_______________________________________ |Armored Core: for Answer S-Rank Guide| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ by Chris Mader ([email protected] Table of Contents: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I. Introduction II. What you need to know III. Parts you need to know IV. On to SS-Rank V. Contact info, Thanks, Legal Junk _______________________________________________________________________________ I. Introduction Getting to know you... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hi there, I'm Chris Mader (that's Chris Castor on XBL). I've attained my SS-rank through hard work, forum-scouring and hours of experimentaion. You'll attain yours through this guide. I'm friendly. (: Anyhow, this guide assumes you know how to move your mech, fire your weapons and can defeat an enemy AC without resorting to the cheater tactics outlined in this guide. It also assumes you've beaten the game at least the requisite 4 times to unlock all the missions in Free Play. If you haven't done these things, please turn away and go have FUN with the game. This guide uses exploits, cheap tactics and anything else to easily achieve an S-Rank. While few of these methods (in fact, I can only think of one) are outright cheating, they will stop your enjoyment of this game. Think: is an unchallenging game worth playing? Of course not. But some of us strive for that SS-rank and can't quite achieve it through our own methods. That's what this guide is for. ***SPOILER ALERT!!!*** Having said such, I will not flinch away from ruining plot twists (what thin plot there is in the American translation) to describe my strategy. Again, if you haven't played the game, go do so. It's fun. (: This game, as all Armored Core games are, is all about customization. For that reason, I will not be including any of my own builds. Only weapon selections per mission and a relatively short list of parts will be given as a showing of what I used to complete this guide. Feel free to use any AC you want, so long as it fits effectively with my weapon selection for a particular mission. I want to take a quick moment to tell you how I wrote this guide, in hopes that it will give you some insight into why I chose the strategy I did. Feel free to skip this section if you're not interested. (: Now that those jerks are gone, let's get to it. For each mission, I gathered up 2-3 different strategies and tried each of them 3 times each. I picked the one for the guide based on consistency, ease of use and speed (except the last mission). I then started a cold file and used each of the selected strategies beat their respective missions. I ended up switching a total of 4 missions (M15, M22, M30, M42, in case you're curious) for various reasons. Some random stats: Guide originally written in 100-page 1-subject college-ruled notebook with a ZEBRA F-301 It covered 11 pages front-and-back and 1 page front-only for a total of 23 pages It averaged 2.5 missions per page Test game started on alternate profile: Rasala Zel Test game total playtime 4h 24m Guide took 12 days to write and test Guide typed in DOSEDIT Guide took 5 days to type This is my second guide to include bonus material _______________________________________________________________________________ II. What You Need to Know Don't spit into the wind. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE I'm not going to assign cute little codes to each mission. There's a number and the full (American English) name of the mission. You have a find tool, use it! Just look up your mission, and follow the strategy. Missions are formatted suchly: M00. Mission Name N: This line will describe the mission-critical targets for Normal difficulty This paragraph will describe the individual strategy for S-Ranking this mission on Normal difficulty H: Mission critical targets for Hard. (NEXT, NORMALS, Ships, Aircraft, etc.) Here's your strategy for hard difficulty. I wrote these out in a college-ruled notebook as I was playing the game and typed them up later. I'll probably scan a few pages to prove it. xD ENERGY EFFICIENCY CONCEPTS These few concepts can make your life easier, especially as a lot of my strats have you flying around like a plane. 1. The more ENERGY OUTPUT a generator has, the better. More surplus EN means your ENERGY BAR restores faster, proven by the ENERGY RECOVERY stat. 2. Lighter ACs are more agile and use less ENERGY BAR. Your boosters won't have to work as hard when your AC isn't loaded down with crap you're not going to use. 3. Tuning for ENERGY OUTPUT and CAPACITY is important. MISSILE DODGING This is pretty basic stuff. Changing planes often (rising and falling) and moving from side-to-side as well as forward and backward can take some concentration at first, but it becomes second nature after awhile. Just look at the way the test AC (schematic in the bonus section) dodges missiles and emulate it. REGULATIONS Okay, in version 1.00, a lot of things were broken. We can exploit this hard. However, a lot of things work better in later versions (1.15 gives infinite EN, basically, 1.20 sees a lot of useless parts given dramatic upgrades, etc.). If you're not sure how to change these, I'll explain. Go to ACSIS. Go to OPTIONS. Go to REGULATIONS. Choose your reg version. Go to OK. OK? WEAPON STATS Damage is the obvious one. It's less important than the rest, however. Weapons with a short RANGE will peter out once they go beyond that point, for instance. Here're two of my favorites: 1. MELEE ABILITY - This stat determines how well the weapon's internal tracking deals with a moving target. It's related directly to the arm part's MANEUVERABILITY and AIM PRECISION stats. The higher these three are, the happier you'll be when facing a highly mobile target. 2. BALLISTICS VELOCITY - This is how fast the bullet, grenade, laser beam, etc. moves once leaving the barrel of your gun. The higher it is, the better chance that it'll connect over range. ABOUT WINGMEN Wingmen are great when you're just playing for fun, but not when trying to S-Rank a mission. All damage and ammo expenses they incur will be subtracted from your total mission award. Not to mention that their cut comes from the subtotal. This will always have a negative effect on your rank. On Hard, your wingman will be annihilated pretty regularly. I hope you get the point: DON'T USE WINGMEN. My strategies are based around that sexy lone-wolf style. Respect. MULTIPLAYER v. SINGLE PLAYER I know a lot of you purists are going to hate this guide. Well, shut up. This section is for you. The tactics contained in this guide, by and large, will NOT work in multiplayer. Those that will are cheap, dishonorable and idiotic. You will look like a fool and will never get your MP achievements because everyone will be ignoring you. Thankfully, most players are smart enough not to play on Regulation 1.00 online. GENERAL ADVICE This is in list form for easy reading. (: 1. Damage and expenses are the two main factors of rank. Some protection missions will count off your rank if the target gets dead, but surprisingly few will. 2. Even if I say to ignore an enemy, if you're having trouble with it then kill it. Paying for an extra shot or two is always preferable to taking damage. 3. Energy efficiency is key in a lot of my strategies. I strive to build machines that are permaflight-capable and have no trouble OBing the length of a stage. The best thing to do is test your machine in Reg 1.00, that's the true test of EN-efficiency. 4. If my strategy is unclear to you, you're an idiot. Just kidding. Drop me a line and I'll walk you through it. 5. When I say to use SALINE05s in a mission, I always mean set your regs to 1.00 even if I don't explicitly say that. The reason for this is that their tracking is REALLY good on Reg 1.00 and can wipe out a NEXT without much effort (or skill). 