Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is the sixteenth installment in the mecha combat game series Armored Core developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game is the directorial debut of Masaru Yamamura, who worked as the game designer of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Bloodborne. It was released on August 25th, 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam, marking the end of a ten-year absence for the series since the release of Armored Core: Verdict Day.

In a far future of Humongous Mecha and Transhuman augmentation where humanity has spread to the stars, the enigmatic world of "Rubicon 3" lies in ruin. 50 years ago, a novel substance dubbed "Coral" was discovered on the planet that promised to revolutionize mankind's energy production, communications and other technological capabilities... until that same substance caused a cataclysmic event that incinerated not only Rubicon 3 but the entire star system surrounding it. Now, decades later, this apocalyptic element has resurfaced on the sealed-off planet, and brought a new cataclysm as off-world corporations descend to wage bloody wars with resistance groups and each other for its control.

You take the role of augmented human C4-621, an armored core pilot who went so deep into debt you sold your own body for unethical human experimentation, only to eventually be deemed excess inventory and sold off to be the "hound" of an infamous interstellar handler named Walter to work off your remaining loans. Enticed by Walter's promises that Rubicon's Coral is so valuable you can pay off the rest of your debt and fix your broken body and brain if you just can find enough of it, you infiltrate Rubicon 3 as an independent mercenary, and soon find yourself in the center of the struggle over Coral's deadly power with the corporations and other factions.

Gameplay combines elements of multiple previous Armored Core entries as well FromSoft's Souls games. Your Humongous Mecha armored core is highly customizable allowing you to tailor gameplay to your tastes by changing weapons, body parts, secondary abilities, and so on. Melee weapons in particular have been given an expanded focus, with more options than many past games and an "Assault Boost" mechanic that quickly closes the gap between you and enemies to move from long-range gunfighting to close-range melee at the push of a button. A stagger mechanic popular in From's Souls-like RPG releases has been added to the game as well to emphasize the back and forth tempo of combat. Also notable is that the Arena returns after its absence after the V generation games.

The game provides examples of:

• After the End: Rubicon-3 is little more than scarred ruins and old facilities, at least on the surface, after the cataclysmic Coral incident scorched it and the entire surrounding star system. Deserts, ashy mountains and factories, and desolate constructs of the previous human outposts litter the landscape from 50 years prior, and what's fresh are mostly new facilities put into place to mine the Coral from what's left.
• All There in the Manual: While the story lacks any sort of actual guidebook or the like nor any real lengthy explanation of much of the story and context, the Story Trailer is a notably necessary piece of media in understanding the context of C4-621 and their situation, not to mention the other C4 augmented humans that Walter and several other characters bring up.
• Ambiguous Situation: Much of the game's story revolves around the Coral and the game's endings all focus on the possiblity of Coral merging with humanity. But what this will actually entail is left rather vague. Walter and his allies see it as an Assimilation Plot (though the actual plot is exclusive to ALLMIND; the Coral simply naturally want to make contact, and Ayre for the majority of the story is more concerned with helping Raven than advancing an agenda of mass symbiosis) that will result in a Fate Worse than Death for human beings, Ayre sees it as a positive transformation that will uplift humanity, and ALLMIND agrees with Ayre, but wants to 'uplift' humanity by eradicating their free will in the process. Precious little is known for sure about Coral symbiosis, beyond that only augmented humans can join with the Coral and even then it can be dangerous, as 621 was at risk of having their consciousness dissolved into the Coral when making Contact with Ayre and Iguazu is all but stated to be experiencing his own form of Contact that is driving him to madness. On the other hand, Ayre's Contact with 621 proves it is possible for a mutually beneficial relationship with the Coral, but she is also noted to be a Coral "mutation" and it's not clear how much her Contact with 621 can be taken as a normal human-Coral connection.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • One of the game largest fundamental changes from previous installments is that the camera is no longer anchored to your AC's back. This, combined with the new Aim Assist feature alleviates much of the series's learning curve regarding the camera, no longer having to mind the importance of a turning speed stat or trying to keep up with fast enemies by keeping them in view. Incidentally, this makes short range firearms much stronger and the once-vital Quick Turn function is now locked behind an OS Tuning upgrade for a single chip, possibly indicative of how vestigal it has become.
  • Armored Core's Stagger mechanic resembles Posture used in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, where filling a gauge will cause an enemy to become stunned and vulnerable to more damage. Unlike Sekiro, however, Armored Core explicitly notes that any strain on an Attitude Control System may reduce after a certain time, but it won't completely go away. So while maintaining an offensive will build Stagger more quickly, tactical retreats won't completely invalidate your efforts like it does in Sekiro.
  • The Stagger system is also a marked change to how Stun worked in prior games, where if your AC was not above a certain defense threshold (which, depending on the game, may not even be a factor), individual hits would effectively halt all of your movement altogether and slow you down to a crawl. In certain games, you could potentially get stunlocked to death by an enemy that would not let up and had no need to reload. The Stagger and Attitude Stability mechanics by comparison at least let any build scrape by damage so long as you don't accumulate too much at once or get hit really hard.
  • The game is the first in the series to allow replayable missions without needing to beat the game first, allowing players to farm for currency in order to purchase more optimal parts if necessary. The rankings introduced in Armored Core 3 are also exclusive to replays; your first run of a mission is entirely for pay and story progression, and it's only subsequent runs that will scale you on performance for rank.
  • The series had always instantly failed you if you ever left the combat area. This entry blocks you from leaving some open areas thanks to red lines that appear when you're too far. Vertically speaking, if you fall in certain areas, you simply lose some AP as you're brought back to the stage.
  • While you still get docked pay for repair and ammunition costs, the game ditches the debt system from previous entries, significantly reducing the financial penalty for mission failure.
  • You're able to modify your AC from an option on the continue screen without having to restart the entire mission, in case you run into something that your current build can't handle. You're can only chage with parts you have already purchased before mission, however.
  • If you want to use an enemy AC loadout for your own purposes, the AC Data has you covered. So long as you have access to the required parts and weapons, and you've beaten that specific enemy AC in the Arena, you can switch to that AC loadout via the AC Data menu from the garage without the extra hassle of manually switching over to that AC's specific parts and weapons. This also includes AC units exclusive to certain ending paths such as V.IV Rusty's Ace Custom Steel Haze Ortus.
• Anti-Villain: All of the major antagonists for the story, save ones like Iguazu or Snail, are all varying degrees of Well-Intentioned Extremists all believing that mankind and its relation with Coral will decide its fate, each intending to utilize the organisms that make it up to either usher in a new era or cleanse the slate, but all are so insanely deterministic in their specific beliefs that they end up becoming as big of a problem as the Corporations themselves.
• Apocalypse How: The Fires of Ibis was a system-wide cataclysmic event caused when an accident ignited a massive deposit of Coral, scorching Rubicon-3 and various other planets nearby. This accident not only caused countless deaths across the Rubicon star system, but damn near rendered Rubicon-3 itself uninhabitable. Survivors of this event were given the nickname "Cinder". In truth, the Fires of Ibis were not caused by an accident, but a deliberate attempt to destroy the Coral—actually a living substance of Starfish Aliens who the Rubicon Research Institute believed were hostile. OVERSEER, the successor of the Institute, wants Handler Walter and "Cinder" Carla to finish the job and cause a second Fires. If you side with Walter, 621 carries out the plan and destroys the Coral, in turn creating yet another devastating calamity. The Planetary Closure Administration and the Corporations unanimously agree to abandon Rubicon, and the calamity comes to be known as the Fires of Raven, named after the infamous mercenary who killed god knows how many people responsible for the second calamity.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Coral is a highly sought-after substance that is seemingly used all throughout society, from Transhuman augmentation procedures to powering equipment such as Armored Cores. As you can imagine, everyone and their mother wants to get their hands on it. Having said that, Coral is extremely volatile; the Fires of Ibis from fifty years ago occurred because a freak accident ignited the Coral and created an explosion so powerful it nearly destroyed the Rubicon star system. That isn't even going into how the Coral is alive.
