsubtly expresses first when surveying the Floating City, but feeling bad she has no way of compensating them. Occasionally, she'll try to lighten the mood, such as impersonating ALLMIND. She even expresses genuine excitement when she tries testing a theory to pilot a Coral AC for the first time through the Integration Program files in the "Alea Iacta Est" route. Little surprise, then, how it affected fan-artists' depiction of her as a cute, youthful girl.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Destroying V.II Snail's ARQUEBUS BALTEUS during the "Liberator of Rubicon" path. After dealing with Snail's insufferable narcissism for the entire game and witnessing the atrocities he commits, bringing his machine down and hearing him die screaming makes for an extremely cathartic end to his boss fight.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Fires of Ibis are described and shown in horrific detail. Remember that explosion of flame that seemingly enveloped a planet and expanded toward other nearby celestial bodies? That was the Fires of Ibis, a catastrophic galactic event that scorched hundreds of planets due to some sort of accident involving Coral. The numerous conglomerates in the game understand the dangers of Coral, but they still want to use it because it's a valuable resource that can benefit mankind. For the record, Walter wants to start a second Fires of Ibis and kill millions, if not countless more and devastate other planets near Rubicon 3, just to make it clear that Coral is too dangerous to be used and is better off left alone. In "Fires of Raven", he succeeds with your help... and you get a front-row seat to watch your handiwork.
  • The Story trailer showing C4-621's bed-ridden state. While you never clearly see their body, they're practically a cadaver fitted with medical equipment all over, and Handler Walter himself calls them "brain fried" in the game itself. As far as the context goes, they're physically a borderline vegetative state that is 100% cognizant of their surroundings, placed inside an AC unit that amounts to a metal coffin and expected to die.
  • The Arquebus Corporation's penchant for "re-education" is a recurring threat through the back half of the game, and is threatened to be used against a captured 621 no matter how much you helped them, and explicitly happens to Walter in the "Liberator of Rubicon" ending path. Somehow a corporation has enough power to arrest and capture anyone who gets in their way, and then do undescribed processes that utterly break the victims into subservience to Arquebus's whims. This is just treated as a regular thing they do, but singlehandedly catapults them into being the darker side of the corps wars between them and Balam Industries.
  • Mission "MIA" is nothing short of a Mook Horror Show that demonstrates just how utterly brutal ALLMIND truly is. As 621 backtracks through Depth 2, the PCA MTs are hijacked by ALLMIND and proceed to utterly slaughter every Arquebus soldier, overwhelming them with sheer numbers and brutality. They're overrun, they're terrified, and they want to get the hell out of there. Unfortunately for them, ALLMIND isn't willing to let a single soul get out. One soldier sums up the destruction happening in front of your eyes.
    Arquebus MT: This is hell...! We're in hell!
• Older Than They Think:
  • The Reveal that Coral is a sentient alien lifeform has many people believe that this is the first time the Armored Core series features extraterrestrials. Except aliens have existed in the series has far back as Armored Core 2. Granted, the aliens in that game were extinct, so Coral being alive marks the first time that intelligent nonhuman lifeforms have appeared onscreen in the series, not to mention being a major focal point of the plot.
  • Due to the existence of highly effective builds, some players have complained that the game is too easy since said meta builds can destroy bosses rather quickly and suck the fun out of the game. However, Armored Core itself is no stranger to game-breaking weapons, such as rockets and grenade launchers in For Answer and the RF-220 assault rifle in 3 (the latter being a egregious example since it's one of the starting weapons).
  • Both series veterans and newcomers tend to exaggerate the unprecedented nature of VI's anti-frustration features, making the older games sound a lot more unforgiving than they were:
    • Every game between the original and Armored Core: Silent Line would refill the player's health and ammo on the second part of multi-part missions.
    • Every installment between Armored Core 2 and Silent Line has one or more Marathon Level that lets players refill their health and ammo from a supply truck.
    • The story missions in Armored Core V let players call down a supply chopper at designated locations to refill their ammo and health and change their build. While this is not free, it could be done multiple times per mission.