6. OK, there's only so far a good strategy will get you. You'll need a little skill and need to know how to avoid taking unnecessary damage. 7. Don't get frustrated if you can't S-rank each mission in turn. Some of them are fairly difficult. They're meant to be. The strategies I've written WORK. I started a cold file and went through using my own strategies and I know they work. _______________________________________________________________________________ III. Parts You Need to Know I've got some parts for ya... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ There are several parts that I like specifically for different situations in single player. Here's a relatively short list to give you an idea of what I use to S-Rank missions consistently. BODY PARTS ^^^^^^^^^^ KIRITUMI-H - head - for lack of a better option 047AN02 - head - great camera function C01-TELLUS - core - good heavy-midweight. good defenses SOLUH-CORE - core - lightweight core of choice XAM-SOBRERO - arms - quite good for certain situations AM-JUDITH - arms - good general-use arms. above average stats for lighweight 063AN03 - arms - good for long-range fighting. very high precision SOLUH-LEGS - legs - fair lightweight legs with good mobility L01-TELLUS - legs - great midweight legs 047AN04 - legs - these are ugly, but excellent 063AN04 - legs - stable, heavy-midweight legs INTERNAL PARTS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ INBLUE - FCS - great for close-mid-range fighting. handles most weapons easily FS-JUDITH - FCS - good general-use FCS. 047AN05 - FCS - excellent range, decent speed, great radar ARGYROS/G - gen - cumbersome, but worthwhile for overall stats S08-MAXWELL - gen - slightly lighter, but still solid CB-JUDITH - main booster LB-LAHIRE - back booster AB-HOLOFERNES - side booster 03-AALIYAH/O - overed booster KRB-SOBRERO - overed booster (assault) WEAPONS ^^^^^^^ LABIATA - rifle - terrible name, incredible performance 03-MOTORCOBRA - machine gun - great for tight spaces with lots of missiles GAN01-SS-WGP - gatling gun - can't argue with the damage, good for small spaces GAN01-SS-WBP - bazooka - can't beat a 'zooka for taking out stationary targets NUKABIRA - grenade - lots of arm-mounted firepower, use as alternative to OGOTO LR01-ANTARES - laser rifle - decent firepower with low EN drain HLR01-CANOPUS - hi-laser rifle - this is your pain-maker for small targets 07-MOONLIGHT - laser blade - it's been the best since it was LS-99-MOONLIGHT KIKU - blade - this bruiser is saved for certain situations SALINE05 - spread missile - only really effective on reg 1.00 OGOTO - grenade cannon - get very familiar with this guy HLC09-ACRUX - hi-laser cannon - another bruiser for small targets ARSENIKON - Kojima cannon - saved for certain situations JADORE - PA molder - saved for certain situations RDF-200 - radar - this is a good radar for certain missions PG03-SPICA - pistol - decent back-up firearm EB-600 - laser blade - pocket knife _______________________________________________________________________________ IV. On to SS-Rank Super-Supreme, maybe? Mmm... pizza. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ M01: Attack on Line Ark N: MTs, NORMALs If you can't S-rank this, hand in your controller. Use OGOTOs blast every- thing to hell and try not to get hit. H: MTs, NORMALs Just like normal difficulty, wipe out everything with grenades. NORMALs are a little tougher on hard, requiring 2 grenades to kill. After killing the initial groups, an additional two groups of NORMALs will appear at the end of the area. Kill, kill, kill. M02: Attack on Naval Port of Mimir N: MTs, NORMALs, ships (stationary), Arms Fort (stationary) Equip dual OGOTOs and dual 07-MOONLIGHTs. Use your grenades to blast every- thing in sight. Make certain to wipe out every target on the way. Use your blades to wreck the AF. If you avoid taking too much damage and destroy all opposition you'll guarantee an S-Rank. H: NORMALs, ships (stationary), Arms Fort (stationary) Same mission, more NORMALs. Make sure to kill the NORMALs first because their lasers hurt. M03: Ambush Sphere Invasion Forces N: Planes, helicopters, NORMALs Equip a weapon with 90+ MELEE ABILITY and a good ammo supply (ALTAIR or AVOIR or PITONE are good choices). Use a backward QB to slow down your pro- gress as you approach each group of planes and shoot down as many as you can before the VOB purges. Use grenades to mop up the NORMALs on the ground after the purge. You should be able to get this done before the assorted aircraft arrive. Finish them off, but be absolutely careful not to get hit by the lasers that the aircraft fire. They hurt quite a bit. H: Planes, helicopters, NORMALs, AF Land Crab Same setup, except put an EB-600 in the left hangar. When the VOB purges, purge your left gun and boost to the AF. Blade it to death. With that done, finish the job by eliminating the NORMALs and remaining aircraft. M04: Attack on Richland N: MTs, NORMALs, AF Land Crab This is pretty straightforward. Don't choose a wingman. OB straight to the AF when the mission starts and blade it. It shouldn't take more than 2 hits. After that, grenade everything else. H: MTs, NORMALs, AF Land Crab x 2 Take out the AFs quickly and mop up the remnants. The catch here is that sometimes the other Land Crab will fire THROUGH the one you're killing. It doesn't happen very often, but just be aware. Keep your AP up and you'll be just fine. M05: Defeat AF Giga Base N: AF Giga Base, Supply Vessels (bonus) Avoid the cannon blasts during VOB at all costs. QB to the sides, it's no big deal. If you manage to get hit, restart the mission. Once it purges, OB straight to Giga Base and blade it. Ignore the supply vessels, they don't count for rank. H: AF Giga Base, Supply Vessels (bonus) The VOB sequence lasts about half as long as on normal due to a malfunction and drops you in the middle of the 8th fleet. Oh good. You'll have to OB the rest of the way to Giga Base. Just switch to Reg 1.15 if you don't have enough EN. Avoid fire from that damn cannon and watch for the sparse ordinance coming from the various ships and submarines that make up the 8th Fleet. Restart if you take a cannon hit or get the "AP down 40% message." Get in there and blade it. Again, ignore the support vessels. M06: Support the Red Beret Assault N: MTs, NORMALs, Fortress Units x 2, 3 Trucks [protect] Follow the main road and grenade everything that fires back. The main road passes in front of the mountain. Just make sure to kill everything along that path and don't forget about the NORMALs that occupy the ledges above the road. Be thorough. Once you reach the tunnel, clear out it's mouth and OB through it. Blade the two Fortress Units at the exit to death. Just wait for the transport to pass through. H: MTs, NORMALs, Fortress Units, 3 Trucks [protect] The only difference between hard and normal is that there are now some Fortress Units along the road. Grenade everything around the Fortresses and then drop down and blade them. M07: Defeat Wonderful Body N: NEXT Wonderful Body Switch your Regs to 1.00 and equip dual SALINE05s. Fly in the air and fire the spread missiles at Wonderful Body until he dies. You shouldn't take too much damage if you stay in the air and stay in motion. H: NEXT Wonderful Body There will be NORMALs flooding out of the city, but if you use the SALINE05s the NORMALs won't have a chance to fire on you. M08: Attack on B7 N: NORMALs, MTs Anything from grenades to lasers will work in here. Kill everything and don't take too much damage. A lot of people just blade this mission, but I really must advise against