• Arc Number:
  • 621, when counting the numbers individually, also add up to nine. Given that the number nine bears significance in the series, it's probably not a coincidence.
  • V.IV Rusty is ranked nine in the arena. White Glint LYNX from Armored Core: For Answer also held this rank in the game's arena, and Rusty is far more important than he seems.
• Arc Symbol: Fire is a recurring symbol, with characters often called "kindling" or "cinders". After the Fire of Ibis incinerated the star system, many are rightly wary of Coral's potential as either a firey tool of destruction or a light for a brighter future. As the story goes on C4-621's actions light a figurative fire on the long-dormant planet that's locked in a Forever War, finally upending the status quo and pushing things forward.
• Arc Words: "Coral, abide with Rubicon!" Further invoked in a "Alea Iacta Est" run where it's revealed that what was thought to be a rallying cry for the RLF is actually only the first line in a warning as said in the Wham Line entry below. It becomes clear that it has much more meaning in being the Arc Words of the game due to being all about different factions deciding on what to do with the Coral, but no one wanting to actually "cast the die" aka, take the chance of doing what the Coral itself would want.
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • Try all the AI might to dodge your attacks all over the place like it's some sort of hyperspeed monstrosity, they have no actual consciousness of the terrain and environment around them until they get stuck on a wall and realize they need to jump. This means trapping them in corners is a plausible method to tighten up their movement, even if only temporarily, and using explosives for an Area of Effect splash damage radius can really lay the hurt on them as they can't dodge away so easily. One shoulder missile type even works like a trick explosion that borders on A.I. Breaker because they don't know how to dodge away from it.
  • All of the AI that have dodge-ready capabilities, from ACs to some of the bosses, will dodge multiple shots in a row via Quick Boosting or whatever equivalent they have, and then only Ibis and its derivatives for final bosses don't exhaust their rapid-fire dodging capabilities to simulate having emptied their energy recklessly. Baiting out dodges with a Macross Missile Massacre or several shots they'll inevitably dodge will often leave them wide open to taking strong hits afterwards, though going in for a melee punish may have them try to immediately smack you for it.
• Assimilation Plot: What Handler Walter thinks Coral is going to eventually do, knowing of its sentience and ability to symbiotically connect with humans as one of the reasons, alongside the danger of exploiting the substance as the Corporations do, as to why Walter wants to kickstart another Fire of Ibis because being put through near-extinction yet again is a preferable alternative to the idea of humanity as we know it being wiped out by an alien organism in a subversive manner. It's kept deliberately vague as to whether he's right about the Coral, or if his guilt and personal biases are making him Improperly Paranoid.
• Bait-and-Switch: The fight with the original Raven is set up as originally a Hold the Line defensive mission over protecting the old starport — until you actually arrive and find all the invading enemies are already disposed of and are instead set up with a sudden boss fight instead.
  • This also occurs during the NG++ mission where you must protect the STRIDER instead of destroying it. When the mission starts the STRIDER is already under attack and is destroyed, leaving you to survive against waves of autonomous C-Weapons.
• Blamed for Being Railroaded: NG++ gives you the opportunity to defend the RLF Strider rather than attacking it as usual. This mission fails pretty much the moment your AC finishes booting up, for reasons entirely out of your control. While you are docked half the payout, the RLF liaison apologizes and forgives 621 over how unexpected the mission turned out; they weren't expecting the Strider to be torn apart by a group of self-propelled grinder blades, either.
• Boring, but Practical: The AC Tuneup to let you equip primary weapons in your shoulder slots. This allows you to have an extra left or right hand weapon that you can swap on the fly. It's not particularly flashy, but it gives you a lot of flexibility in what weapons you bring (you can have a standard assault rifle for dealing with mooks and then swap it with a strong but slow grenade launcher for heavier damage against meatier targets for example).
• Boss-Altering Consequence:
  • During NG, you fight Raven in mission 3-10 "Defend the Old Spaceport". In NG+, if you elected to accept the Rubicon Liberation Front's offer in mission 1-6 "Attack the Dam Complex" and attack your allies G4 Volta and G5 Iguazu, you instead receive "Defend the Dam Complex", where you have to fight two ACs (piloted by King and Charteruse of the Branch hacktivist collective), and, potentially, Raven, if you don't deal with the former quickly enough.
  • During NG++, if you took mission 1-7 "Escort the Weaponized Mining Ship" instead of "Destroy the Weaponized Mining Ship", when you fight Sulla in mission 1-12 "Attack the Watchpoint", he gets a bunch of Ghost mechs as support.
  • During NG++, if you took mission 1-7 "Escort the Weaponized Mining Ship" instead of "Destroy the Weaponized Mining Ship", instead of fighting another AH12 HC Helicopter as the final boss of 3-5 "Survey the Uninhabited Floating City", you fight "Thumb" Dolmayan of the Rubicon Liberation Front.
  • During NG, the midway boss of mission 4-2 "Underground Exploration - Depth 2" is G5 Iguazu. In NG+ it is instead Coldcall, an assassin hired by Iguazu.
  • During NG++, if you've been following ALLMIND's path, then during mission 4-6 "Reach Coral Convergence, instead of having IB-01 CEL-240 as the final boss, you instead fight V.II Snail and G5 Iguazu.
• Bottomless Magazines: Played straight for energy weapons, which are instead limited by an overheating mechanic, but averted by ballistic weapons, which need to be reloaded once their magazine runs dry. The only exception to this is the minigun, a ballistic weapon that behaves like an energy weapon in terms of ammo consumption. All ranged weapons have limited ammunition to boot, making ammo conservation an important part of the gameplay, especially if you're shooting for an S-rank.
• Bragging Rights Reward: S-ranking all missions merely unlocks an achievement, but doesn't change anything about the gameplay in terms of unlocking parts or missions.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Downplayed. While Fires of Rubicon is set in a post-apocalyptic world, it takes place on a planet called Rubicon 3. The last time an Armored Core game took place on a planet that wasn't Earth was Armored Core 2, which was set on Mars.
  • The series famously does not depict the appearance of its human characters, outside of a few instances where they're either shown as silhouettes (Armored Core 4) or blurred and indistinct (Armored Core: Last Raven). This game, however, has set of logs containing hand-drawn sketches of Rubicon's shakers and movers.
  • Armored Core 2 had featured an extinct alien civilization on Mars as part of its setting, but it's not elaborated upon. Here, however, the Coral resource that is the centerpiece of the entire conflict of the setting is revealed to actually be a sentient alien organism, thereby bringing an alien species to the forefront as one of the major players in the story, with one of them (Ayre) being a principal main character supporting the player for most of the game.
• Break Meter: Fires of Rubicon introduces the Attitude Control System, a refinement of previous games' stagger mechanic. Now all units have an ACS meter that builds up when they take damage. If the meter is full, the unit is staggered, and for a brief time all attacks will deal increased damage to them. Kinetic and explosive weapons are especially good at inflicting ACS strain.
• Car Fu: The Boost Kick animation for tank ACs is simply ramming them with the AC's lower body.
