4:35 Steal the Survey Data 19:15 Attack the Refueling Base 25:20 Eliminate V.VII 28:14 Tunnel Sabotage 32:30 Survey the Uninhabited Floating City 39:55 Heavy Missile Launch Support 47:09 Eliminate the Enforcement Squads 52:48 Attack the Old Spaceport 1:12:00 Destroy the Special Forces Craft 1:15:00 Eliminate "Honest" Brute 1:19:30 Defend the Old Spaceport 1:22:13 Historic Data Recovery 1:27:39 Destroy the Ice Worm
Nah mate, you doing these are a godsend! Haven't had a spare moment to play in a long while. Someone else got to it before I did, thus ends my streak, but that just gives me a chance to enjoy the vod!
Btw theres already an S rank calculators and the conditions are pretty clear. Every 10 seconds = 2800 repair cost or 4400 ammo cost. Seem consistence when I port in my A vs S rank runs. Some enemies like the LCs in the refueling mission or the tetrapods are like 50 seconds worth. Light MTs are like 4 seconds worth. But I guess I cannot post link here.
@Outofrealman i have found the six-cell plasma missile launchers to be incredibly useful for their ludicrously low ammo cost (100 per missile). Their rapid lock-on time makes them compatible with almost any FCS. They aren't great against single targets, but they are excellent at clearing entire swaths of lesser enemies like MTs or "generic weapons" with multi-targeting.
As a newcomer to the franchise I appreciate that they didn’t show me a letter grade on my first run of a mission. I think it let me figure out and optimize my own playstyle without any notion of a “right” way to play
Yeah I agree that it’s probably not there on the first run to not make players feel like they’re playing the game wrong. If your build works and you’re having fun with it that’s all that matters to them for the story completions of missions rather than optimising with the ranking system
Yeah i feel not being given a grade the first time is nice,not everyone cares about ranks and if your playing it just to get through and play the game, you dont want to be told you was "doing it wrong" by being given a bad grade
when has this ever been an issue in any other game with a ranking system, ie devil may cry. The gameplay speaks for itself. If you're dying multiple times throughout a mission, the pain is already there I don't think a grade on the results screen is what's going to be the breaking point lol
That first mission in chapter 3 is my favorite as well. When Ayre says "watch out they're coming around for another pass!" And you're just like "F that, I'm going up there!" Even though the game never explicitly tells you to do so and you're taking down this monstrous ship that's been bombarding you. It's just so intense and awesome.
@alastor8091 Well, think about it. The only vulnerable part of the warship is its bizarrely exposed bridge. I imagine the design of the warships implies their superiority against any landlocked enemy. If your AC couldn't get above the ship, you'd only be shooting at its turrets. And the ship's lasers wreck shop. Additionally, it looks like they're supposed to be deployed in units of a few at a time.
For what its worth, the pilebunker is actually quick great in pve even as a main weapon. People over focus the pilebunker's charged attack (which is godly), and don't use its normal attack. It one shots a ton of normal enemies, and can stagger the rest super fast so you can punish with some other high power weapon. Obviously in the ideal setup you just stun and then charge bunker, but over focusing it leads to missing out on lots of damage.
The quick attack with the bunker is NASTY. Against other ACs if your opponent has some accumulated stagger it can act like a can opener, readying them for a direct hit. Seeing the power of the charged attack blinds people with bloodlust, ready to end the fight in a single blow.
38:12 If I was forced to give an honest prediction for dlc content, I would say prequel dlc for Nightfall Raven/Branch since apparently (through dialogue and arena summaries) they gave the business to the PCA and are the reasons the Corps are back on Rubicon. Seeing exactly how it happened and why they would do such a thing would be p cool imo.
@alastor8091 yeah that was indeed a good send off too! She sounded very hopeful, and I think as a community of high skill ceiling players by default , we delivered ❤❤ and continue to. GOD I love this series and hope it doesn't end
To answer the "is Patches in this game" question: Handler Walter's voice actor is also the VA for Patch the Good Luck, so technically Patches is back in some form. And, of course, Swinburne has the Patches personality.
I love watching this, when S ranking all missions "Attack the Refueling base" gave me the trouble for the longest time. I found the PCA's true introduction with the fleet to to be one of my favorite moments, definitely my favorite early on.
Fun fact about attack the old spaceport: I forget if its fhe third or fourth pylon, but one of the pylons at the edge of the map the worm comes in through doesnt fall down and can serve as a damageless perch to watch the worm.
When that spaceship came in, I thought it was just going to be a cutscene, but no, you actually have to fight it and it was the coolest single moment for me in this game. Fromsoft was like: Here, experience Gundam
Got the Platinum the other day! Been waiting to see and HOPEFULLY hear your story synopsis and everything you feel about this game compared to others (this was my first AC)! Love your work.
Speaking of good voice acting, I've switched to Japanese as the language and Balteus Snail also has a similar, bloodcurdling scream when he dies. Chilling stuff.