it if you're not good with blade setups. H: NORMALs A little preparation goes a long way in this mission. A long-range FCS (I use the 061AN05) is a must, the same goes for grenades. Equip these on a light frame and go. Almost as soon as you start, you'll begin taking constant damage from Kojima radiation (B7 is a massive Kojima plant, after all). Your PA will also be completely gone by the time you reach a useful point in the mission. Eliminate everything as quickly as possible, using the long lock-on distance to spot enemies before you can actually see them. Or could just GET good with a blade setup and do it in record time. (: M09: Clear Former Chinese Shanghai N: NORMALs, Ships, AF Giga Base Grenades will kill everything except Giga Base with one hit. With a long- range FCS, you can take all the small fries out from the air with little danger to yourself. OB to Giga Base and blade it if it starts firing at you. H: NORMALs, Ships, AF Giga Base Boost straight to Giga Base and kill it. It will be using the giant long- range cannon this time. Other than that, there are a few extra enemies. Grenade them all. M10: Take Back Cradle 21 N: NORMALs (flying and ground), Drone NEXTs I recommend using an energy-efficient NEXT with two HLR01-CANOPUS rifles. 'Nades are a bad idea here, as the Cradles are pretty fragile. The only problem I ever had was taking fire from the ground while dealing with the aerial enemies. Be mindful of their ordinance and you'll do fine. Keep your AP up, in other words. H: NORMALs (flying and ground) Kill the enemies closest to you and wait for the Drone NEXTs to show up. Wipe them out with Reg 1.00 SALINE05s (they take around 2 missiles each). After they're down, take out the rest of the NORMALs using the tactics from above. M11: Defeat AF Cabracan N: AF Cabracan, Drones This is an easy mission, but it's tedious. It doesn't matter what weapons you use, so long as they have a decent ammo suppy. A pair of LABIATIA rifles and a pair of gatling cannons will do the job admirably in most cases. Blades also work for a quick, energy-efficient frame. Whatever you choose, just be prepared. For instance, I've emptied 2 gatling guns and 2 gatling cannons and still recieved an S. Anyway, let's get to the strategy. I can't recommend doing anymore than strictly necessary here. Boost in, avoiding the mines, wait for the AF to hit a mine, boost in through the raised section of skirting. Kill the treads and then, if you have a blade or two, slash away a section of armor and leave. If not, wait for the drones to blow open the armor. Either way, stay calm and stay in motion. You're going to take damage so try to minimize it as best you can. Eliminate each drone. Too much damage will ruin your rank. Be careful and above all, STAY CALM. I've seen people get very panicky and it always leads to running out of EN midflight because of their erratic QB. Just drift side-to-side, rise and fall. The shotgun- style lasers aren't all that accurate. H: AF Cabracan, Drones Same as above, except the drones are more damaging and the GA AF doesn't show up to >ahem< help. M12: Defeat the Spirit of Motherwill N: AF Motherwill (2 large clusters of 3 cannons, missile pods) This can be an extremely intimidating mission if you're not prepared for it. Equip your OGOTOs and the 051ANAM shoulder unit (whee... flares). Overboost straight for Motherwill and fly up to the towers on the left and right. Blade them quickly. By now, your radar will show missiles coming at you, so fire your flares and quickly take out the missile pods located on the rotating wing sections. You can identify these by the massive barrages of missiles they keep shooting. :P Try to keep airborne as the NORMALs located on Motherwill's wings can cause unnecessary damage to you. Use your radar to track missile proximity and the flares to throw them off. This mission can easily be S-Ranked in under 3 minutes with a little practice. H: AF Motherwill, NEXT Killdozer I only include Killdozer because he is red on the radar and is therefore considered mission-critical. He's not. Just OB right by him and use the same strategy as above. He's too stupid to chase you into the air, so no worries there. After you finish the last missile pod, the end-stage cutscene plays as normal, fitfully forgetting about poor old Champion Champs. M13: Rescue the GA Transport Unit N: NORMALs, AF Land Crab x 2 When the mission starts, OB forward and stop near the first group NORMALs. grenade them. OB to the first AF and blade it, ignoring the NORMALs in the area for now. OB the other AF and blade it. Mop up the remaining NORMALs with your grenades. Nothing in this stage is particularly adept at hitting an overboosting target, so you should do fine so long as your AC is EN- efficient. H: NORMALs, AF Land Crab x 2, Armored Aircraft x 2 Before starting, make sure to equip the 051ANAM flares and KIKU blades. Start this mission the same as on normal, but after you destroy the second AF go after the aircraft. These are handled the same as in AC4. That is, get in nice and close and blade them. When you start closing in, they'll fire a swarm of missiles, so use your flares. A single KIKU hit is all it takes. Watch for their lasers as you make your approach, though. They hurt a lot. Again, just be careful not to take too much damage and you'll do fine. M14: Attack on PA-N51 N: 3 Resource Plants, NORMALs This strategy works for normal difficulty only. Equip dual OGOTOs, blow the hell out of everything. This is a really easy S if you don't take many hits. H: 3 Resource Plants, NORMALs, Unknown NEXT This is a different basket of eggs altogether. The rank seems to be de- termined by a combination of ammo usage, damage and time. So remove your OGOTOs and equip JADOREs in their stead. Use the 047AN05 FCS, the O47AN02 head, and assault-type OB (your choice) and equip your SALINE05s and 07-MOONLIGHTs. Make sure your regs are set to 1.00. Start the mission and use the AA to wreck the first plant. Kill the bastard NORMALS quickly with your blades (assuming your AA missed 1 or 2, as it usually does). Almost immediately after doing this, a LYNX will announce himself and show up on your radar. Back up to where you started, activate the SALINE05s and await a target lock. The FCS and head combination should allow you to pick him up at a fair distance. Fire and immediately rise into the air, keeping him targeted. Float around him, pelting him with missiles (5-6 direct hits will do it) until dead. Use your AA and blades to finish the mission. So long as you don't use too much SALINE05 (the missiles are pretty cheap anyway) and were good about avoiding damage, you'll S-rank it in a couple of tries. Just make sure to move your ass as soon as you AA a plant. A still NEXT with no PA is just a NORMAL, after all. M15: Defeat AF Stigro N: AF Stigro Now, the obvious strategy is to fly forward, hover level with Stigro's nose and KIKU it for a one-shot. Bah, I say. Equip dual 07-MOONLIGHTs and the XAM-SOBRERO arms (if you read my suggested parts list, this is one of the situations to use these arms) and nothing else. Start the mission and wait for Stigro to get slowed down by the buildings in front of you. Now, simply hop on his back and start slashing. Stigro will die in 2-3 hits and you'll have a perfect S in under 15 seconds. The XAM-SOBRERO arms direct the blade beam downward, you see. H: AF Stigro What? No NORMALs? No extra AF? No NEXT? Nah. Stigro can project his blade now but will still get stuck on the first few buildings. M16: Eliminate Procyon N: Procyon Cannon x 5 First, I'm guessing you've played the mission before and know how to use the tunnels. They're no fun. There're NORMALs and MTs and blah. I like an ad- venturous (and might I add, faster) approach to this mission. Equip dual 07-MOONLIGHTS and a powerful standard OB (non-assault). These cannons fire predictably and straight forward. Your basic strategy is OB straight toward each one, dodge the shots they fire with a side QB or just flying up and blade them. It's actually really easy once you get the hang of it. Anyway, the first one's right in front of you, so OB toward it, cut your OB when you're beside it and slash it. OB again before the MTs figure out what to do. There are two MTs straight ahead, fly over them and head toward the next two cannons. These are placed adjacent to one another and usually fire at the same time. Avoid their shots (they'll usually have enough time to get off two blasts each) and cut your OB so that you land between them. Blade them and continue on. The next cannon is around a slight bend in the tunnel and it absolutely cannot hit you if you hug the right-hand wall and fly against the ceiling. Once you've bladed that one, OB past some NORMALs and MTs in the path leading to the last cannon. If you manage to get hit by this one, you've done something terribly wrong; it's facing away from you. In all this high-speed junk, you get hit by a cannon (it happened to me a couple of times while developing this strategy) just restart the mission. One hit will almost always take away your S. On a personal note, this is the only way I can think of to make this mission even vaguely fun. H: Procyon Cannon x 5 There's some nasty stuff in the side tunnels. Those things have Kojima weapons, missiles and lasers. Thankfully, you can avoid all of it by doing the strategy listed for normal. (: M17: Escape from Naval Port of Mimir N: MTs, NORMALs, Ships, Friendly Ships [protect] Ever notice that every time you come here it's to kill everything in sight? Anyway, load up your OGOTOs and an FCS with decent ECM-cancelling. Well, it says your object is to defend the ships passing through this port. The best defense is a good offense, right? Right. Blast everything to hell. Be sure to clear each area before moving on to the next. Once all enemies are gone, the mission will end. Yay! The only thing that's really a threat here is the NORMALs. Just finish quickly and try not to get hurt (that's what she said). H: NORMALs, Ships, Friendly Ships [protect] Same as above. Just be a little more damage-concious as there are more NORMALs this time around. M18: Defeat Unknown NEXT + No Count N: NEXT No Count, NEXT Big Barrel. You won't need a wingman. Equip the SALINE05's on Reg 1.00 to beat 'em. Use a light frame with good EN and the 047AN05 FCS for an easy S-rank. No Count should fall before you even see the other NEXT. Be sure to avoid Big Bar- rel's Kojima cannon. H: NEXT No Count, NEXT Unknown x 2 Definitely no wingman this time, (s)he'll get wiped out almost immediately. Equip the 051ANAM flares and start the mission. Boost forward and get a lock on No Count and immediately start pelting him with missiles. If he's not dead before the other two cross under the highway, restart the mission until he is. Now comes the fun. Yoroi Mogara one uses ZINC vertical Kojima missiles and Big Barrel still uses a Kojima cannon (ARSENIKON?). Both use their weapons effectively and there's going to be a crapload of missiles flying around. Don't hold back with the flares. Like any NEXT, pelt them with SALINE05s from a distance and make sure to dodge those Kojima blasts. If you take 40% combat damage (Serene Haze loves telling you about that), restart the mission. This is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I've mapped my shoulder-weapon button so when I click down the right stick, it fires, and that helps a lot. M19: Defeat Unknown NEXT N: NEXT Unknown Use SALINE05's to kill him quickly and the 051ANAM (or any other flares for this particular type of missile) to counter his guided weapons. Obviously, don't use a wingman. H: NEXT Unknown Same thing, except he has a bunch of NORMALs with him now. Their lasers sting a bit, but you should kill him quickly enough for it not to matter. M20: Defeat AF Great Wall N: AF Great Wall (power core) Does anyone else think this mission should have been longer? I mean, it's the only good AF besides Spirit of Motherwill. Ah, well. EN-efficiency is a very good thing here. It means more power to your OB. Equip OGOTOs and start the mission. OB from the start , keeping distant, but parallel with the AF. When you're about halfway down the length of the train, cut in toward the rear car. Fly over the ramp on the rear car and hide behind it so the missiles chasing you explode harmlessly against the train. Now come out and blast the MTs guarding the door. Enter the train, blading doors as neces- sary. Blast everything inside with 'nades quickly to avoid damage. Remember, ammo is cheaper than repairs. Once you reach the power core, blast it and escape. H: AF Great Wall (power core), NEXT Rai-den Approach the AF in the same way as normal keep blasting away until you get to the point where the rear cars detatch. Slash through the doors at the end of this area and fly outside. Rai-den will be sitting in the entrance to the front section. Don't fire on him. Dodge his shots and eventually he'll fall out and hit the sand below. Continue as normal. So long as you don't take much damage, you're assured an "S-rank." M21: Defend Megalis N: Aircraft, Aerial NORMALs, AF Eclipse, Megalis [protect] Equip your favorite small weapon: machine gun, rifle, laser, whatever. Then equip a KIKU blade on the other arm and whatever reasonably accurate weapon you want on the back (gatling cannons are a good choice). Start out by eliminating the aerial NORMALs because they're annoying and their lasers sting. After that, just shoot everything that's flying around. After AF Eclipse enters the area, there should be 3-5 additional targets buzzing about Megalis, so kill them. Then zip right up to Eclipse and KIKU it right in the nose (or anywhere else). If you took care of the NORMALs first and were careful not to get hit by the AF's main cannon, you've S-Ranked this mission. H: Aircraft, NORMALs (aerial and ground), Fortress Units, AF Eclipse, Megalis [protect] Take care of the NORMALs and the two fortress units first. The fortresses are directly across from each other around the base of Megalis. The ground NORMALs are surprisingly damaging and you'll probably be getting sniped by the aerial NORMALs while dealing with them, so be careful. No shame in launching a couple of grenades into them to deal with them quickly. Ob- viously KIKU the fortress units. Thankfully, the aircraft are exactly the same. Eclipse will fire an additional beam from its cannon, but you'd still have to be brain-dead to let it hit you. KIKU it. M22: Defeat White Glint N: NEXT White Glint Set your regulations to 1.00 and equip your SALINE05's and 051ANAM flares. When you start, skip the cutscene and OB straight in. If you hook left over the bridge, you'll almost always target White Glint. If you don't, track him down (yes, HIM) and start launching missiles until White Glint and Stasis fly off. Wait for him to come back and unload with your SALINE05's. White Glint fires back with a couple of rifles and SALINE05's of his own. That's what your flares are for. Eventually Glint will fall and Fiona will lament. Your obvious goal (besides killing White Glint) is to avoid taking damage. The threshold here is ridiculously small, so be very careful. H: NEXT White Glint This is exactly the same fight, except White Glint gets a free ressurection in the middle of it. Oh good. Just use the same strategy as before and AVOID DAMAGE! Use your flares and keep Glint at a distance. M23: Defend Line Ark N: NEXT Stasis, NEXT Fragile Set regs