• Chainsaw Good: One of the unlockable melee weapons, the Double Trouble, is an assembly of two AC-sized chainsaws. The fact that is was originally conceived as an industrial tool also qualifies it as an Improvised Weapon.
• Charged Attack: Many weapons have one. Some simply deal more damage when fully charged, others gain new or different functionality on top of that (like switching from single-target damage to an AoE attack for instance).
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Played With. Hostile ACs can use the same repair kits you have, and just like you they are restricted to a maximum of three per mission. However, they can also instantly react to your shots, allowing them to easily side-dodge even some very fast weapons the moment the button was pressed to fire, and some can seemingly cheat out of Staggers on a whim, even in a lighter unit that should have cripplingly low Attitude Recovery.
• Company Cross References: The prominence of fire and cinders as motifs recalls FromSoftware's Dark Souls Trilogy, particularly with regards to the first two potential endings of this game, as the player is given the choice of whether or not to ignite a massive fire, a decision with huge ramifications for the setting. Ironically, the decision to ignite the fire has near opposite effects compared to most Dark Souls games:
  • The "Fires of Raven" in the eponymous ending proves to be a massive cataclysm that effectively ends society in the Rubicon system while linking the First Flame prolongs the gods' Age of Fire in Dark Souls.
  • Choosing the "Liberator of Rubicon" route maintains the Forever War between the corporations and the native Rubiconians while the Age of Dark upends the status quo as dictated by the gods, with both ending on a vaguely hopeful tone.
• Corridor Cubbyhole Run: Multiple examples, the most clear-cut being the Underground Depth 1 mission that requires you to descend a deep vertical shaft while dodging a powerful defense platform at the bottom that keeps blasting you with lasers and pulse missiles all the way down.
• Crosshair Aware: Your AC's HUD has a variant where incoming heavy attacks will have both a directional indicator and a warning siren before the enemy strikes, giving you just enough time to evade being hit by something that will very likely stagger you.
• Dash Attack: The Boost Kick is an OS upgrade that allows your AC to kick after an Assault Boost.
• David Versus Goliath: Even though ACs are already Humongous Mechas, many boss fights have you fight enemies that outright tower over your machine.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Automatic ballistic guns are often reduced to this when used against anything more resilient than standard Mooks. Unless fired from practically point-blank range, individual machine gun bullets will mostly ricochet off the target's armor, dealing Scratch Damage at best. Even if you do manage to make them work against bosses, the massive ammo costs will almost certainly void your S-rank, making them a poor choice for perfectionist runs.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • In general, if you're ahead of advice Handler Walter would give you, such as using a repair kit in the prologue before he tells you too, he'll commend your proactiveness.
  • If you, for whatever reason, not bring the weapon meant to take down the Ice Worm, Michigan will call you out on it.
    Michigan: G13! Let's see that fancy gizmo that Arquebus paid the big bucks for. What?! You didn't bring it?! G13, Your ability to ruin my field trips is uncanny!
  • Some bosses have events that occur as the fight continues, such as an AC joining the fray or an ally needing to leave prematurely. The in-game dialogue accounts for what happens if the player defeats bosses before these events even have a chance to trigger. For example:
    • If you are able to do a One-Hit KO on the Juggernaut boss before Arquebus forces Rusty to Opt Out halfway, the game actually accounts for this with Rusty being left in Stunned Silence for a brief moment before acknowledging your accomplishment and saying that he'll clean up the remainder of enemies posted at the location for you.
    • In the mission "Defend the Dam Complex", King and Chartreuse will have different dialogue depending on which one of them you attack first, and again depending on which one of them you bring down to half health first. Raven's Operator also has different dialogue depending on whether King, Chartreuse, both, or neither of them are still alive by the time Raven arrives. Defeating them before the real Raven arrives results in Ayre telling Raven that the mission is complete, before suddenly realising that another AC is headed their way. Raven's Operator will also point out how they've been defeated already, advising caution to the real Raven.
  • In the mission to assassinate V.VII Swinburne, he will have different responses depending on whether you attack him while his back is turned as Ayre suggests, or wait for him to turn around and see you first.
    • If his pleas for mercy are accepted, he becomes untargetable by lock-on but can still be attacked. If he is destroyed, Ayre will give a unique response, calling out Raven for dealing with him in this way.
  • Late in the game, the player receives a mission from Middle Flatwell to help him ambush two Vesper pilots. If you ignore the plan and just rush in, the pilots will have different dialogue, and Flatwell will chew you out for ignoring him.
• Disposable Pilot: The Story Trailer shows several AC pilots in action, all of whom work for Walter and are augmented humans like C4-621. The person in charge of these augmented humans shows little reaction to hearing of their demise on the battlefield, even saying their deaths helped "clean [his] inventory". When Walter comes for C4-621, the man even tells him not to expect too much from them as if expecting them to die like the previous pilots. Most humans in the game itself treat any other humans as a cheap and expendable resource whose worth is measured exclusively by their success rate in AC combat.
• Downer Beginning: Events prior to the game, whether a past mission or just becoming an augmented human in the first place, have rendered your AC pilot virtually non-functioning and bed-bound. "Brain fried", as early mission dialogue puts it. Walter's response is to permanently install you into your unit, giving you not only a purpose to live for, but a use to fulfill in payments as a life debt. There's no choice but to fight to fulfill your debt, or die like every C4 troop before you.
• Drop Pod: In the opening cutscene 621 arrives on Rubicon III in what could best be described as a jury-rigged double-ended multi-stage rocket. After arriving in orbit the contraption ejects the capsule before getting nailed by kill sats, which then uses its own rockets to slow down on re-entry before breaking up in atmosphere and ejecting 621's AC mid-air.
• Dual Boss: The further you progress through the three campaigns including NG+ and NG++, the more frequent these become. Endgame battles can slip into outright Wolf Pack Boss territory, with up to five boss-level enemies dogpiling you at once.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Most of the Arena fights that unlock gradually while playing are against AC bosses you won't encounter until (much) later, or even not at all in this playthrough, depending on previous choices. The game is nice enough to avoid spoilers by not loading a themed background for bosses you haven't met yet, keeping it at least somewhat mysterious where they'll eventually show up.
• Early Game Hell: The first two chapters don't stock you up with much for shop parts to earn, which isn't too much of a problem until Balteus appears, never mind the Smart Cleaner and Sea Spider in chapter 2. As a result, without using very specific builds almost seemingly designed for these encounters, some players may struggle greatly with the early game. Once you get further in, however, more effective parts become available, which also retroactively make earlier bosses much more tolerable on replay or New Game Plus.
• Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Most of the standard missions involving gruntwork and standard combat operations are fairly doable, though there's occasionally an Optional Boss or a nasty late-mission ambush just waiting for you. By comparison, the missions with a dedicated boss fight (or even multiple bosses) tend to rocket upwards in difficulty tremendously.
• Elite Mooks:
  • BAWS Quadruped MTs are tankier and heavier-armed than the "normal" MTs you face.
  • The PAC's Light Cavalry units are practically mini-Armored Cores, having the mobility and firepower of one but being much less resilient.
• Emergency Weapon: Run entirely out of ammo and not have a blade equipped? Your AC will default to punching the enemy with its bare metal fists. And yes, this means there's no peashooter with unlimited ammo to fall back on if your main guns run dry. Better make every shot count.
• Enemy Mine: After the PCA unleash a giant coral weapon on the corporations, Arquebus and Balam enact a ceasefire to focus on pushing back against the PCA. This is subverted though, as in the final push Arquebus chooses to assault the PCA base where all their valuable equipment is while Balam chooses to attack the aforementioned weapon which doesn't have any such objects of value. Though both factions succeed in their respective missions, Arquebus comes out with a distinct lead over Balam and now that the ceasefire is over, Arquebus proceeds to crush Balam with their newfound technology.