    • The debt system has been de-emphasized for a long time: Armored Core: Nexus introduced extremely generous advance payments that made unsuccessful sorties still profitable, as well as several "testing" missions that automatically refunded the player's repair and ammo expanses, and the games from Armored Core 4-onward would offer players to replay a mission if they lost money on it.
  • Some fans were afraid that, that Fires of Rubicon would take too many elements from the Fromsoft's Souls games and lose its unique identity. While this game does have more of these elements than previous entries, Armored Core had hard-but-fair difficulty, Story Breadcrumbs world-building, and extensive Character Customization long before the Souls series. Even some of the new elements like the Break Meter have less-polished antecedents in the heat system from Armored Core 2 through Armored Core: Last Raven, Last Raven's own Subsystem Damage, and Primal Armor in Armored Core 4 and Armored Core: For Answer, which all serve similar purposes in allowing sustained damage to keep up with heavy hitters and preventing Padded Sumo Gameplay.
• Polished Port: The PC port runs like a dream and supports 120 FPS as well as ultrawide resolution, and its hardware requirements are actually quite generously low to boot.
• Ron the Death Eater: Going along with the aforementioned Draco in Leather Pants entry, Ayre and the rest of the Coral have been frequently hit with this by proponents of the Fires of Raven ending due to their being the explicit target of the Overseer faction. Thus it is fast becoming common to see proponents of this path to declare the Liberator of Rubicon ending as the "No Plan Ending" during streams of the game, or otherwise depict the Coral and Ayre as having sinister motives and actively manipulating individuals throughout the story notably in spite of the existence of ALLMIND, who is manipulating humanity and coral both throughout the story, something OVERSEER isn't even aware of outside Alea Iacta Est..
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • While customization of mechs and decals are beloved and the system for creating them is robust, the system sharing them is anything but and widely derided.
    • From the word go, mech designs and decals are not cross platform. So if the mech design or decal you find is not on your particular platform, you're out of luck.
    • That is, if you can find a design, as there's no official gallery or search system. You have to already know the design's sharing code.
    • Which leads to the fact that players then need to enter a 12-character code which, on a console in particular, can be annoying. And if an error is made entering, there's no changing it. You need to start from scratch and can't just change one or typos.
    • Lastly, downloaded designs are not accessible in offline mode. There are workarounds to this, but the "Downloaded" tab simply doesn't exist when playing offline thus needlessly complicating access to downloaded designs when offline.
  • Ricochet, which is what happens when your weapon fires from outside its intended range and impacts a target for negligible Scratch Damage. Makes sense for shotgun pellets or machinegun rounds at too far a range, but you'll find that this happens with way too many weapons if you're not in moderate (and enemy-retaliatory) ranges, even if you use the Manual Aim option to attempt sniping. It also only accentuates the Game-Breaker weapon types being highly abusable at close-ranges and makes less effective types even less desirable to use. This even ties into That One Level: without a long-range build you can't actually create at that point, "Eliminate V.VII" becomes a pain because you can't actually shoot enemies without being in visual detection range, rendering it necessary to shoot enemies with their backs turned or else be forced to rush the kill before they trigger the alarm.
  • Much like earlier games in the series, the lock-on prioritizes enemies closer to you than anything else, even if they're not centered on your screen— and without trying to flick a Target Assist hard lock between targets, it will stay there until the target is fully dead or outside of the aiming radius. This will lead to cases where you want to aim at a target only for the lock to aim for a weaker or less threatening foe close by, with no way to really fix the problem. And like above, this only accentuates That One Level since a specific enemy holding a Combat Log is surrounded by MT scouts, where it's entirely possible to be spotted and not be able to even target who's alerting the level because of this.
  • Scanning counts as this because it simply does not work like how it looks visually. While depicting itself like a 360 degree pulse, scanning actually works in a tight cone in front of your AC. This makes it effectively useless for any of its potential purposes, including hunting for chests or scanning enemies in obscured conditions.
• Self-Fanservice: Despite the game continuing the Armored Core tradition of never showing people directly on-screen (though this time they provided rough images for some characters via collectable in-game documents), fan artists quickly came up with their own designs for major characters, usually as incredibly attractive men and women. This includes Ayre (who is nothing more than a disembodied brainwave pattern inside C4-621), ALLMIND (who is explicitly an AI with no physical body until NG++), and 621 themselves, who is rather heavily implied to be more machine than human by the time the game starts. Ayre tends to be depicted as a Mystical White Hair Mysterious Waif with red eyes and ALLMIND as a Sexy Secretary.