25:30 “Did well” is not an appropriate measure for your first playthrough. If you beat the mission, you “did well.” Imagine if Elden Ring gave you a D rank after your 60th attempt against Malenia on your first playthrough, because you used all 14 heals. Imagine if the first time you managed to squeak out a victory against CEL240, the game was like “actually, you did that really poorly. You actually weren’t supposed to use all the heals the game gives you.”
yeah on the first two playthroughs it shouldnt give a rank. but on the third one when doing the allmind ending it should start giving ranks cause at that point youre a totally different player then you were on the first two playthroughs
I finally S ranked the entire game recently, and man what an experience. This game went from being okay in my opinion to being great so fast, and after playing 3 playthroughs it became one of my absolute favorite games out of nowhere. I had no intention of even trying to S rank it in my initial playthrough, but I just couldn't get enough. (most of it was before 1.02, no clue if it's more or less fun after) Funnily enough the missions I struggled to S rank the most was "Eliminate Doser Faction" (too slow) in chapter 2, "Attack the Refueling Base" (focused on bonus too much) and "Eliminiate "Honest" Brute" (did not focus on bonus enough) from this chapter. Edit: I did not use Zimmerman either. (Always had Earshot and Moonlight/Redshift version, and then the 2 remaining changed depending on the mission, used Stun Needle a lot)
1:35:25 a bit before that: Snail saying "I AM the Vespers! I AM Arquebus!" Is really nice foreshadowing on how unhinged he becomes later. Bever heard that voice line before
Overall i loved this game. But was anybody else a little disappointed with the last 3 bosses (liberator of rubicon ending?) I feel like the game was so balanced until the end. I could use a variety of builds and weapons and still have success. Cinder, Snail and HAL felt like they forced my hand to use the most powerful builds. If you used fast builds it was just a war of attrition. The weapons for light, quick builds barely made dents. I’m not the best but i feel i did okay with dodging and moving but you can only keep it up for so long, especially on balteus snail. I used stun needles and ended up beating all 3 bosses in about s minute when i made that switch. Just a little disappointed the game finished that way when early boss fights felt hard, but balanced and fun.
@@cobrakaiXimo that was the easiest ending, the other normal ending and the NG++ ending have much harder boss fights. That being said I was still able to beat all three with just a Ludlow, pile bunker, and dual truenos
@@cobrakaiXOther than snail I did the whole game in a mid weight AC with dual laser pistols and a sword. For snail I just grabbed a pulse gun. It wasn’t easy, but I never found it was too much
I think rather than "shotguns and gatlings being OP at close range", it's more like "the game design encourages you to fight at close range where shotguns & gatlings are supposed to be powerful". e.g. rifle & lasers don't land reliably at mid~long range ... it's much more efficient to stagger -> follow up with melee ... NPCs just insta-dodge all your charged-shots with insta-reflex ... etc.
Yeah staggering with shotguns or gatling is like the only way to land a charged attack 70% of the time, especially with things like the pile bunker that have absolutely no tracking (when charged)
you're not taking too much damage Vaati I find there's a minimum speed and it's a 'ratio' of prize and expenses. Thus killing adds and doing side objectives helps a lot. There are situations where taking TOO MUCH damage can ruin it, but typically I have found it to be pretty forgiving
HAZZA! I was waiting for part 3 for so long! I'm excited to finally fall asleep to this all week as vaatis frustration slowly lulls me to slumber. I'm not being sarcastic this is the highest praise I can conjure.
I've tried multiple builds, keep coming back to my DPS build: firmeza frame parts, dual zimmermans, dual laser cannons. Kills most things very quickly and capitalizes on stuns very well.
There is many fun builds imo. Be it heavy weapons, melee or other stuff. I particularly like pistol builds. They are much deadlier than one might think.
@@benoitranque7791 you can be conservative during mission in the way you use them. If you spam to much on small enemies you definitely not gonna make it. I usually run pistols with melee weapons so i try to use that as well in some capacity. I feel if you look out for that you can at least stretch out the longevity of its ammo reserves.
@@Corey91666 that's fair. You do have to get pretty close but they absolutely melt stagger bars. I tried pistols to S ranque against the cleaner but it was too dangerous
Hard agree on that "why dont we get the ranks first time through?" Going through NG+, I 100% had runs that would have been S-rank, but because it was my "first" run of the playthrough and not a replay, it didn't count. And then I had to do so many replays to get that S-rank. For example, my NG+ run of BAWS arsenal no2 was *squeaky* clean. I was almost no-hit, i didnt miss any of the first six MDDs, and I had my fastest fight ever down in the pit. Coming back to it after NG++ to S-rank everything, it took me like ten attempts to get BAWS no2.
when I was doing the S rank for ch 1 and 2, some missions are very lenient on the S rank thing, but some others are really "oh you only killed 5 instead of 6 random enemies? A rank" very weird
During the worm fight, after the first "hurdle" when the worm pops up to spawn the drones I free fired a stun and immediately knocked off his second shield. I can't recreate it tho. Lol
The hardest part of getting S ranks is figuring out what exactly the game wants from you to achieve that rank. I don't know if stopping to kill heavy MT's or optional AC fights is helpful or not. I don't know how much damage taken and ammo cost matter. I've fully S ranked the first two and a half chapters but I don't feel like I really earned my S ranks half the time. I watch this video and I see you getting S ranks on missions I got A ranks on and I genuinely have no idea why. The only significant factors I'm sure of are how long it takes to finish the mission and whether or not you restarted at a checkpoint. I go as fast as possible every time and never use checkpoints but still get A ranks sometimes. I don't really get it and I think the game should've put more effort into clarifying what's required for S ranks.
The worm is the worst mission to S rank because the worm just goes wherever tf it wants on the last hit and takes forever to actually get in a position for me to hit it
The talk about the Zimmermans reminded me of a GDC talk that the head designer of Magic the Gathering Mark Rosewater did about lessons learned from designing the same game for 20+ years. The part relevant here is how players will tend to optimize the fun out of games, so try to make the thing players are inclined towards also fun. I also try to avoid meta choices, but I also like the shotguns because they are fun to use.
I never noticed while actually playing but the radar at the bottom of the screen shows you which enemy you are locked onto. That's a really cool tiny detail. Gotta love From's attention to said details.