• Escort Mission: One NG+ mission tasks you with escorting an RLF helicopter while it picks up prisoners at three separate spots on the map. Although fairly easy to complete as far as Armored Core missions go, arguably its meanest feature is the fact that it contains a silver battle log hidden on a tanky tetrapod MT in a far corner of the map, forcing you to split your scarce time between this and clearing the way for your escortee.
• Fluffy the Terrible: The AC-sized autonomous grinder wheels that shoot missiles and flame at you when they're not busy stun-locking your AC, are called (according to Handler Walter's dialogue in mission 1-7, "Escort the Weaponized Mining Ship") "Helianthus Machines". Helianthus is a genus of flowers more commonly known as sunflowers.
• Forbidden Zone: Rubicon-3 is officially a quarantined planet, with the Planetary Closure Administration (PCA) tasked with shooting down anything going in and out with extreme prejudice following the Fires of Ibis. In practice, however, it's more than happy to look the other way at the corporations extracting Coral so long they don't get too cocky and is likewise eager to use Coral-based weaponry on them if they do.
• Foreshadowing: The game is rife with it, between data logs, conversations and the like, that you might not catch on a first playthrough.
  • Handler Walter says that 621 can buy back their life if they find the Coral the pair are searching so hard for, and then proceeds to leave it at that. But between his friend he continues contacting and getting missions from throughout the game (which turns out to be talking to himself, using justifications of "data" and "missions" of OVERSEERS research to give you jobs), to his particular dismissal of Ayre speaking in 621's head and his insanely accurate hunches involving the patterns and methods of how Coral works and converges, even Ayre starts to catch on that there's more to his Coral hunt than just profit.
  • Everything with Ayre's intentions and origins are worded in such a way to maybe catch some players off-guard, but also hint at her real existence virtually from first meeting. If you don't get it then, the game piles on the foreshadowing as you go, long before The Reveal of what Coral is proper in Chapter 4.
  • A comms record found in Chapter 4 states the Rubicon Liberation Force is building a new Armored Core unit with the assistance of a corporation named Furlong. The pilot mentions bringing this information to Middle Flatwell before "those two destroy each other". At the end of the game, V.IV Rusty shows up in a new AC model; the very same mentioned in the comms record.
  • In your first playthrough, the Arena and messages from ALLMIND about mercenary status stuff is pretty standard fair for the series. In the first New Game Plus run, though, ALLMIND suspiciously welcomes you back differently than on the first playthrough, and then requests that you take on "Analysis" Arena fights that are embodiments of the various faction AC designs and even non-faction ACs like Ayre's and the real Raven's units, while ominously proclaiming that it's all to achieve a new stage of evolution. Lo and behold, ALLMIND hijacks the plot in your third playthrough and seemingly has somehow hit its evolution point to completely subvert the story where it couldn't before.
  • During the mission to wipe out Dafeng MT Squad, one of the first two missions you can choose from, if you fly up through a hole at the back of the general combat area, you can find multiple destroyed ACs and a stealth MT that will attack you. Given that the mission was an open call to all available mercenaries yet you are the only one who showed up, it seems that ALLMIND (who is in charge of the stealth MTs) may have been keeping a special eye on you from the moment you showed up with Raven's merc license.
• Fusion Dance: The Alea Iacta Est ending is essentially this, as a back-and-forth argument in the form of a final battle with the True Final Boss of the story, ALLMIND, to determine not if humanity should merge with Coral — but on what terms that fusion should end up being.
• Gainax Ending: "Alea Iacta Est" is a little...confusing, to say the least. After 621 and Ayre initiate Coral Release, the gathered Coral implodes and creates what looks like a black hole that sucks in everything around it. The next scene shows 621 back in their starting AC submerged in water. After Ayre wakes them up, they're no longer on Rubicon 3 but someplace else, with Ayre explaining Coral Release has scattered both humans and Coral, now merged, across the stars. Several more ACs crop up, all sporting glowing red optics. The last line of the ending is Ayre saying "Activating Combat Mode", implying that in spite of what Coral Release was intended to do, conflict is very quickly going to rear its ugly head again.
• Gimmick Level: Quite a few of them. One is a Stealth-Based Mission where being spotted by 90% of the enemies on the map is an instant game-over. Another ones takes away your AC and puts you in a sub-basic heap of junk, forcing you to skip as many fights as possible on your way to the mission target. And of course there's a whole roster of escort and timed missions of various flavors.
• Gray-and-Gray Morality: As per usual for the Armored Core series, the game runs on this with the conflict between the Rubicon Liberation Front, descendants of the original Rubicon settlers who just want to be left alone, and the corporations, who want to use Rubicon's resources for humanity's benefit. This is also true for the impending conflicts between Walter, Ayre, and the ALLMIND; Walter wants to recreate the Fires of Ibis to remind everyone how dangerous Coral is and how it's better off left alone at the cost of hundreds of millions of lives. Ayre understands and sympathizes with Walter on this point, but finds the method far too extreme and opposes him for this reason. ALLMIND, meanwhile, wants humanity to evolve using Coral by perpetuating and continuing the Forever War on Rubicon-3, but it's clear the A.I. wants to evolve humanity on its terms and no one else. Ironically, this particular conflict is perhaps the most sympathetic and lightest of the mecha series thus far in comparison to, say, Armored Core: For Answer.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • The two main collectibles get hit with this hard, which directly affects half a dozen achievements/trophies related to finding all AC parts.
    • Collecting battle logs advances your Hunter rank, which in turn unlocks new AC parts, one for each of the 15 levels. The logs are carried by specific enemies in many missions, with bronze-level logs available from standard mooks, silver and gold logs from minibosses and weaker bosses, and platinum logs carried by many main bosses. While the platinum logs are impossible to miss, the enemies carrying most of the others are often located in really out-of-the-way areas you're unlikely to pass through accidentally. The game is gracious enough to tell you in the Mission Replay screen whether or not you've found all logs in a mission, but that's all the help you get in tracking them down.
    • Parts containers have it even worse. Unlike battle logs, they don't require you to fight anything, but the game gives no indication whatsoever as to what mission even contains containers, least of all where they are. Most are extremely easy to miss, and although the scanner can mark them, its range is pitiful, and even if it does detect a container, getting to it is often a challenge regardless. Some of the game's best weapons are only found in containers, so you really don't want to miss out on any of them.
  • Unlike all other Arena bosses, the three that unlock in an NG++ playthrough are no longer available once you've finished this run. If you failed or forgot to best them before tackling the final mission and want the associated achievement/trophy, you'll have to restart the entire playthrough.
• Guns Akimbo: Almost any ranged weapon can be dual-wielded, provided you have the funds to purchase it twice. While primarily intended for light support weapons like submachine guns wielded by Fragile Speedster ACs, many of the more popular builds instead wield a shotgun in each hand, owing to these weapons' insane burst damage output.
• Heal Thyself: For the first time in the series, you can "heal" your AC with repair kits in the middle of a mission, not unlike how players in Dark Souls heal with Flasks. The catch is that while you can later upgrade how much you're healed per use, you are only allowed 3 kits per mission and, without careful maneuvering against enemy fire, you can go through all of them in no time. Even worse, enemy ACs in missions can use repair kits too.
• High-Altitude Battle: In the "Liberator of Rubicon" ending, the final battle with Walter takes place on top of the burning Xylem you just disabled as it slowly plummets to Rubicon's surface.