  • And fans from Japan went way further than that. Ever since a Japanese X user created a mascot of Arquebus called Arqueboy, which only based on their logo and didn't appear in the game wheresoever, it sparked a whole BIG lot of fanart creations, such as another mascot for Balam Industries known as Baltaro (followed with both either fighting, hanging out, or even shown as lovers), then a character representing Dafeng, and mascots for other lesser corporates. Here's a list on Pixiv rounding up fanart categories over AC6.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: While the mission briefing overtly tells you to use the Stun Needle the game gives you to fight the Ice Worm, there is nothing stopping you from leaving it in your garage and draining its shield through other means. There's even unique dialogue that plays in the mission if you choose to do so.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Outside of the boss fights, Armored Core VI is generally a lot more accessible than previous installments. For starters, the amount of part types has been reduced to just Head, Body, Arms, Legs, Generator, FCS, and Booster (with an optional Expansion part if you choose one in AC Tune up). Beyond that, missions no longer have to be completed in a single attempt, with longer missions having checkpoints you can reload from. Certain missions also have refill stations to refill your health, repair kits, and ammo (where refill opportunies in the previous games were few and far in-between). Beyond that, if you die, you are able to change out any part on your AC to create a new loadout to retry with. And dying on a mission does not affect your final payout in any way.
• Signature Scene: The Ice Worm mission became one of the most-talked about sequences in the game among the player base shortly after its release, partly due to the inherent thrill of fighting a vast mechanical monstrosity against the backdrop of a heavy snowstorm, and partly due to Rusty's memorable dialogue during the mission.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • The initial gameplay footage pretty much caused the Western fanbase to explode in civil war. While it was assumed there would be some Soulsborne influence, most didn't expect features like a hard camera lock, mid-mission adjustments to armored cores, or any equivalent to the Estus flask. All of these changes led to an extremely vocal minority proclaiming that the game was a lost cause that had forsaken everything the franchise stood for, which persisted and drove most internet discourse for several days. Eventually, however, cooler heads prevailed and the discussion around the game settled down. It should be noted that the Japanese fanbase — the series' primary audience — was completely exempt from this phenomenon. They were more excited that a new game was coming out in their beloved series made by the same developers than whatever concerns they had about gameplay changes.
  • Another sentiment that emerged was a disdain for Namco's lackluster marketing. By early July, Namco had released a grand total of just 4 videos for the game on their youtube channel: the initial reveal trailer, a gameplay trailer, the above gameplay footage^*Which, it should be noted, they officially released weeks after it had begun circulating online., and... a short video of content creators giving their initial thoughts on that same footage after a private screening^*Again, unaffiliated creators had been doing this for nearly a month in far greater detail.. Considering this is radio silence by internet standards, many fans were worried that Namco was leaving Fires of Rubicon out to drown or expecting it to get by on FromSoft's reputation. Much of this concern was alleviated in the month to follow, marketing for the game saw a major increase and generally caused anticipation for the game to skyrocket.
• That One Achievement: "The Perfect Mercenary" requires an S Rank on all missions. Not only does it mean that missions must be done fast, with little spent on repair and ammunition, but the mission cannot be restarted at a checkpoint. This is especially brutal for missions with That One Boss like "Reach the Coral Convergence".
• That One Attack: Arquebus Balteus's plasma attack is nigh-impossible to dodge and deals heavy damage. Long-lasting and capable of covering the entire area, the boss is also very mobile while unleashing the attack, and in some cases, the boss performs physics-defying maneuvers to hit the player or continue the attack even after being staggered. This means that using lightweight builds to dodge the laser sometimes isn't worth it, as the attack will hit anyway.
• That One Boss:
  • The AH12 HC Helicopter in the tutorial level. As an Early-Bird Boss, you only have the stock AC with basic weapons, and the AH12 is far tougher and faster than anything you've encountered yet. Also, its copious amount of heavy machine guns and missiles can easily wreck our AC if you're not on point with your dodges. You'll have to leverage every skill the tutorial has taught you to overcome this boss.