I killed the Iceworm with dual HI-16: GU-Q1 and dual KRNICH/60Z. There are only two differnces compare to the VE-60SNA. The first is the lower range, you have to get closer to him for shooting the point of weakness. The second is the lower shield damage. If you get a good chance to shoot every weapon at the same time, you take down half of his shield. Even at the third time, you take it down. That means his shield is getting stronger only against the VE-60SNA.
I’ve been running a fun build for most of NG++ which I didn’t have before the deadline. I won’t go into all of it but it uses double WS-5000 aperitif and double EL-PW-01 trueno. The key to the build is the boost speed of 362. It’s too fast for most missiles to hit and the speed allows time to reposition before your missiles hit to either set up big hits or to make the enemy move to face me allowing my missiles to avoid their shield. The high speed makes this powerhouse super fun and keeps it from feeling like a glass cannon. If anyone wants I’ll reply with the entire build.
Arm Units: WS-5000 aperitif X2 Shoulder units: EL-PW-01 trueno X2 Head: 20-082 mind beta Core: nachtreiher/40E Arms: EL-PA-00 alba Legs: EL-TL-10 firmeza Booster: BST-G2/P06SPD FCS: FCS-G2/P10SLT Generator: IA-CO1G: aorta Playstyle: Circle the enemy firing the APERITIFs one at a time surrounding them with missiles once stance breaks fire the truenos into them. If done right you can hit with them twice but the timing in tight. If the enemy has a shield fire all missiles at once and QB behind them. The delayed missiles will strike them in the back when they turn to face you. (PVE) this AC has low health but is fast enough that if you keep moving most weapons will miss without the need to QB. It really is fast for this much firepower.
Just one mission left to S Rank for me. It's been so fun trying to tweak and optimize my builds for them. But the 2nd Balteus fight is giving me alot of trouble for S Rank
I got the platinum the other day. I can really say that most important factor when S-ranking missions is just speed tbh. Also, not loosing a battle but otherwise you don't really need to focus on secondary enemies or so. I think ONLY one mission was the one that needed something like that and it was the mission where you need to destroy the PCA's battle ships.
Missions with bosses and several AC or HC are more lenient when it comes to the repair kits, tbh. It makes sense since a lot of the time you can get bullied and blown to oblivion within seconds. @@chrisscholz8364
I believe enemies only help your score when they have a COAM reward for defeating them. The LCs in that mission have a solid reward if I recall correctly, the shield bearing ones being worth the most.
A lightweight build using the aperetif double moonlight and shoulder needle launcher is a great off-meta pvp build. Also good for getting S ranks. If you use the lightest reverse joint legs you can get huge distances with dodging. fun to play.
for the first ice worm encounter: you can just stand atop of the giant steel structure in the direction where the worm is coming from and he cannot hit you at all
Seeing you breeze through most of the missions makes me think that i was really too stupid and stubborn for using the same build for S ranking every mission...
When you were talking about the potential for future dlcs I’m right there with you. This is a kinda niche opinion but I’d love to see radar back parts make a return. Maybe make it so that a small mini map appears when you have one equipped that enhances your head scans or it pings automatically at certain intervals depending on the radar equipped. I think that could make things more tactical especially for multiplayer which feels like head butting sometimes. Still an awesome game tho
yooo man i've enjoying the series and actually bought ac6 and try it myself but damn it was enjoyably hard hope you have a wonderful days today and on, much hugs
So, on the topic of builds.. I have to confess something that I’ve never seen but I use it as a main pvp build and it’s incredibly effective. I would love to keep it for myself… but it’s too much fun. Melee build with nothing in your right hand. This works especially well with the plasma thrower. The idea is to break their guard with the melee weapon, and you can extend the stagger by doing consecutive punches. In my testing, you’re able to get 3 punches off consecutively before it doesn’t work, which is enough time for some left hand melee weapons to recharge, and because they are still staggered you can get another full damage melee off, and even an assault armour if that wasn’t enough. I’m currently working on having a weapon in my right hand and purging it to perform the combo.
That's actually a known strategy but you don't see it often as it's tricky to pull off and latency can screw you. Though I mostly see people use Chainsaws/Pilebunkers and rely on their shoulders for the stagger. There's also the Charge Lance combo. Charge Lance > Stagger > Punch > Punch > (Swap Melee) > Hit with Chainsaw / Pilebunker.
On Possbile DLC. I would love to have a DLC were you can forgo everything and Join Branch alongside the old Raven, king, etc. As an alternate story. Or a DLC where you go all in on Balem and try to foil Arquebus at every turn. This would also be fun to see interactions with Iguazu. As he is constantly having to fight in your shadow for the same side. I am sure it would kill him on the inside. Just some ideas for DLC. Aside from progressing the story. And answering. What happens after?
refuelling plant S rank req's are so mean lol. i tried for like an hour or more just trying to play the mission asap, with super low cost weapon taking as little damage as possible. Then i killed the 3 LCs and even though I took like 15k+ damage on the bosses i got the S rank.
"In the old AC games, you couldn't get through the game with just one build" you may have meant later games in the series than this, because AC1, Phantasm, and Master of Arena can easily be completed with the same build, kurasawa mainly.
has there been any changes over the past 2 months as far as the S-Rank requirements on some of the missions. No mattter what variation I try for the "Attack the Refueling Base" mission. I get A-Rank with little damage after killing the bosses and destroying all fuel tanks in less then 4 minutes. Its getting pretty frustrating. do you have any advice for this?