• Hold the Line: Two missions require you to defend something against waves of attackers, first a trio of long-range missiles for Cinder Carla, and later Xylem's control tower, again for Carla.
• Identity Impersonator: The tutorial mission is about finding an AC wreckage that still contains a valid merc license since you are not legally allowed to operate on Rubicon 3. At the end of the first mission, you assume the identity of a fallen mercenary with the callsign "Raven".
• Indentured Servitude: Dialogue in the opening missions suggests this as at factor of the circumstances that lead to C4-621 becoming what they are today, with Walter mentioning that if they can smuggle Coral off the planet they'd likely make so much money selling it that it would be enough for them to buy back their life.
• Infinity -1 Sword:
  • The Stun Needle Launcher, which is given for free just before its intended boss battle, is a surprisingly decent weapon outside of it. Comparable to the Earshot and Songbird grenade launchers, the Needle Launcher is less forgiving on misses but does obscene damage.
  • The MOONLIGHT Light Wave Blade can be found exploring a late-game level for its Part Container, and is one of the best melee weapons in the game. Comparatively speaking, it's easier to obtain than the Karasawa, as it doesn't have a prerequisite that bars it other than progressing the game normally and going out of the way to find it. What makes it so good is that it fires energy slashes at a good distance. While the Pile Bunker might do slightly better damage in both modes, MOONLIGHT's reach makes it more consistent
• Infinity +1 Sword:
  • Armored Core's other Recurring Element, The Karasawa Rifle, returns in this game. Known as the 44-142 KRSV Multi Energy Rifle, it's unlocked by collecting enough Combat Logs to reach Hunter Level 12, which involves a lot of level exploring to find the enemies that have said Combat Logs. And it's necessary to go through New Game Plus to get combat logs only available in specific routes.
  • There is also the Redshift variants of the MOONLIGHT Light Wave Blade and NEBULA rifle. Getting them requires not only beating the arena, but going through two additional playthroughs to beat the three secret opponents, the final one being Ayre's AC, which she pilots in the boss fight against ALLMIND.
• Injured Player Character Stage: The start of Chapter 5 sees 621 escaping imprisonment by Arquebus after they take control of Institute City. Unfortunately, with no access to the player's finely-tuned, custom-built AC, they turn to Walter's pre-stashed AC, unflatteringly built with "Jailbreak" parts. Its armor is paper-thin, its energy use is terrible, and its right-arm weapon might as well be loaded with spitballs. Its only advantages are the Jamming Round Launcher which can throw off an enemy's aim, and the shoulder cannon, which is powerful but woefully slow. Ayre rightly advises 621 to avoid battle in this hunk of junk and focus on escaping the city. As a fun bonus if you put your skills to the test and do fight with it, eventually the Arquebus grunts will panic, realizing they still don't stand a chance against the dreaded Raven and will scream to start shooting to kill.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: In the story trailer, Walter cuts the scientist's explanation regarding the AC pilot with a curt "I'm not here to talk. Wake it up." The pilots are seen as little more than spare parts for the ACs themselves. This is slightly downplayed in the game itself, inasmuch as humans are still considered utterly expendable, but Walter at least doesn't call you an It any longer and also tries his best to get your employers to treat you with a minimum of respect.
• Kill Sat: One appears in the intro, nearly shooting down the reentry vehicle carrying C4-621 and their AC. Dozens of them form the main threat in the first part of the "Ocean Crossing" mission. Run into one of their laser sights, and be prepared to dodge immediately or eat a giant beam that'll chunk most of your AP.
• Laser Blade:
  • The Pulse Blade, which players start the game with, has balanced stats with decently fast two-hit combo string. Charging it will result in a wider and more powerful slash. Like all Pulse weapons, it's particularly effective at cutting through Pulse-based defenses.
  • The Laser Blade performs much like Laser Blades in older Armored Core titles: a single, lunging horizontal sweep. Charging will initiate a 360-degree sweeping attack; excellent at clearing packs of enemies. It also has a variant that consists of two spinning blades that focus their damage on a single target for massive damage.
  • The Laser Dagger, smaller brother to the Laser Blade, is especially quick with a three-hit combo string, but sacrifices per-hit damage and crowd-clearing potential. Charging results in a single, powerful slice.
  • And, of course, the requisite MOONLIGHT Light Wave Blade. This hidden weapon generates two diagonal beams that can hit enemies from afar, or a wide horizontal crescent if charged.
  • A variant of the MOONLIGHT, the Redshift Light Wave Blade is Coral powered and trades some of the charged damage of MOONLIGHT for more devastating combo slashes.
• Laser Sight: Snipers and most artillery platforms aiming at your AC will shine targeting lasers, giving you a heads-up that you're in their sights.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • The outro to the first mission introduces ALLMIND, who has a line of dialogue that in-universe simply welcomes a MIA mercenary back into the fold from wherever they've been. Out-of-universe, it's akin to welcoming back some long-time Armored Core fans.
    "Welcome back, Raven."
  • Walter immediately follows The same dialogue by briefing you on your new identity as an independent mercenary pilot. On NG++, he adds one extra line:
    "You've got a lot of experience. You should be ready for anything Rubicon throws at you."
• Lighter and Softer: Although early trailers played the game up as being far, far bleaker than previous installments in the series, background information found post-release has revealed the game to be on the more hopeful side of things from the very start. For starters, humanity isn't on the decline nor is it implied to be anywhere close to that point at all, as is confirmed by the presence of bustling human civilizations beyond Rubicon-3 and the implications of the rest of the Solar System (at the very least Jupiter) having been successfully colonized by the human race. Although life on Rubicon is portrayed as being short, bleak, and depressing all throughout, this pervading sense of hopelessness is seemingly exclusive to closed-off planets like it. The majority of characters being oddly nice to C4-621 also helps to make it feel much less darker than previous games, where even the Voice with an Internet Connection will constantly chew out the protagonist (as is the case with For Answer). And besides the "Everybody Dies" Ending ending that is the "Fires of Raven," the "Liberator of Rubicon" and "Alea Iacta Est" endings are decidedly on the more hopeful side of things. In the former, although 621 ends up killing their allies with their own hands, the future of Rubicon has been returned to its own people, with 621 and Ayre being free to determine their own future. In the latter, despite it being quite the Gainax Ending, 621 ends up helping Coral propagate throughhout the universe while also initiating their fusion with humanity, thus bringing a possible end to the Forever War altogether... That is, if you ignore the very last line uttered in this ending: "Activating combat mode."
• Macross Missile Massacre: One of the attacks for the Balteus boss is to inflict a heat-seeking variant of this on you with extreme prejudice that briefly turns the fight into an intense Bullet Hell you have to survive before getting another opening to strike.
• Meaningful Name: Coral being used as the name of the Applied Phlebotinum of the setting is a rather fitting case of Foreshadowing when the substance is revealed to a living species with their own consciousness and very vital to the survival of Rubicon as a whole, much like the marine organisms that make up coral reefs on Earth.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: The two Coral Generator parts work differently than the rest, abandoning easy recharges mid-gameplay in favor of emptying out your EN entirely for a very large supply, and then having a much more rapid refill of the gauge to near-full. This tends to work better with AC styles that emphasize things like the quad-leg flight having a very slow overall drain of your EN, among other uses, but also means they don't fit into the average AC build that would be resulting in more frequent downtime recharge periods that may be fatal in many harder fights.