to 1.00 and equip your SALINE05's. OB about halfway down the bridge and drop off to the right. Fly ahead a bit and you should get a lock on Stasis. If you don't restart until you do. It's possible to "kill" Otsdarva within 10 seconds of seeing him. After that, wipe out Fragile and you're done. It's highly unlikely that you'll take enough damage to worry about in this mission if you're quick and keep your distance. If you're having trou- ble, equip a longer-range FCS. H: NEXT Stasis, NEXT Fragile For some reason, this mission always seems to go faster on hard. Anyway, use exactly the same strategy as on Normal. M24: Defeat Red Rum and Starka N: NEXT Red Rum, NEXT Starka Use the 047AN02 head and the 047AN05 FCS, equip your SALINE05's and set your regs to 1.00. Don't choose a wingman. Starka will force you to kill him first, but be sure to keep track of Red Rum. She won't come off the ground, but if she gets close, her weapons will ruin your rank. Stay in the air and try to stay away from Red Rum while you're dealing with Starka. Starka will try to blade you, but you're smarter than that, aren't you? Just be damage- concious. He'll go down quickly enough (not as quickly as you might think, though). H: NEXT Red Rum, NEXT Starka This is complicated by the NORMALs that are milling about the map. Try your best to ignore them and focus on the NEXTs. Your radar won't be much help, but if you can see anything, the NEXTs will ALWAYS be moving faster than the NORMALs. M25: Defeat Unidentified AF N: AF Land Crab (Sol Dios x 4) Just like all my other strategies, preparation is the key. Equip ACB-0710 "add back booster" for extra speed, the best non-AA OB you have and two KIKU blades. Make sure your flame is light and speedy, then start the mission. Immediately hit your OB and head for the AF. Supplement your OB with forward QBs if you have enough EN. Once you're close to the AF, blade it anywhere on the structure. If you did it quick enough, the Sol Dios cannons won't have a chance to launch and will be destroyed along with the rest of the AF. It's an S-rank every time. H: AF Land Crab (Sol Dios x 6) Do the same as above. Still an S-rank every time. M26: Defeat 8th Fleet N: Ships Ranks are given for this mission are given largely based on how many targets you've killed v. Stigro. Load up your OGOTOs and blow 'em out of the water. H: Ships, AF Stigro This is a lot more fun than normal because Stigro attacks you right at the start of the mission. Either equip KIKU blades and punch it in the nose use the XAM-SOBRERO and 07-MOONLIGHTs method and hop on its back and slash it to death. It doesn't get slowed down as easily anymore, but you can still get on its back when it passes or when its turning. After Stigro's dead, mop up the 8th fleet with your OGOTOs. Avoid taking more than 40% damage and you'll get an S-rank easily. M27: Destroy B7 N: Kojima Power Plants x 3 Equip your OGOTOs and start the mission. Blast all the NORMALs guarding the way in, just be careful not to damage yourself. Once you get to the bridge area, you should take either the left or right path after blasting the NORMALs in the room. When you reach the hole leading down to the plants, drop ALL THE WAY down. The reason for this is so that you don't waste time figuring your angles trying to shoot it from above. Drop all the way down and blast it with a grenade then quickly fly back up and move on. Do the one directly across from the entrance to the bridge area last. After you've shot all three plants, make your escape. You can largely ignore the NORMALs on the path out, but if they're giving you trouble, go ahead and kill them. As long as you're quick and avoid taking undue damage, you'll be fine. H: Kojima Power Plants x 3 Same thing, except your AP will be dropping constantly almost from the start of the mission. Rankings for this mission seem to be based mostly on time. I've finished with 9000/22990 AP and recieved an S. Just be quick. M28: Defeat Silent Avalanche N: NORMALs (Silent Avalanche Snipers) Equip either dual OGOTOs or the arm-weapon equivalent NUKABIRAs. You can mostly ignore the MTs and aircraft in this mission, unless you're taking too much fire from them. Blow up the Silent Avalanche NORMALs and mind their sniper cannons. They hurt... a lot. Take too many hits (40% damage) and you'll have to restart. Thankfully the sniper cannon shots are easy to dodge. H: NORMALs (Silent Avalanche Snipers), NEXT Scarlet Fox, NEXT Emerald Racoon Set your regs down to 1.00, equip dual SALINE05s and dual NUKABIRAs. YASMIN flares are great here too (051ANAM flares don't fit while using 'BIRAs). Once you've killed all the NORMALs, the NEXTs will show up at the back of the area (a similar or the same area you fought Helix I and II in AC4). Use your SALINE05s to take out Scarlet Fox while using your flares to misdirect Racoon's missiles. I say this because Fox will force you to take him out first. Be evasive and don't forget to use your flares often. Once Fox goes down, use your missiles to kill Racoon, too. M29: Destroy Megalis N: Megalis Cyclical Power Plant There are two ways to do this mission: stupid and easy. Since we like S-ranks, let's use the easy way. You'll start out in the VOB. Dodge the giant blue death balls by QBing to one side for one burst and QBing to the other when the next volley starts. Once the VOB purges, QB forward toward the top of Megalis. You'll have to dodge the lasers but as long as you keep QBing toward Megalis, it won't be a problem. Land in the middle of the platform that's at the top of it. Now, use OGOTOS to blast the walls around you or simply use assault armor. So long as you've avoided taking too much damage you'll do fine. H: Megalis Cyclical Power Plant Same thing, really. Your VOB will malfunction halfway through your approach and you'll have to avoid taking damage. Which is what we're all about anyway isn't it? If you somehow manage to fly through one of those giant death- balls, you'll explode. M30: Destroy Arteria Ulna N: Finger-like Energy Thingies This is pathetically easy. Equip OGOTOs on an energy-efficient frame and fly up through your favorite hole in the ceiling. Once outside, turn 180 degrees and keep flying straight up. On the highest cliff ledge, there will be a series of glowing-blue energy gizmos arranged in an "L" formation. Avoid the ordinance being sent at you by the NORMALs and focus on quickly destroying the blue things. Once they're all gone, you're done. H: Super high-voltage Twinkies Same thing. Realize, please, that while the enemies are stronger, tougher and more numerous, that they're not any smarter. Side-to-side QBs will dodge everything easily. Blow up the blue things and you'll S this one with ease. M31: Defend Arteria Carpals N: NEXT Unknown, NEXT Asterism Guess what? Reg 1.00 and SALINE05s for this one. You'll deploy with Noblesse Oblige, who's actually a useful ally, but he's hard to like. Lecturing jerk. Anyway, damage will be your main concern here. There really won't be much trouble with this because Noblesse Oblige does an admirable job keeping the other one busy and will usually kill him/her before you're done with the one you're engaged with. Just remember to dodge here and you'll do fine. H: NEXT Unknown, NEXT Asterism Same strategy here, just remember to be damage-concious. Gerald will still very likely kill the NEXT he's fighting, so just focus on killing your tar- get. The third NEXT, Gray Gloom, will enter the combat zone once you've fin- ished killing his friends. He's nothing to worry about, just keep your dis- tance because he likes to use AA and you're trying to avoid that kind of damage. M32: Attack on Arteria Carpals N: Stationary Guns, NORMALs, NEXT Noblesse Oblige This mission is a