Not ranking your first playthrough feels like it takes a lot of pressure off, plus if I already know I struggled with a mission seeing a crappy rank pop up just feels even worse lol
My only complaint with this game is that i want more. Also pvp is mostly just meta weapons and no one names their mechs. Im already burnt-out on fighting LOADER 4 with Zimmermans over and over
The warships absolutely should have 3 points of vulnerability, the bridge, the engines, and something on the underbelly, like a reactor vent, and it should require at least 2 of three to take down, but it will fire as it falls, destroying all three should make it go away now, lessening the bullet hell
It was possible to make the builds from just watching this video alone, I kind of understand the sentiment of wanting to wait to have the help of the community to share the build codes at the same time but would have been nice to have just shared them in the comments for people who bother to follow / watch live.
giving rankings on first time clears would just encourage rushing through missions as fast as possible instead of exploring for hidden combat/data logs. I'd honestly hate that. Much prefer taking my time with a mission and learning the ropes, and then optimizing it on a second run.
I know they probably removed them because of the resupply feature, but I thought ammo canisters were a nice addition. Especially since weapons like the machine guns and handguns have pretty low ammo.
Personally I feel like that would have been good to include as a "passive" core expansion. Ammo canister for more ammo, battery for more EN capacity, overboost thruster for faster AB, etc.
Not too sure on it as most, but i really do feel like the ranks can be dependent on money. From experience i definitely wasnt the fastest but i went with less costly ammo
An S Rank Calculator probably wouldn't be accurate - some missions have weird criteria. Like the Prisoner Rescue - my first replay I was going for the Battle Log. Despite taking nearly no damage, not even 10% and no repair kits used, and using mostly rifle shots with little ammunition waste; I ended up getting a C and I figured out it was because going to get the log had me behind on defending the helicopter - and it ended up with 15% health left. My second run through, I took a lot of damage. Close to 170% - two repair kits used, and I used a bunch of rockets, shotgun shells, and a lot of rifle shots. But, I killed everything and the helicopter had 95% health left. This was an S Rank despite nearly the opposite of my first run. Times not a huge factor on this mission because it's on 'rails'. Only the end against G2 Nile can make it take a little longer. Check out Oroboro's weapon tier list if you're curious about what weapons are actually good. He talks about them through a PvP lense but it's still kind of accurate. The main weapons that are decent in PvE but terrible in PvP tend to be missile/launcher type weapons.
The rank calculator should be accurate, since it's meant to account for every stat that contributes to a rank. (Disclaimer: I made it. I did a lot of testing and running through most missions multiple times, seeing how different actions affect the stats in real time.) A few missions have super important goals which are more heavily weighted than any other factor. For example, Prisoner Rescue effectively requires >80% health for the helicopter, Take the Uninhabited Floating City effectively requires 100% health for the control tower, and Coral Export Denial effectively requires all helicopters destroyed. That said, I don't want to take away from the fun of discovering strats yourself. I made the calculator mainly to clear up common misconceptions about how ranks are determined, because all cost-related factors (ammo, repair, time) *always* have the same weight in all missions.
@@thefifthmatt Apologies, I didn't mean to say it wouldn't work at all - just meant that some missions do not follow the same rules; especially those with special objectives. I can definitely agree with all basic criteria having equal value - because some missions you can easily make up for a shortfall in one category with exceptional performance in another. IE: Alt Attack the Dam - I got absolutely thrashed by Iguazu & Volta (Mainly Volta, Iguazu is a punk) - I ended the mission with
on ranking missions when you play them in the story they really should have made it so NG+ did rank them, It made me play the game 4.5 times to 100% it because I had to get all 3 endings, then S rank everything and on top of that I didn't pick eliminate the red guns on any playthrough. Towards the end I was not enjoying the game enough to finish the playthrough in which I eliminated the redguns.
This competition gave me an idea. What about a pvp tournament where balanced builds are assigned to you, you can’t choose. It would prevent meta from dominating.
I would've loved maybe a checklist of things you need to achieve S rank from fromsoft, along with turning up the difficulty a little bit. I feel like some of the missions weren't hard at all to get S
I believe the objectives that are given for each mission, including the side objectives, are the checklist. Not every mission gives bonus pay for eliminating certain enemies but the ones that do require at least a decent amount of them for S rank.
If you want the challenge, try AC4 For Answer, missions have a "hard" variation where mission plays a different scenario and the rank is separate from the normal one. I kinda wish they did it with this one.
Not gonna lie I'm so pissed at some of thoses S rank. The Xylem mission and the "Eliminate the Enforcement Squads" S rank determinator are either completly random or they have updated it to make it more difficult. I did the Xylem mission more than 10 times, multiple ones where I took less time than you did, didn't use any Medkit, and didn't use a gatling type of weapon to not spend too much on ammo and you got it on such a sloppy try... It required me to finish the level a +7k AP without ever healing to finally get the S rank, WTF is this. For the enforcer mission, any time I took a medkit, it would ruin my S rank, did more than 30 tries, most where I killed the enforcer faster and didn't took 2 medkit and yet never got S rank. I guess killing that AC at the beginning is worth more in the games eye than doing the mission properly.
If From is going to nerf shotguns, they should give them less ammo. That way you have to balance the overwhelming close-range firepower with endurance. They shouldn’t nerf the power, though. Then no one will ever use them.
Probably cause itd feel bad if you were riding a high of beating a mission and it told you you got a C. Also pulls you out of playing the next story mission and you pursue rank more.