• Mêlée à Trois: In NG++, during the mission to assassinate V.II Snail, part way through the fight, Iguazu shows up to kill you. But he doesn't particularly like Snail much more than you, so he states he plans to kill him as well, with Snail sharing the sentiment. And they will attack each other as well as you during the fight.
• Mercy Invincibility : Averted: Boost dodges do not give you invincibility frames, and careless boosting into attacks will cause your AC to eat whatever you're trying to dodge.
• Mile-Long Ship: One of the major late-game reveals is that Xylem is actually a gigantic colony ship dozens of miles long. It plays a crucial role in the rest of the plot of all three endings.
• Mission Control: In the game's early portions, Handler Walter is your primary contact for information and updates while out on the battlefield.
• Mook Horror Show: In the "Alea Iacta Est" story path, ALLMIND takes control of the Institute MT mechs and proceeds to inflict a very horrific one-sided slaughter against Arquebus and what little remains of Balam's troops. Throughout Depth 2, you see fire and death everywhere, with the soldiers being appropriately horrified and scrambling to get the hell out of dodge. One Arquebus soldier even describes the whole thing as nothing short of hell.
• Multiple Endings: The game has three.
  • "Fires of Raven": 621 agrees to help Walter initiate a second Fires of Ibis as part of his plan to convince the corporations to end the use of Coral. Ayre attempts to stop them, forcing them to kill her. The Fires of Ibis cause massive destruction and countless deaths, but Walter's plan works. The corporations immediately and unanimously agree to cease all usage of Coral and abandon Rubicon entirely. The narration states that 621 was never seen or heard from again afterwards, but The Stinger shows Walter speaking with them, thanking them for helping him and wishing them well in their newfound freedom.
  • "Liberator of Rubicon": 621 turns against Walter and helps Ayre dismantle his plan to initiate a second Fires of Ibis. After crippling the ship that was meant to be used for this, 621 is confronted by Walter in a Coral-powered AC and is forced to kill him. Though Rubicon is saved, the Forever War between the corporations over Coral continues, but Ayre is confident that she and 621 can one day create a future where the fighting ends and humanity and Coral can coexist.
  • "Alea Iacta Est": The Golden Ending, only available on a second New Game Plus playthrough. 621 and Ayre discover that ALLMIND, the mercenary "support network", is in fact a sentient AI that's been perpetuating the Forever War over Coral as part of its plan to kickstart the next stage of human evolution on its own terms. After helping ALLMIND neutralize Arquebus, Balam, and Walter's faction, ALLMIND turns on 621 and attempts to dispose of them, but midway through the battle, Iguazu, who had been uploaded into ALLMIND's consciousness after his final defeat, forcibly takes control of ALLMIND in a final bid to kill 621. 621 kills Iguazu once more, ALLMIND is destroyed, and Ayre activates the stockpiled Coral, triggering a massive reaction. When 621 awakens, they find that humanity and Coral have "merged" with each other, ending the war on Rubicon and beginning a new era for mankind.^note Alea Iacta Est means "The Die is Cast". The phrase was attributed to Caesar before he crossed the Rubicon River to overthrow the Roman Senate. Poetically, the phrase can alternatively mean the Point of No Return, as while there's the uncertainty of the future that awaits mankind, there's still hope for it yet.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: When the player AC is Staggered, you're left sitting there eating all damage for the next few seconds without even an opportunity to recover until it's over. When an enemy is Staggered, it's a crapshoot as to whether they'll sit there and take the damage or instantly dodge away mid-Stagger via impossible amounts of Attitude Recovery, leaving you to whiff your intended punishment for them.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The achievement for beating every Arena matches is titled Master of Arena.
  • When 621 arrives on Rubicon 3, they take a callsign from a scrapped AC: "Raven", the name of the mercenary profession from previous titles.
  • The entire encounter with the real Raven is rife with this, from Raven having a female Operator as a call back to the series tradition of player characters having the same, Raven themselves being a Heroic Mute with an Ambiguous Gender that only their Operator can hear, to being a straight AC encounter with an opponent that is carrying a partial meta-build of some of the strongest AC parts like a player might do, to Ayre finding out after the battle that the title of "Raven" is a generational Legacy Character that is passed on from mercenary to mercenary via those who tend to do what they think is the right thing and change the world for it.
  • The Overed Rail Cannon developed by "Cinder" Carla that is used during "Destroy the Ice Worm" takes part of its name from the Overed Weapons (called Ultimate in the English version) that appear in Armored Core V and Armored Core: Verdict Day. When its limiters are removed for a final shot (which finally wrecks the cannon, similar to how the Overed Weapons work by being immensely powerful weapons that were not made for an AC in mind and thus can actively damage it while they're in use on top of being one-time-use only), Rusty's audio distorts in much the same way as the AC's COM does when activating an Overed Weapon.
  • The term "Ibis" was previously used in Armored Core: Silent Line, where it was the name of the extremely hostile and defensive AI system that served as the Big Bad, which also had access to unique, highly airborne unmanned crafts, not unlike the Ibis crafts seen in this game. It also continues the series tradition of bird-centric Animal Theme Naming.
• Neutral No Longer: Once things on Rubicon-3 start really getting out of hand the PCA decides to fully mobilize, prompting the corporations to join forces against the advancing fleet.
• New Game Plus: Much like For Answer, the game includes a NG+ feature. After completing the game for the first time, you automatically start a second playthrough at the first non-tutorial level with access to any and all weapons and parts you obtained in your last playthrough. You'll also have access to new AC parts as well, though some will require you combat new enemy ACs in the arena. New missions are added, and some original missions from your first run are even changed to trip you up. The earliest example is the mission "Attack the Dam Complex" where the RLF suddenly contacts you and asks you turn on the Redguns and assist them instead. This pattern repeats even more pronounced for your third run in NG++, where a large part of the campaign can change, depending on your choices. Completing this is also the only way to access the other endings, with a minimum of three consecutive campaigns being required to unlock everything.
• Nintendo Hard: While VI largely streamlines some of more frustrating series-wide mechanics such as the debt system and adding replayability, the game significantly ups the difficulty of missions with challenging, dynamic boss fights. In FromSoftware tradition, the boss fights are easily the biggest threats in the entire game, and will leave you a pile of scrap in record time if you aren't on your A-game and/or packing an AC build that readily counters their patterns and output.
• No Blood for Phlebotinum: The corporations on Rubicon are fighting over Coral, and 621 has to choose whether to stop it.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: 621 does most of the heavy lifting throughout the game, but a handful of unseen feats from other characters are commented upon.
  • The mission after Operation Wallclimber has 621 investigate the aftermath of Rusty's handiwork on his flight toward the Wall.
  • Rusty gets another one if he's the one sent to eliminate G1 Michigan. If 621 took the job, they would be pitted with not only a legendary AC pilot like Michigan, the infamous hero of the Jupiter War, but the rest of the Redguns' remaining 50 MTs. Walter casually informs 621 that Rusty accomplished the mission while 621 was busy elsewhere.
  • Ironically, Rusty receives this treatment during the Liberator of Rubicon ending when Rusty is shot down mid-sentence by an unknown craft later revealed to be Walter's Coral-infused final boss machine. Especially notable given that Rusty was a great pilot who had recently upgraded to his even more powerful Steel Haze Ortus by the time this happened.
  • In the third and final story branch, we can catch radio chatter between Walter and Carla as they fight off ALLMIND's AI-controlled minions. They seem to be holding their own against copies of the Vesper unit's A Cs, but ALLMIND later informs us that Walter and Carla have both been dealt with and are no longer a threat to ALLMIND's plans.