  • The AAP07 Balteus is the final boss of Chapter 1, and it pulls zero punches. Armed to the teeth, its true difficulty lies in itspulse shield, meaning it can't take damage until it's disabled, at which point the player has a short window until it returns. Between the heavy enemy firepower and the limited damage opportunities, many players consider Balteus the casual filter, ensuring people who can get past him understand the game's mechanics and how to build an AC properly.
  • The Sea Spider at the end of Chapter 2 is its sort of wall to overcome; between its mix of fast laser attacks that can hit and stagger a player rapidly and take most of your armor in a single shot, its clawed melee slam attack that is very hard to dodge unless you're over or go under it, and a second phase that utterly swamps the arena with high-damage attacks. Combine this with the sheer amount of punishment it can take, more than even Balteus, and the fight stands as a test of whether you have weapons with enough ammo to last and you can figure out the boss's attack habits and timings. Two of these things also show up in the final boss battle of the "Alea Iacta Est" route, but thankfully they don't necessarily need to be fought, and 621 can focus on the main body instead.
  • The Chapter 4 Boss, the IB-01 CEL 240, is a brutal Lightning Bruiser to the extreme, and All its attacks are a One-Hit Kill if you take the brunt of it. It also has a Turns Red second phase after you deplete its initial health bar. Comparisons to Malenia from Elden Ring are frequent.
  • While not as bad as the full-on boss examples listed above, Rokumonsen from the mission Eliminate V.VII has been known to frustrate players due to the way the mission is set up. First, to even get the chance to fight Rokumonsen, you have to fight Swinburne who has two repair kits and you must get him down to low AP without killing him so he surrenders. Sparing him will cause Rokumonsen to go after you. Even if Swinburne's relatively easy, Rokumonsen still has full three repair kits, and has the pulse armor expansion to reset his stagger gauge which can make it difficult to phase-skip by depleting his AP before he can repair. And if you lose to him? There's no checkpoint after you accept Swinburne's surrender, so you have to fight Swinburne all over again.
• That One Level:
  • "Eliminate V.VII" in Chapter 3 is rife with frustration. The MT units hinder reaching the assassination target, as they're equipped with capture cameras, and you cannot be spotted. If they do spot you, you'll have a few seconds to either get out of sight or destroy them. This is mostly an issue for MTs in groups, meaning if one spots you, so will the others. Packing a Sniper Rifle equivalent and skirting around the left edge of the map lets you avoid most of the MTs if you want to get to the target, but there's a tetrapod carrying a silver combat log AND a wreck with a data log smack-dab in the middle of an open area patrolled by four camera MTs. Getting both logs without being spotted is frustrating since reacting a split second too late, or your gun simply missing an MT due to random spread, means you have to start over from the beginning. And if you do manage to get both logs, you still have a fight with Swinburne and potentially Rokumonsen if you choose to accept Swinburne's deal ahead of you, and no checkpoint to fall back on.
  • "Eliminate the Enforcement Squads" in Chapter 3. Played normally, the mission is already a stiff challenge: you've got a bunch of Planetary Closure Administration MTs with rockets, then a duo of evasive Light Cavalry mechs, and then several more MTs before you get to the beefy Heavy Cavalry mech that serves as the boss. The Heavy Cavalry has a unique laser rifle with a punishing charged shot, and you confront it in a cramped room that works to the enemy's advantage by hampering your ability to dodge its laser and missiles. But this mission can become downright frustrating when you set out to collect all of its combat logs. One combat log is tied to Ring Freddie, an optional boss-strength enemy hiding in the opposite end of the surprisingly large map, and his loadout can hit like a brick. Did you take too many hits from the optional boss and burn through one or more of your three precious Repair Kits? Too bad, there's no checkpoint or supply drop anywhere in this mission, and you still have to get past the Light Cavalry and the Heavy Cavalry to finish it if you want to keep the combat log. In other words, going after a single combat log for the sake of completion effectively doubles the overall length and difficulty of this mission, and you'll likely be repeating it multiple times because of that.