4:35 Steal the Survey Data
19:15 Attack the Refueling Base
25:20 Eliminate V.VII
28:14 Tunnel Sabotage
32:30 Survey the Uninhabited Floating City
39:55 Heavy Missile Launch Support
47:09 Eliminate the Enforcement Squads
52:48 Attack the Old Spaceport
1:12:00 Destroy the Special Forces Craft
1:15:00 Eliminate "Honest" Brute
1:19:30 Defend the Old Spaceport
1:22:13 Historic Data Recovery
1:27:39 Destroy the Ice Worm
Only for the S rank, not all of the run
@@KABLAMMATS oh yeah, some mission got multiple attempts
You are a legend
@@VaatiVodyahappy to help
If someone comments with the S-Rank timestamps I'll pin it! That one guy doing it in the last few videos was a godsend
Getting close to NG+ huh
@@alextsukishima7666 in this vod he is after all the endings
Nah mate, you doing these are a godsend! Haven't had a spare moment to play in a long while.
Someone else got to it before I did, thus ends my streak, but that just gives me a chance to enjoy the vod!
Btw theres already an S rank calculators and the conditions are pretty clear. Every 10 seconds = 2800 repair cost or 4400 ammo cost. Seem consistence when I port in my A vs S rank runs. Some enemies like the LCs in the refueling mission or the tetrapods are like 50 seconds worth. Light MTs are like 4 seconds worth.
But I guess I cannot post link here.
@Outofrealman i have found the six-cell plasma missile launchers to be incredibly useful for their ludicrously low ammo cost (100 per missile). Their rapid lock-on time makes them compatible with almost any FCS.
They aren't great against single targets, but they are excellent at clearing entire swaths of lesser enemies like MTs or "generic weapons" with multi-targeting.
As a newcomer to the franchise I appreciate that they didn’t show me a letter grade on my first run of a mission. I think it let me figure out and optimize my own playstyle without any notion of a “right” way to play
There's no grade for the first run (not from replay missions menu) and the S rank is just for the achievement and that dopamine rush
Yeah I agree that it’s probably not there on the first run to not make players feel like they’re playing the game wrong. If your build works and you’re having fun with it that’s all that matters to them for the story completions of missions rather than optimising with the ranking system
I wish ng+ would give you a score
Yeah i feel not being given a grade the first time is nice,not everyone cares about ranks and if your playing it just to get through and play the game, you dont want to be told you was "doing it wrong" by being given a bad grade
when has this ever been an issue in any other game with a ranking system, ie devil may cry. The gameplay speaks for itself. If you're dying multiple times throughout a mission, the pain is already there I don't think a grade on the results screen is what's going to be the breaking point lol
Also when the ice worm appears, there’s an elevator on an angled cliff you can sit on and watch it chase Rusty around.
I like to sit on top of the big tower in the center. The worm destroys it near the end of the sequence but until then you can sit pretty.
That first mission in chapter 3 is my favorite as well. When Ayre says "watch out they're coming around for another pass!" And you're just like "F that, I'm going up there!" Even though the game never explicitly tells you to do so and you're taking down this monstrous ship that's been bombarding you. It's just so intense and awesome.
Made me realize how ridiculous it is the corps couldnt just annihilate the Fleet as soon as it showed up. They die so easily its funny.
@alastor8091 Well, think about it. The only vulnerable part of the warship is its bizarrely exposed bridge. I imagine the design of the warships implies their superiority against any landlocked enemy. If your AC couldn't get above the ship, you'd only be shooting at its turrets. And the ship's lasers wreck shop. Additionally, it looks like they're supposed to be deployed in units of a few at a time.
For what its worth, the pilebunker is actually quick great in pve even as a main weapon. People over focus the pilebunker's charged attack (which is godly), and don't use its normal attack. It one shots a ton of normal enemies, and can stagger the rest super fast so you can punish with some other high power weapon. Obviously in the ideal setup you just stun and then charge bunker, but over focusing it leads to missing out on lots of damage.
The quick attack with the bunker is NASTY. Against other ACs if your opponent has some accumulated stagger it can act like a can opener, readying them for a direct hit. Seeing the power of the charged attack blinds people with bloodlust, ready to end the fight in a single blow.
38:12 If I was forced to give an honest prediction for dlc content, I would say prequel dlc for Nightfall Raven/Branch since apparently (through dialogue and arena summaries) they gave the business to the PCA and are the reasons the Corps are back on Rubicon. Seeing exactly how it happened and why they would do such a thing would be p cool imo.
Agree with this bro
Very sad to kill og Raven, but i think she would be glad to be succeeded by us. A worthy inheritor.
@alastor8091 yeah that was indeed a good send off too! She sounded very hopeful, and I think as a community of high skill ceiling players by default , we delivered ❤❤ and continue to.
GOD I love this series and hope it doesn't end
Rusty's accuracy actually insane for him to never miss a shot
It's those darn Nachtreiher arms!
"I'm gonna make you CRY" This is the core of Vaati and why we love him
To answer the "is Patches in this game" question: Handler Walter's voice actor is also the VA for Patch the Good Luck, so technically Patches is back in some form. And, of course, Swinburne has the Patches personality.
I'm almost positive you find his combat log hidden in a tube with molten metal in that chapter 2 level before the smart cleaner fight.
I love watching this, when S ranking all missions "Attack the Refueling base" gave me the trouble for the longest time. I found the PCA's true introduction with the fleet to to be one of my favorite moments, definitely my favorite early on.
Fun fact about attack the old spaceport:
I forget if its fhe third or fourth pylon, but one of the pylons at the edge of the map the worm comes in through doesnt fall down and can serve as a damageless perch to watch the worm.
When that spaceship came in, I thought it was just going to be a cutscene, but no, you actually have to fight it and it was the coolest single moment for me in this game.
Fromsoft was like: Here, experience Gundam
Got the Platinum the other day! Been waiting to see and HOPEFULLY hear your story synopsis and everything you feel about this game compared to others (this was my first AC)! Love your work.