lot of fun if you play it the fair way. Of course, we're not going to do anything of the sort. What you'll want to do is equip dual GAN01-SS-WBP bazookas and dual ARSENIKON Kojima cannons. Take out the NOR- MALS as you see them, they'll cause trouble later. Kill as many guns as you like or just land on the bridge and get out of the cannons' range and wait for Noblesse Oblige to show up. It won't hurt to just float around and shoot stationary guns until you hear him announce himself, they don't seem to penalize for ammo usage. In any case, when he announce himself, just land on the bridge and wait for him. You'll see his OB flare. Activate and charge your ARSENIKONs (switch to them and tap the fire buttons). Just sit and wait. Wait for Noblesse to be almost touching you and unload both cannons into his face. If you did it correctly, he should die instantly. So long as you didn't take too much damage from the guns and NORMALs, instant S. H: Stationary Guns, NORMALs, NEXT Noblesse Oblige, NEXT Transcend Kill the NORMALs and then kill time until Oblige announces himself and do as above. It's still a one-shot. Stand still, charge your cannons again and zap Transcend in the same way. Again, instant S. M33: Defend Cradle 03 N: NEXT Lisa, Drone NEXT x 2 Set your regs to 1.00, equip your SALINE05s and 051ANAM flares and 041AN05 FCS, and then test your AC, swapping out parts until you have absolutely no problem staying in the air. You'll be flying for the vast majority of this mission. Now, before we get to my strategy, let's talk about Old King's strategy. Basically, he'll try to distract you by firing a volley of 15 high accuracy missiles. While you're occupied dodging these, he'll OB in and try to hit you with his rifle and PA-eating shotgun. It's fairly effective because his craft, Lisa, is built for high-speed aerial combat. You'll thwart this strategy by removing the missiles from the equation. If he runs out of missiles, he'll stay at mid-long range and shoot at you with his rifle, occasionally getting close enough to hit with his shotgun. The trick is to kill him with your SALINE05s before he runs out of missiles. My strat- egy is as such: wait for him to enter the combat zone, ignore the drone NEXTs for now, kill him, take care of the drones. Don't worry if you lose a cradle or two, it doesn't seem to count against you. H: NEXT Lisa, Drone NEXT x 3 Kill Old King and take out the drones. If you're having trouble, equip a decent radar unit to track his movements and try killing him with one SALINE05. Or just use it until you figure him out a little bit. M34: Defeat ORCA's Special AF Unit N: AF Jet x 4 Equip dual KIKU blades and nothing else. This is pretty easy, just Kiku each Jet in turn and avoid the lasers they fire. With KIKU, you usually won't have to worry about the blades, the Jets will die too quickly. Just for clarification, you won't have to bother with the radiation ports, just KIKU them each anywhere on the body. H: AF Jet x 4 The blades are red this time and the AFs REALLY want to hit you with those lasers now, but it's still easy as sin. M35: Attack Anti-Satellite Cannons N: Ehrenburg Cannons x 3, NEXT Gachirin As always, don't use a wingman. You'll want dual SALINE05s and at least one 07-MOONLIGHT. Don't forget to set your regs down to 1.00. When you start, OB straight to the first cannon, fly up and blade it in the middle of the tall blade-like section of the cannon. Now turn around and kill the 4 large laser towers and slash them with your blade. To do this, fly up and slash the round projection on the back of each tower (you'll get a green reticule). Gahirin will be on your radar by now, probably. If not, he's between the crater you're in and the water. Fly over and kill him with your SALINE05s. If you somehow manage to get hit by his assault cannon (or just get sloppy and take too many standard weapon hits), then restart. He'll have almost no PA and should go down quickly enough. After that, just OB and kill each of the other cannons. Make certain to dodge the big lasers fired by the towers around the cannons. H: Ehrenburg Cannons x 3, NEXT Gachirin, Prototype NEXT Same thing as above, except the prototype NEXT comes in after Gachirin dies. He comes in at the far border. Take care of the other two cannons and then hunt him down. Keep your distance, use your missiles and dodge his fire. This is an extremely watered-down version of the one from AC4. Just keep your distance and pelt it with your SALINE05s. M36: Defeat Main ORCA Forces N: NEXT Opening, NEXT Gleditsia You'll be deployed with Reiterpallasch who, like Noblesse Oblige, is a very worthwhile ally. This is standard fair. Equip reg 1.00 SALINE05s and pelt whomever you target first with them from the air. There's nothing tough about this as all attacks sent your way are pretty easily dodged. H: NEXT Opening, NEXT Gleditsia Same thing, really. The only difference seems to be that when you kill your target, the other NEXT will immediately break off from Reiterpallasch and engage you. She does no such thing, however. Kill, kill, kill. M37: Defend Arteria Cranium N: NEXT Split Moon, NEXT Unsung For the second time in a row, you'll be deployed with Reiterpallasch. Split Moon always seems to engage you first, so take care of him with your SALINE05s set to reg 1.00 and go. Split Moon wants to get extremely close and blade you. If this happens, just restart. Feel free to fly over to the other end of the area to get some breathing room and let Wynne D deal with Unsung for a second. Keep some distance between you and Split Moon and use your missiles effectively. He'll die pretty quickly because his frame is very flimsy. If you have to deal with Unsung (chances are Wynne D will have killed him while you're wrapped up with Shinkai), just be sure to dodge his laser shots. He goes down pretty quicly, as well. H: NEXT Split Moon, NEXT Unsung This is pretty much the same as normal. Just don't try and go into the rear of the area, as there is a nasty surprise back there: an AF Jet absolutely bristling with neon-pink blades. This thing will ruin your day if you get too close to it. Kill the enemy ACs and get your S. M38: Defend Anti-Satellite Cannons N: AF Eclipse, NEXT Ambient, NEXT Strix Quadruped, Ehrenburg Cannons x 3 [protect] You deploy with Gachirin, who makes a pretty decent ally. Equip your SALINE05s, KIKU blades and 051ANAM flares. You'll start out on a ridge next to one of the cannons. Straight ahead you can see the AF Eclipse in the dis- tance. Fly straight at it and KIKU it to death. One hit should do it, just like every other AF. Be sure to avoid its laser cannon. With that done, fight Ambient. Chances are, she's behind you and down at water level. She'll fire missiles and a red laser beam at you. The flares will take care of one, your side QB will take care of the laser beam. Once she's down, Strix will flee the battlefield (often boosting straight into the water) and the mis- sion will end. As long as you kept damage to a minimum, you'll S-rank this one. H: AF Eclipse, NEXT Ambient, NEXT Strix Quadruped, Ehrenburg Cannons x 3 [protect] Use the same tactics as above. If you're really, really extra slow in killing the AF, it'll deploy Silent Avalanche snipers. You don't want this. Kill the AF, kill Ambient and Strix still takes care of himself. Just be damage concious. M39: Destroy Cradle 03 N: Cradle Power Units This mission is pretty ho-hum. If you can't S this, hand in your controller. Just blast the black power units with your grenades. There'll be some NORMAL fire to dodge, but that shouldn't be any problem for you. If it is, I'd re- commend getting better at dodging. You'll need the skill for hard. H: Cradle Power Units You'll need to destroy