  • "Intercept the Redguns" in Chapter 4. You have to kill Michigan, but there are so many enemies that the lock-on has a hard time locking on to Michigan. To make things worse, there's no checkpoint, so you have to kill everyone in one go. You will run out of ammunition very quickly in this level.
  • "Escape" from Chapter 5 is similar to "Eliminate V.VII" in that you must stealth your way through the map. Unlike the latter mission, getting spotted doesn't automatically fail you. On the other hand, "Escape" sees you forced to use what is explicitly stated to be a piece of junk AC. Not only is its Attitude incredibly poor and likely to go down fairly easily, but your only reliable weapon is your shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. The other source of frustration is the sheer number of enemies on the map, some of which can reduce your health in seconds. Fortunately, you will have backup toward the end, and you only have to kill a few enemies, but you'd best pray your energy output doesn't go out while your boosting in the air lest you land in a pack of MTs. The only saving grace about this mission besides having backup is that you don't have to go out of your way to score a combat log.
  • "Escort the Weaponized Mining Ship" from your second New Game Plus playthrough is seemingly an escort mission. Then the Strider is destroyed as soon as the mission starts, and you're beset by two waves each of deadly C-Weapon drones and grinder wheels. Fighting these enemies were a pain already, but two waves of them mean that most builds are unsuitable for the mission.
  • "Coral Export Denial" in the second New Game Plus playthrough requires you to be fast. The mission of shooting down weak helicopters transporting Coral is simple, as most weapons can easily one or at most two-shot them down with no hassle, and the resulting Coral explosions can also take out other targets in their blast radius. The real issue is the final area: a narrow canyon that doesn't give as much freedom as the initial two bases to run around. The jump pads to get fast vertical movement is only on one end of the canyon, so you're hooped if you're too far away from them (Not to mention it's right by the exit for the Helicopters). You're also constantly bombarded by multiple enemy sniper MTs, but you don't have much time to destroy them without losing time on shooting down your targets. The transport helicopters also come in multiple waves on both low and high altitudes in groups. And you only have five chances before you fail the mission. Without checkpoints.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • A lot of older AC fans were concerned that newer gamers who only know FromSoftware via the Souls series and its many imitators would come to this game thinking it's a Souls-like RPG and be disappointed when they found out it's a mech action game.
  • After the first patch came out, the hardcore part of the fandom wasn't amused to see some of the That One Boss entries got nerfed. A few weeks later, the third patch nerfed all of the game's most popular weapons (most notably the Zimmerman shotgun, much loved for its ability to stagger regular enemies and bosses at range with ease), and it was a different part of the fandom's turn to lament.
• The Woobie:
  • The trainee pilot for Dafeng engaged early in the game as a taste of AC battles, where you're tasked to destroy the Tester AC he's in. He speaks like The Hero that refuses to go down thinking the Redguns desperately need his AC, but he's out of his depth against 621, and is utterly thrashed in no time flat, bemoaning in his final moments that he just wanted a callsign of his own. Shortly after, the Redguns hire 621, and their leader, G1 Michigan, cheekily gives them a nickname callsign in their ranks implying the position "just became available" — you just stole the trainee's potential position with none the wiser and the pilot's efforts entirely brushed off and forgotten. Also not helped by the fact that this mission is a quick and easy way to grind out credits, with 80k a pop that can be earned in roughly a minute if you're good; those that grind will be hearing his final words a lot.
  • While she's entirely missable and you can go the whole playthrough without fighting her, it isn't hard to feel sorry for Little Ziyi. As explained in her Arena bio, Ziyi lost her parents when they crash-landed on Rubicon-3 trying to enter illegally and was adopted by the Rubicon Liberation Force. From there, she'd go on to become a Coral Warrior. When you find her in "Retrieve Combat Logs", she's furious since she just lost many of her adoptive family during "Operation Wallclimber" and recognizes 621 as one of the people who killed them at the behest of the corporations. As if to really hit you where it hurts, Ziyi is the youngest known AC pilot in the series. As in, she's a teenager. And if you want to complete the loghunt for all the rewards, you have to kill her instead of ignoring her like Walter tells you to do.

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