Watching you S rank these missions really pushed me to finally buy AC6. Got it yesterday and already having a blast. Perfect timing for Ch3 video haha
Speaking of good voice acting, I've switched to Japanese as the language and Balteus Snail also has a similar, bloodcurdling scream when he dies. Chilling stuff.
25:30 “Did well” is not an appropriate measure for your first playthrough. If you beat the mission, you “did well.” Imagine if Elden Ring gave you a D rank after your 60th attempt against Malenia on your first playthrough, because you used all 14 heals.
Imagine if the first time you managed to squeak out a victory against CEL240, the game was like “actually, you did that really poorly. You actually weren’t supposed to use all the heals the game gives you.”
yeah on the first two playthroughs it shouldnt give a rank. but on the third one when doing the allmind ending it should start giving ranks cause at that point youre a totally different player then you were on the first two playthroughs
I finally S ranked the entire game recently, and man what an experience. This game went from being okay in my opinion to being great so fast, and after playing 3 playthroughs it became one of my absolute favorite games out of nowhere. I had no intention of even trying to S rank it in my initial playthrough, but I just couldn't get enough. (most of it was before 1.02, no clue if it's more or less fun after)
Funnily enough the missions I struggled to S rank the most was "Eliminate Doser Faction" (too slow) in chapter 2, "Attack the Refueling Base" (focused on bonus too much) and "Eliminiate "Honest" Brute" (did not focus on bonus enough) from this chapter.
Edit: I did not use Zimmerman either. (Always had Earshot and Moonlight/Redshift version, and then the 2 remaining changed depending on the mission, used Stun Needle a lot)
Attack the Refuel Base was the one that took me more than an evening to S Rank
1:35:25 a bit before that: Snail saying "I AM the Vespers! I AM Arquebus!" Is really nice foreshadowing on how unhinged he becomes later. Bever heard that voice line before
I played the hell out of this game so much I completed it about a week ago now. I feel like there’s a hole inside of me now the game was so good.
Try some different builds out in PvP. Surprisingly fun.
I repeating Michigan last stand mission with different build, so thrilling
Overall i loved this game. But was anybody else a little disappointed with the last 3 bosses (liberator of rubicon ending?) I feel like the game was so balanced until the end. I could use a variety of builds and weapons and still have success. Cinder, Snail and HAL felt like they forced my hand to use the most powerful builds. If you used fast builds it was just a war of attrition. The weapons for light, quick builds barely made dents. I’m not the best but i feel i did okay with dodging and moving but you can only keep it up for so long, especially on balteus snail. I used stun needles and ended up beating all 3 bosses in about s minute when i made that switch. Just a little disappointed the game finished that way when early boss fights felt hard, but balanced and fun.
@@cobrakaiXimo that was the easiest ending, the other normal ending and the NG++ ending have much harder boss fights. That being said I was still able to beat all three with just a Ludlow, pile bunker, and dual truenos
@@cobrakaiXOther than snail I did the whole game in a mid weight AC with dual laser pistols and a sword. For snail I just grabbed a pulse gun. It wasn’t easy, but I never found it was too much
I think rather than "shotguns and gatlings being OP at close range", it's more like "the game design encourages you to fight at close range where shotguns & gatlings are supposed to be powerful". e.g. rifle & lasers don't land reliably at mid~long range ... it's much more efficient to stagger -> follow up with melee ... NPCs just insta-dodge all your charged-shots with insta-reflex ... etc.
Yeah staggering with shotguns or gatling is like the only way to land a charged attack 70% of the time, especially with things like the pile bunker that have absolutely no tracking (when charged)
you're not taking too much damage Vaati
I find there's a minimum speed and it's a 'ratio' of prize and expenses. Thus killing adds and doing side objectives helps a lot.
There are situations where taking TOO MUCH damage can ruin it, but typically I have found it to be pretty forgiving
Can confirm Cataphract is a decision mission available in first NG.
HAZZA! I was waiting for part 3 for so long! I'm excited to finally fall asleep to this all week as vaatis frustration slowly lulls me to slumber.
I'm not being sarcastic this is the highest praise I can conjure.
Yeah, all of the work Vaati put in definitely convinced me to try AC6 and I love it! Thanks for all your hard work!
I've tried multiple builds, keep coming back to my DPS build: firmeza frame parts, dual zimmermans, dual laser cannons. Kills most things very quickly and capitalizes on stuns very well.
There is many fun builds imo. Be it heavy weapons, melee or other stuff. I particularly like pistol builds. They are much deadlier than one might think.
@Corey91666 really like pistols but they run out of ammo really fast
@@benoitranque7791 you can be conservative during mission in the way you use them. If you spam to much on small enemies you definitely not gonna make it.
I usually run pistols with melee weapons so i try to use that as well in some capacity. I feel if you look out for that you can at least stretch out the longevity of its ammo reserves.
@@Corey91666 that's fair. You do have to get pretty close but they absolutely melt stagger bars. I tried pistols to S ranque against the cleaner but it was too dangerous
Hard agree on that "why dont we get the ranks first time through?"
Going through NG+, I 100% had runs that would have been S-rank, but because it was my "first" run of the playthrough and not a replay, it didn't count. And then I had to do so many replays to get that S-rank.
For example, my NG+ run of BAWS arsenal no2 was *squeaky* clean. I was almost no-hit, i didnt miss any of the first six MDDs, and I had my fastest fight ever down in the pit.