• Omnicidal Neutral: The Alea Iacta Est route sees you completely wiping out Arquebus, Balam, Walter and Carla's faction, the RLF, and finally ALLMIND itself.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The first mission has C4-621 steal a mercenary license and callsign of Raven from their destroyed AC as a cover identity for their illegal entry to the planet, but trailers suggest that at least a few puzzle out you're not the real Raven.
• Pile Bunker: The Balam PB-033 Ashmead is one such pile bunker that 621 can use. It's among the most powerful melee weapons available, but comes with a very short range and a trigger delay that requires some practice to use effectively. Its charge attack packs even more explosive power but requires the AC to stand next to the target.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • The crux of the game's story relies on the fact that Ayre and the Coral can only communicate with Augmented Humans of lower generations, and virtually all of them but 621 was driven to madness by the contact; when 621 does notify Walter of Ayre's voice, he brushes it off as Coral-induced mental stability like a 4th-generation would suffer. Walter firmly believes that the Coral is nothing but a blight of a hostile alien species that destroyed everything he cared for and will subsume humanity as a whole should it be allowed to spread untethered, when the Coral just want peaceful assimilation and integration, only fighting to protect itself; Walter's solution is an even worse Fires of Ibis cataclysm to absolutely wipe out all the Coral this time and send the bloodthirsty corporations packing for good. With Ayre being completely unable to tell Walter her perspective to protect her species, and Walter hoping 621 carries his legacy and helps Carla destroy the Coral for humanity's sake or being forced to fight by Arquebus in their attempts to protect it for their own gain should 621 side with Ayre, the communication breakdown ends up fatal for the side you didn't pick. 621 themselves being unable to really communicate properly only bolsters the problem, coming off to Carla as a cruel mercenary to the bitter end if they kill her for the Coral's sake and oblivious to 621's true intentions.
  • 621's run-in with Rusty turns out to be completely unnecessary by both parties. New Game Plus reveals a new data log on a nearby MT wreck in said mission of a RLF soldier desperately and discreetly trying to find Rusty to bring him the news that Furlong has settled a contract to produce STEEL HAZE ORTUS so he will no longer have to work with Arquebus. Unfortunately for them, this trope is enforced by Arquebus who very much want their two greatest threats to kill each other and intercepted the messenger first. Middle Flatwell arrives to try and mediate, but when both sides refuse to back down he prioritizes Rusty's safety first.

• Pyrrhic Victory: The Redguns and Balam are hit with this when they take charge in the mission to destroy the Ice Worm while Arquebus oversees the assault on the PCA's fleet. Destroying the Ice Worm is a spectacular victory that allows Balam to reach Watchpoint Alpha first, but they take heavy losses attempting to invade and explore the facility. Meanwhile, Arquebus helps itself to all of the PCA's captured technology, substantially strengthening their forces. Balam continues to suffer heavier and heavier losses as they fall behind in the arms race and waste manpower on a fruitless venture. Things come to a head when G1 Michigan and most of Balam's remaining forces are wiped out by a single pilot (621 or Rusty, depending on the player's choice of missions), forcing Balam to withdraw from the planet entirely. Meanwhile, Arquebus is now in a position to seize the underground Institute City and even more powerful weapons. Victory over the Ice Worm effectively doomed Balam in the long run.
• Ramming Always Works:
  • Walter's and Carla's plan in all three endings revolves around ramming one humongous megastructure into another, even more humongous megastructure. Whether or not it works as intended depends solely on the ending you're going for, which means yes for Fires of Raven and no for the other two.
  • After unlocking the Boost Kick OS upgrade, successfully ramming/kicking an enemy deals them a decent amount of damage, launches them backwards, and may interrupt otherwise devastating attack animations. Remember that many bosses, especially the bigger ones, can also use this against you, usually dealing massive damage and instantly breaking your attitude if the ram attack connects.
• Rank Inflation: Replaying missions allows you to try to go for grades based on your performance, ranging from "D" to "S". You can go as high as "A" if you're fast enough, use ammo sparingly, and finish with minimal damage. However, obtaining "S" requires you to do all that plus not restarting from a permitted checkpoint after you die.
• Recurring Element: As expected. Weapons like the MOONLIGHT and Karasawa rifle return as powerful late-game gear, alongside other details like the protagonist's callsign.
• Ridiculously Fast Construction: Following the discovery of Institute City and the Coral Convergence there in the game's final chapter, the surviving corporations somehow manage to construct a new, gargantuan megastructure that reaches into Rubicon 3's low orbit in what's implied to be days at most, if not mere hours.
• Sad Battle Music: The "Liberator of Rubicon" route ends with a boss fight against a Brainwashed and Crazy Walter, and the music used is a slowed-down version of the main theme song, combined with a One-Woman Wail. It highlights the tragic pointlessness of the battle, as Ayre fruitlessly begs Walter to stop fighting, though he's driven insane from his "re-education", Coral infusion, and half-remembered promises to Carla and 621.
• Scenery Gorn: As seen in the Reveal and Gameplay Trailer, Rubicon 3 is a world of burning skies, constantly falling ashes, and burned-out ruins from the cataclysm caused by Coral 50 years ago.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: A weird case that's reminiscent of the Cradles, as most of the game is actually to-scale otherwise. The abandoned city of Xylem is appropriately scaled for the units flying around inside of it, though you only really see it a couple times in the game. But once it becomes the Colony Ship and the endgame has you flying in and around it, the surface of Xylem suddenly becomes tiny as the player can boost over entire city blocks in seconds, and the gigantic engines holding the entire city up are barely all that much larger than yourself.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: All shotgun models inflict huge amounts of damage and stagger, enough to one-shot any mook and even some elites, and break most bosses' attitude in a maximum of two consecutive hits from close range. Dual Wielding shotguns have become a popular build that can take on almost anything when combined with a fast AC to rapidly close the distance. Shotguns' main downsides are long reload animations and low ammo cap, so you must be mindful of where and when you pull those oversized triggers.
• The Singularity: What ALLMIND seeks to accomplish via releasing a massive Coral pulse wave across the galaxy to achieve Human-Coral symbiosis. In the "Alea Iacta Est" ending, 621 and Ayre end up enacting ALLMIND's plan in their stead.
• Spider Tank: Quad legs (now called Tetrapods) return as a leg option for your giant robot. Like in older titles, these legs allow your AC to fire heavy weapons without stopping, but new to Fires of Rubicon is the addition of a Hover Mecha mode, allowing your AC to act as a "flying" weapons platform.
• Starfish Aliens: The Applied Phlebotinum of the setting, Coral, is revealed to be a living, sentient Mind Hive substance that is being harvested and manipulated in the Forever War between the Corporations with most being unaware of its true nature as an organism except certain Armored Core pilots of the fourth generation when exposed to massive quantities of Coral at once can undergo a Symbiotic Possession with one of the consciousnesses that live within the Coral — as is the case with Ayre herself and C4-621.
• Story Branching: At first, the game doesn't really split off into its own separate routes as the story is linear, and the ending you get is based on whether you assist "Cinder" Carla or accept Ayre's request and attack her. That said, some missions will decide what mission you get later down the line; Decision Missions influence what mission you will receive later down the line. This changes in NG++; the mission involving the RLF's Strider becomes a Decision Mission where you must decide whether to destroy it at Schneider's behest or assist the RLF and escort it. This not only unlocks new missions and replaces a few such as the BAWS Arsenal investigation, but also introduces a new character named Kate Markson, whose minimal appearance shakes up the story.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • When the Corporations pull an Enemy Mine against both the PCA fleet and the Ice Worm terrorizing operations, Balam's decision to fight the Ice Worm ends up costing them dearly. As soon as the alliance wraps up, Balam exhausts itself trying to rush ahead to the Watchpoint Alpha, while Arquebus takes the opportunity to steal PCA's technology after defeating their fleet, giving them the technological edge that allows them to mobilize a much stronger force that eclipses Balam's. Regardless of the story route taken, Balam winds up being pushed off Rubicon-3 altogether, leaving the Arquebus Corporation with a sole monopoly on the planet.