twice as many power units to send the cradles down, so you'll have to crash the first three cradles with your blades and save OGOTOs for the last two. Avoid the NORMALs as best you can, don't waste ordinance on them. Use the power units for cover as the NORMALS only occupy every two sections of cradle between the power units. Just skip, slash, re- peat. M40: Defeat AF Answerer N: AF Answerer There are two ways to do this. You can alight on each wing and blade it or you can kill it with one hit. The one-shot kill is what we're going to use. You'll need 2 KIKU blades and ACB-0710 add back booster. Start the mission. Start flying immediately toward Answerer. Use the diagram below to determine where to strike: A\AAA/A AA\A/AA<- the "A" is the Kojima field that charges and releases Assault A|A|A Armor. / \ / \ | | \___/<- the "___" is where you land and KIKU. \ / To clarify, below the Kojima field, Answerer bulges out. Above the narrowest point of this bulge is a small lip where you can land. Really, you don't have to land, you just have to be near it and KIKU the exposed mach- inery there. It might take a few tries, but it's a lot easier than messing with the missiles and such Answerer loves to fire. The only thing you'll have to worry about here are some easy-to-avoid lasers that fire from the tips of each wing and if you're quick and stay in OB long enough, you won't even have to worry about them. They track just like the Ehrenburg lasers do. M41: Attack on Arteria Cranium N: NEXT Reiterpallasch, NEXT My Bliss This one has given people some trouble as far as S-ranking goes. Lucky for you, I've worked out how to fudge this one. These two are pretty tough to- gether, so yo'll need to seperate them. You'll want your regs at 1.00 and dual SALINE05s, 051ANAM flares and a good OB. When you start, OB straight forward and fly up to the ceiling. All the way up and then start dropping as you reach the hump in the middle of the room. When you're halfway through the rear area, cut your OB and turn around. More often than not, this OB pattern causes Reiterpallasch to follow you and My Bliss to drop down and get stuck on the other side. If this doesn't happen, restart and try again. It almost always works though. Kill Wynne D. with your SALINE05s, making certain to dodge as much of her fire as you can, ESPECIALLY her hi-laser cannon. That thing hurts A LOT. Once she's down (her craft can take a sur- prising amount of punishment, so be prepared), fly over the hump and face Roy in My Bliss. His missiles are no match for your flares, but his other weapons can still hurt you, so keep an eye out. You'll be able to finish him off fairly quickly as long as you make good use of your mobility and your flares. Take more than 60% damage and you'll need to restart, otherwise this is another S. H: NEXT Reiterpallasch, NEXT My Bliss, NEXT Stasis Use the same strategy as above to start. When you're OBing in, fly over the first two NEXTs as normal and proceed to the very end of the area. Cut your OB before you reach the narrow part and turn around. Reiterpallasch should be stuck on one of the higher ledges and Stasis will likely be stuck on a ledge closer to you. Otsdarva's craft will fall quickly enough, just be sure not to take too much damage as it's built for close-quarters. In the highly unlikely event that he uses his missiles, fire your flares and QB backward. He should die before Wynne D finds her way down to you. From here proceed as above. The damage threshold is probably higher, but due to scheduling re- straints I was unable to adequately test it. M42: Occupation of Arteria Carpals N: NEXT Stasis, NEXT Reiterpallasch, NEXT Ambient, NEXT Feedback First, I would like to say that I have beaten this mission legit and S- ranked it using dual ARSENIKONs and the ARGYROS weapon arms. That being said, I'm not going to be using this method because it requires some degree of skill. Instead we'll be using the wall glitch. I will warn you, this is outright bloody cheating and is likely to provide zero satisfaction. I urge you to try other methods first. Let's get to it: make a mid-heavy frame with good PA and equip the OMINA FCS, ARGYROS/G generator, 041AN03 arms, the best assault OB, dual JADORE back parts, dual CANOPUS hi-laser rifles and the P-MARROW shoulder unit. When you start the mission, fly forward and into the complex, straight across the middle and out the gap in the wall ahead and to the left. Once outside the wall, turn left and follow it down. Use the map to get an idea of where to stand. __________________________ Face the wall directly and wait. Your CANOPUS | Fly through here | hi-lasers will poke right through the wall. | * ______ | Wait for the enemies to kill Old King. Then | | |___ | they'll head to the other side of the wall | / | you're facing. You should get a target lock on | / | them. Even though it's green, you'll be able to | \ ____ | hit them. Use your AA periodically to damage |Stand -->\/\ _____| | and strip away the PA of your enemies. Don't | here \ | fire your lasers until you have a good shot. | | One by one they'll drop. This method can take | o Start here | anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, but it's 100% ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ effective and you'll take no damage whatsoever. Be sure to use your AA every time your PA recharges, this will make it much, much easier to kill each NEXT. H: NEXT Stasis, NEXT Reiterpallasch, NEXT Ambient, NEXT Feedback, NEXT Ciliegio Sorry to say, the wall glitch works just fine on hard, as well. _______________________________________________________________________________ V. Contact Info, Thanks, and Legal Junk Aww... over already? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You can contact me quickly by e-mail: [email protected] Also through XBL: Chris Castor There are a few things I'm looking for: 1. The names and AC names of any NEXTs listed as "Unknown NEXT" in this guide. I've managed to deduce several of them, but there are still a few I haven't been able to figure out. If you know the names of these NEXTs, please e-mail them to me, including what mission they're in and how you'd like to be listed in the Thanks portion of the guide. 2. Alternate strategy for M11: Defeat AF Cabracan 3. Alternate strategy for M14 Attack on PA-N51 on hard difficulty, 3. The actual name for the mission targets in M30: Destroy Arteria Ulna. 4. Confirmation that the NEXT in M35 and M38 is Gachirin 5. Confirmation that the NEXTs listed in M42 are accurate. Constructive criticism is welcome, as are alternate strategies and requests for clarification. Flames are not welcome. As stated, these tactics are cheap. Will ruin your fun if you're playing for the first time, and are not meant to be used on live opponents. Flamers will be blocked immediately. By the way, I tend to speak and write with passable grammatical skills, so please do the same if you intend to contact me. IM IF ARE 2 DA MISIN U SED MOONLtE. WER CN I G1T TI> is a bad e-mail. I'm in the mission where you said to use the MOONLIGHT, where are the enemies? is a good e-mail. Get it? Also, do NOT e-mail me to ask where to get a part, how to get a mission or anything else unrelated to S-ranking. If you get the urge to do this, read this over and over again to yourself: "I should play the game myself." To get almost any part, beat the missions on hard and beat everyone in the Collared and ORCA arenas. Getting all the missions takes 4 playthroughs minimum, choosing the new missions each time. It's crappy that the 4th playthrough only unlocks one mission, but oh hell, oh well. Thanks to: LUCASARTS for diverting my attention from this guide with Secret of Monkey Island: SE. Ahh... the nostalgia. And the 2h24m playtime. (: FROM Software for continuing to make these fantastic games. Ubisoft for doing the best job translating an AC game yet (though it's still not perfect). My darling Nic for putting up with my game-cursing and constant gamer-chatter. Our dogs Betty and Tank for always making me smile. My best friend Zach for letting me bounce ideas off him every now and again. And to you, dear Reader, for whom my efforts bear fruit. I (Chris Mader, author of this document) am not affiliated in any way with FROM Software, UBISOFT, Sony, or Microsoft. Nor am I affiliated with Little Debbie. This document is, to the best of the author's knowledge, an original work. Use of this document is assumed at the risk of the user and the author shall bear no responsibility for any effects, positive or negative, on any hardware, software or digital accounts belonging the user. Unauthorized use of this document, in part or in whole, is prohibited by law. Authorized sites: www.gamefaqs.com The author reserves the right to deny permission of use for any reason. Copyright 2009 Chris Mader BONUS JUNK!!!! WHEEEE!!!! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ SERENE HAZE'S NEXT Serene Haze is Kasumi Sumika from AC4. You'll face the following craft in the AC TEST with the target set to NEXT and in Occupation of Arteria Carpals on Hard difficulty. Sadly you never get her schematic, although you get her emblem. So, for the sake of completion, here it is: AC NAME: Ciliegio Emblem: It's at the bottom, looks like a flower petal with a woman's silhoette in it. Use the base Y01-TELLUS schematic. (I'm not kidding) WEAPONS RA: RG01-PITONE LA: LR02-ALTAIR RB: BM03-MEDUSA RB: RD03-PANDORA STABILIZERS Core L Lower: CLS01-TELLUS-A PAINT BASE Main: 244, 209, 220 Sub: 192, 184, 188 Support: 45, 33, 45 Optional: 255, 239, 243 Joint: 47, 42, 33 Device: 107, 75, 134 Eye: 107, 75, 134 BOTH ARMS (it's this way in the AC4 paint scheme, change after doing BASE) Sub: 192, 284, 208 WEAPON Main: 65, 65, 71 Sub: 65, 65, 71 Support: 255, 239, 243 Optional: 65, 65, 71 STABILIZER (I know there's only one, but it's this way in AC4) Main: 244, 79, 140 Sub: 192, 184, 188 Optional: 255, 239, 243 Joint: 47, 42, 33 FRS (this isn't exact because AC4A is missing a category that was in AC4) CAP: 50, 40, 30, 50 ATK: 0, 0, 0, 20 ACQ: 0, 0, 0, 0 PA : 5, 30, 10, 15 BST: 0, 0, 0, 0 SBT: 0, 0, 0, 0 CTR: 20, 20, 0, 30 And there you have it. Ciliegio. It's kinda girly, and rightly so. It only works correctly for the player in Reg 1.00, kinda like Unsung (Thermidor's AC). By the way, Serene Haze is your operator throughout the game and a ranked LYNX in AC4, in case that wasn't clear to you. ***************************************** The operator of White Glint is Fiona Jardenfelt. This is suspected to be in the same respect as Serene Haze (Kasumi Sumika) is your operator. The idea is that White Glint is the Raven (the player) from AC4. Fiona was a support character in AC4 and Joshua O'Brien, pilot of the original White Glint, was the Raven's friend and rival. Why does Otsdarva show up in one of the last stages? It's a really long story, but I'll try to sum it up. In AC4, Rayleonard originated the Closed Plan, mean- ing to fire the Ehrenburg cannon into space and clear a path. They predicted what ORCA eventually found out, that Kojima radiation was poisoning the Earth and that eventually humanity would have to get into space. They were stopped by Anatolia's mercenary (the Raven) and summarily destroyed due to a precision strike that was launched against their HQ "Exavil." ORCA formed to execute the Closed Plan and in one of the story arcs, recruits the player in ACFA to help. Otsdarva shows up in the last stage of this arc, revealing that he was Thermidor (as if the voice and similar AC's weren't a tip) all along. However, it's also revealed (in the Japanese version) that he's working for directly for OMER and that the path into space is the next step in their evil corporate plan. Or something. Whee! Plot. AMS (Allegory Manipulation System) is the method used to control NEXTs in the game's world. It's a form of psychic control, wiring directly into the pilot's (LYNX's) brain. When the energy flow of the AMS is reversed (sometimes due to some sort of mechanical failure, but more often than not by severe damage to the NEXT), it will kill the pilot (CUBE, pilot of Fragile in M23) or turn them into mindless tools of destruction (Champion Champs, pilot of Killdozer). This is just here to explain something the game offers no explanation for. AMS use is encouraged only with those posessing a particular psychic trait. Many people without this trait have tried, some succeeding and some failing. The prototype NEXT seen as the boss in AC4 and featured in M35 in ACFA was developed by Omer. It features experimental boosters, assault armor, primal ar- mor, a double-barreled gatling gun and a Kojima cannon. According to FROM Software, it's official designation is 00-ARETHA. At the end of AC4, Omer (noticing a pattern?) deployed this NEXT with Joshua O'Brien as pilot to kill the Raven. O'Brien agreed to this because Omer was threatening to flood his home colony of Aspina with Kojima radiation, thus killing everyone there. You know, the more I research the backstory of these games, the more I wonder why the localization companies cut these games to pieces. It's been that way since the original Armored Core, though. Well ACFA is the best so far, and we can hope that eventually these games will be fully translated. We can hope. I'm thinking about doing a plot analysis of AC4 and ACFA, if anyone's interested in helping by contributing, please let me know. (: <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<o>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> MY AC (SP and MP, thank you) Sarcasm EKHAZAR-HEAD EKHAZAR-CORE AM-LAHIRE 03-AALIYAH/L INBLUE 03-AALIYAH/G 03-AALIYAH/M ARGYROS/B 03-AALIYAH/S KRB-JUDITH LABIATA 03-MOTORCOBRA KAMAL BM05-LAMIA - - - tuning: CAP: 49, 50, 50, 0 ATK: 50, 0, 50, 0 ACQ: 0, 0, 0, 0 PA : 0, 0, 0, 0 BST: 50, 50, 0, 0 SBT: 43, 0, 0, 0 CTR: 0, 0, 0, 50 stabilizer: Head L Side: EKHAZAR-HEAD-2 Core R Lower: SOLUH-CORE-1 Core L Lower: SOLUH-CORE-1 Legs Back: 063AN04001 paint Frame Main: 175, 0, 0 Joint: 50, 50, 50 Eye: 255, 255, 255 Others: 0, 0, 0 Unit Option: 175, 0, 0 Others: 0, 0, 0 Stabilizers Main: 0, 0, 0 Support:175, 0, 0 Option: 255, 255, 255 Joint: 255, 255, 255 That's my baby. You Know You've Played Too Much Armored Core When... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ...you've sewn your emblem onto the left shoulder of all your shirts. ...you get annoyed when someone's AC looks even remotely like yours. ..."a mildly stressful situation" involves dodging barrage after barrage of WHEELING03, accurately aiming and firing your weapon and all the while boosting into effective range. ...you don't understand the US government's stress over a missile defense grid because all you need is a MOTORCOBRA. ...you can remember the incredible stress of fighting another AC for the first time. Ahh... Valkyrie. ...you answer to your pilot's name. ...you name your car after your AC. ...you insist on using the same AC over and over again, even if you lose each time, just because it's your craft. ...you'll tear down a fully-functional, well-balanced AC if someone even sug- gests it looks a little like a Gundam. ...stabilizers start to piss you off for no good reason. ...you miss radiators and inside parts. Those bomblets WERE fun. ...you hate this guide and everything it stands for. (FEEL FREE TO SEND IN YOUR OWN.) _______________________________________________________________________________
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