Coming back to it after NG++ to S-rank everything, it took me like ten attempts to get BAWS no2.
when I was doing the S rank for ch 1 and 2, some missions are very lenient on the S rank thing, but some others are really "oh you only killed 5 instead of 6 random enemies? A rank" very weird
During the worm fight, after the first "hurdle" when the worm pops up to spawn the drones I free fired a stun and immediately knocked off his second shield. I can't recreate it tho. Lol
The hardest part of getting S ranks is figuring out what exactly the game wants from you to achieve that rank. I don't know if stopping to kill heavy MT's or optional AC fights is helpful or not. I don't know how much damage taken and ammo cost matter. I've fully S ranked the first two and a half chapters but I don't feel like I really earned my S ranks half the time. I watch this video and I see you getting S ranks on missions I got A ranks on and I genuinely have no idea why. The only significant factors I'm sure of are how long it takes to finish the mission and whether or not you restarted at a checkpoint. I go as fast as possible every time and never use checkpoints but still get A ranks sometimes. I don't really get it and I think the game should've put more effort into clarifying what's required for S ranks.
The worm is the worst mission to S rank because the worm just goes wherever tf it wants on the last hit and takes forever to actually get in a position for me to hit it
Yeeees let's go, these are so much fun to watch.
I've S-ranked all of chapter 3 yesterday and I'm very interested to see what builds you used.
I just finished S ranking all the missions, keep up the awesome videos man, i cant wait for the lore vids!
The talk about the Zimmermans reminded me of a GDC talk that the head designer of Magic the Gathering Mark Rosewater did about lessons learned from designing the same game for 20+ years. The part relevant here is how players will tend to optimize the fun out of games, so try to make the thing players are inclined towards also fun. I also try to avoid meta choices, but I also like the shotguns because they are fun to use.
I never noticed while actually playing but the radar at the bottom of the screen shows you which enemy you are locked onto. That's a really cool tiny detail. Gotta love From's attention to said details.
I killed the Iceworm with dual HI-16: GU-Q1 and dual KRNICH/60Z. There are only two differnces compare to the VE-60SNA. The first is the lower range, you have to get closer to him for shooting the point of weakness. The second is the lower shield damage. If you get a good chance to shoot every weapon at the same time, you take down half of his shield. Even at the third time, you take it down. That means his shield is getting stronger only against the VE-60SNA.
The hardest was chapter 3. Didn’t think it was taking out the LC. Got to owe 7,000 and still got score A. Was going for hours!
I’ve been running a fun build for most of NG++ which I didn’t have before the deadline. I won’t go into all of it but it uses double WS-5000 aperitif and double EL-PW-01 trueno. The key to the build is the boost speed of 362. It’s too fast for most missiles to hit and the speed allows time to reposition before your missiles hit to either set up big hits or to make the enemy move to face me allowing my missiles to avoid their shield. The high speed makes this powerhouse super fun and keeps it from feeling like a glass cannon. If anyone wants I’ll reply with the entire build.
You could also share the ac data and give us the share code for whatever platform you're on
Arm Units: WS-5000 aperitif X2
Shoulder units: EL-PW-01 trueno X2
Head: 20-082 mind beta
Core: nachtreiher/40E
Arms: EL-PA-00 alba
Legs: EL-TL-10 firmeza
Booster: BST-G2/P06SPD
FCS: FCS-G2/P10SLT
Generator: IA-CO1G: aorta
Playstyle: Circle the enemy firing the APERITIFs one at a time surrounding them with missiles once stance breaks fire the truenos into them. If done right you can hit with them twice but the timing in tight. If the enemy has a shield fire all missiles at once and QB behind them. The delayed missiles will strike them in the back when they turn to face you. (PVE) this AC has low health but is fast enough that if you keep moving most weapons will miss without the need to QB.
It really is fast for this much firepower.
Just one mission left to S Rank for me. It's been so fun trying to tweak and optimize my builds for them.
But the 2nd Balteus fight is giving me alot of trouble for S Rank
That police build is awfully similar to one posted on Reddit that was on the subreddit's front page for 2 days.
It was submitted to my competition so i'm testing it
Got platinum recently. Glad to see your S rank playthrough
The Japanese version voice actors are so damn good. It feels like a different story, very different tone to the English version
For dealing with spaceships, using manual aim/no lockon mode and sniping the bridge actually does wonders
I got the platinum the other day. I can really say that most important factor when S-ranking missions is just speed tbh. Also, not loosing a battle but otherwise you don't really need to focus on secondary enemies or so. I think ONLY one mission was the one that needed something like that and it was the mission where you need to destroy the PCA's battle ships.
Yeah, my impression as well. Some missions I could S-Rank although I was down to
Missions with bosses and several AC or HC are more lenient when it comes to the repair kits, tbh. It makes sense since a lot of the time you can get bullied and blown to oblivion within seconds. @@chrisscholz8364
I believe enemies only help your score when they have a COAM reward for defeating them. The LCs in that mission have a solid reward if I recall correctly, the shield bearing ones being worth the most.
A lightweight build using the aperetif double moonlight and shoulder needle launcher is a great off-meta pvp build. Also good for getting S ranks.
If you use the lightest reverse joint legs you can get huge distances with dodging. fun to play.
for the first ice worm encounter: you can just stand atop of the giant steel structure in the direction where the worm is coming from and he cannot hit you at all
Seeing you breeze through most of the missions makes me think that i was really too stupid and stubborn for using the same build for S ranking every mission...
Missed an opportunity to call it MAD STOMP ORTUS
When you were talking about the potential for future dlcs I’m right there with you. This is a kinda niche opinion but I’d love to see radar back parts make a return. Maybe make it so that a small mini map appears when you have one equipped that enhances your head scans or it pings automatically at certain intervals depending on the radar equipped. I think that could make things more tactical especially for multiplayer which feels like head butting sometimes. Still an awesome game tho
yooo man i've enjoying the series and actually bought ac6 and try it myself but damn it was enjoyably hard
hope you have a wonderful days today and on, much hugs
yessss welcome back, loving your "playstyle"
So, on the topic of builds.. I have to confess something that I’ve never seen but I use it as a main pvp build and it’s incredibly effective. I would love to keep it for myself… but it’s too much fun.