  • However, just because Arquebus manages to seize control of the whole planet and gain a monopoly of the Coral does not mean the Forever War ends. Arquebus is now the sole opponent for nearly every faction on Rubicon-3 now — including the RLF, which will fight to the very last man if need be, and Arquebus's Smug Snake tendencies and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder leaves them with very few allies to give them breathing room to capitalize on their newfound monopoly... especially in the "Fires of Raven" route where C4-621 ignites the Coral, wiping it from existence alongside most of their Corporation's assets in the process, which renders their clever strategies All for Nothing.
  • The "Alea Iacta Est" route goes even further for Arquebus. Turns out that while they may have gotten a lot of shiny new PCA tech to play with, what they haven't got is anywhere near enough time to study and properly understand it before they're forced to push it into action against all the other factions, resulting in their Super Prototypes being barely tested and hastily deployed rush jobs with most of the intel Arquebus has on them being observations from when the PCA was using it on them. Plus, the lack of understanding leaves several glaring holes in their cybersecurity systems...allowing ALLMIND to start up a massive Mook Horror Show by hijacking all of their stolen PCA technology (like their shiny new Institute M Ts) through backdoor hacking and turning it against Arquebus at the worst possible time.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: Mid-mission resupplies that top off all health, ammo, and repair kits are usually a prelude to a boss or an especially tough fight.
• Tagline: "Feed the fire. Let the last cinders burn." featured in multiple promotional materials, including the Reveal and Gameplay trailers.
• Tank-Tread Mecha:
  • Giant tank treads return as a leg option for armored cores. These tracks are also capable of Multi-Track Drifting while boosting.
  • The Juggernaut mobile artillery vehicle straddles the line between this and a very, very large tank.
• Transhuman: C4-621 and various other AC pilots on Rubicon, such as G5 Iguazu and the Vespers, are all "augmented humans" — pilots who have undergone intensive and dangerous surgery to boost their combat capabilities. In the "Alea Iacta Est" ending, all of humanity ends up being uplifted to a transhuman state via symbiosis with Coral.
• Used Future: Much of the landscape on Rubicon-3 that's not a smoldering ruin is either rugged, utilitarian infrastructure designed to extract Coral from the planet, corporate facilities meant to oversee said extraction, or fortified outposts built out of the remains of cities or dams.
• Virtual Training Simulation: The tutorial and AC testing is done in simulations. The Arena is a computer simulation loaded with data of other ACs, which serves as the exam room to increase your rank.
• War Is Glorious: Inverted, like V and Verdict Day, though the typical War for Fun and Profit is still there. From wiping out the settlers and natives of the Rubicon Liberation Front for stealing their limited amounts of Coral, to the mercilessness and ruthlessness of the Corporations to get an edge over the other, and the Planetary Closure Administration attempting to keep the conflict in check, you'd think the life of an Armored Core pilot and mercenary would be luxurious like older games — but C4-621 is treated as an eyesore until they earn their reputation, mercenaries are looked down upon as masterless scavengers with no morals, and your very garage looks more ramshackle and improvised rather than fanciful and dedicated. The war for Rubicon-3 is ultimately a petty, murderous and cruel conflict where everyone's out for their own personal interests, pockets and ideologies, with no glory to be found. And this isn't even getting into the truth of what Coral really is and the sheer conflicts of interest that ensue over said truth.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • At the very end of the first mission, a security helicopter bares down on you with miniguns and missiles galore. A player who had thought it might be a breeze of a game can get eviscerated in seconds should they foolishly attack it head-on, requiring you grasp the rules of combat quickly with what little the tutorial's given you or die. Also counts as an Early-Bird Boss since you're stuck in your starting AC, with the nuances of the controls and mechanics explained after you surmount this obstacle.
  • For those who overcame the helicopter without too much difficulty, Balteus, the final boss of Chapter 1, serves as this. It's one big skill check of just how much you've come to grips with the game's fundamentals: your understanding of how to build an AC that fits your strategies, your maneuverability, your understanding of how to open up opponents, and how to maintain pressure once you do have an advantage before your opponent can regain their defenses.
• Wham Episode: The NG++ mission "Escort the Weaponized Mining Ship" sees you tasked with escorting the STRIDER mining rig. When you arrive, however, it's been destroyed by autonomous MT mechs from the Institute, 'showing up three chapters early.
• Wham Line:
  • In the mission "Defend the Old Spaceport", you're asked to defend the spaceport you and your allies took over from the PCA. Upon arrival, however, you see that all PCA units and even a warship have all been destroyed by a single unknown AC. The AC turns as the pilot's operator starts speaking...
  Operator: Do you read me, Raven? I've identified the target. That's the mercenary who took your name.
  • In the ALT version of the mission "Survey The Uninhabited Floating City." You find yourself forced to defend yourself against Thumb Dolmayan, the leader of the RLF as he believes you are a threat to Rubicon. During which you hear the full passage that was only partially shouted by RLF members, revealing it was always meant to be a warning:
  Thumb Dolmayan: How much of our hymn have you heard, menace? "Coral, abide with Rubicon. Coral, endure within us all. For none of us shall cast the die!" The Coral must not be set free!
• Wham Shot: The AC you encounter in "Defend the Old Spaceport". It's the same AC from the trailers and the same demolished AC from which you get your merc license. That is not a coincidence. You're fighting Raven, the pilot whose identity you stole.
• Whole-Plot Reference: To Dune. Both stories involve a war being fought on a distant planet over control of an extremely rare and valuable resource (Coral/Spice melange), while the planet's native inhabitants (Rubicon Liberation Front/Fremen) try to fight off the invaders. One of the bosses is essentially a giant mechanical worm similar to the Arrakian sandworms. There is a third party (ALLMIND/Bene Gesserit) that is manipulating the various factions in order to advance their own agenda of uplifting humanity. Finally, in the "Liberator of Rubicon" ending, 621 ends up becoming a rallying symbol for the RLF to drive the corporations off of Rubicon, much like how Paul ended up leading the Fremen against the Harkonnens at the end of the novel.
• You Are Number 6: In the Gameplay Trailer, the player character is initially called "augmented human C4-621" rather than an actual name. The Story Trailer shows that the player character's handler also commanded several other augmented humans numbered 617-620 before them, all of whom are rendered KIA in the trailer. The C4 part of their designation indicates they have undergone fourth-gen augmentation.
  • Eventually, C4-621 encounters the former C1-249, an independent mercenary who survived the first-gen augmentation process and has history with Walter.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Arquebus gains enough power in the conflict that they suddenly become incredibly petty for 621 ignoring their orders to back off from the Coral Convergence at Walter's behest, and capture both 621 and Walter altogether for "re-education" at the start of Chapter 5. They do this even if, up to this point, you've done nothing but try to help them in your jobs, and V.II Snail is an absolute Smug Snake about it the entire time for the sake of really rubbing it in how he's loving what he's going to do to them.
• Zip Mode: Assault Boost allows the player to rapidly traverse the battlefield. While it is activated, your attacks have enhanced properties, and with the right OST chip, you can perform a Boost Kick.