Melee build with nothing in your right hand. This works especially well with the plasma thrower. The idea is to break their guard with the melee weapon, and you can extend the stagger by doing consecutive punches. In my testing, you’re able to get 3 punches off consecutively before it doesn’t work, which is enough time for some left hand melee weapons to recharge, and because they are still staggered you can get another full damage melee off, and even an assault armour if that wasn’t enough. I’m currently working on having a weapon in my right hand and purging it to perform the combo.
That's actually a known strategy but you don't see it often as it's tricky to pull off and latency can screw you.
Though I mostly see people use Chainsaws/Pilebunkers and rely on their shoulders for the stagger.
There's also the Charge Lance combo. Charge Lance > Stagger > Punch > Punch > (Swap Melee) > Hit with Chainsaw / Pilebunker.
That meme build with the chainsaw is genuinely how I just beat ibis the other day (second time beating ibis)
Make a lore vid for all ac games and how they tie to each other. Playing older ones makes me appreciate them more
Ty for releasing more of these!
Speed is by far the heaviest weighted factor, with some exceptions
54:10 “cataphract in first playthrough” can confirm is a choice mission
On Possbile DLC.
I would love to have a DLC were you can forgo everything and Join Branch alongside the old Raven, king, etc. As an alternate story.
Or a DLC where you go all in on Balem and try to foil Arquebus at every turn. This would also be fun to see interactions with Iguazu. As he is constantly having to fight in your shadow for the same side. I am sure it would kill him on the inside.
Just some ideas for DLC. Aside from progressing the story. And answering. What happens after?
Like an expansion on the choices of the story rather a whole new story. That'd be cool. I just wish there were more choices overall.
Best part of the VOD was “hiiiiiiii!”
refuelling plant S rank req's are so mean lol. i tried for like an hour or more just trying to play the mission asap, with super low cost weapon taking as little damage as possible. Then i killed the 3 LCs and even though I took like 15k+ damage on the bosses i got the S rank.
"In the old AC games, you couldn't get through the game with just one build"
you may have meant later games in the series than this, because AC1, Phantasm, and Master of Arena can easily be completed with the same build, kurasawa mainly.
has there been any changes over the past 2 months as far as the S-Rank requirements on some of the missions. No mattter what variation I try for the "Attack the Refueling Base" mission. I get A-Rank with little damage after killing the bosses and destroying all fuel tanks in less then 4 minutes. Its getting pretty frustrating. do you have any advice for this?
Just gotta say the chainsaw build helped me S rank on eliminate the enforcement squad
Refueling base is so shit i had a 540,000 profit with very fast time, all fuel tanks, LC killed and no repairs still A
Not ranking your first playthrough feels like it takes a lot of pressure off, plus if I already know I struggled with a mission seeing a crappy rank pop up just feels even worse lol
What we need is to create a space where people can share their paint schemes. Some of the ones I see are stunning.
Cant wait for the 10 part series on the student pilot
My only complaint with this game is that i want more. Also pvp is mostly just meta weapons and no one names their mechs. Im already burnt-out on fighting LOADER 4 with Zimmermans over and over
The warships absolutely should have 3 points of vulnerability, the bridge, the engines, and something on the underbelly, like a reactor vent, and it should require at least 2 of three to take down, but it will fire as it falls, destroying all three should make it go away now, lessening the bullet hell
It was possible to make the builds from just watching this video alone, I kind of understand the sentiment of wanting to wait to have the help of the community to share the build codes at the same time but would have been nice to have just shared them in the comments for people who bother to follow / watch live.
Negativity aside, your builds are very fun. Well done.
Every time the PCA said “Code…” it reminds me of Megamind.
Talking about expansions: I want a path where my boy Walter survives.
35:51 actual lightweight legs that aren't bipeds or reverse joints
Vaati please make a guide on how to make that infinite flight colour. I really want that red blending into yellow
Just got the platinum trophy yesterday, so seeing this video pop up is very topical
IT'S BEEN FUCKING 12 HOURS OF CONSTANTLY RUNNING THIS FUCKING MISSION IN EVERY VARIOUS WAY POSSIBLE I'M GOING TO FUCKING DIE
I wish there was more of this game! I've felt empty since 100% it.
Yeah its too fast, and i need more
FINALLY!!! I've been waiting for this
Omg i was waiting for this video for so long i finished this game 3 times few weeks ago😅 s ranking this game in not an easy task
giving rankings on first time clears would just encourage rushing through missions as fast as possible instead of exploring for hidden combat/data logs.
I'd honestly hate that. Much prefer taking my time with a mission and learning the ropes, and then optimizing it on a second run.
I'm not going in order but it's pretty easy using the double 900 damage shot guns and the needles shoulder weapons
I know they probably removed them because of the resupply feature, but I thought ammo canisters were a nice addition. Especially since weapons like the machine guns and handguns have pretty low ammo.
Personally I feel like that would have been good to include as a "passive" core expansion.
Ammo canister for more ammo, battery for more EN capacity, overboost thruster for faster AB, etc.
@Taolan8472 That’s not a bad idea! However, it would be kinda hard to justify giving up assault or pulse armor for that. At least for me.
Not too sure on it as most, but i really do feel like the ranks can be dependent on money. From experience i definitely wasnt the fastest but i went with less costly ammo
An S Rank Calculator probably wouldn't be accurate - some missions have weird criteria. Like the Prisoner Rescue - my first replay I was going for the Battle Log. Despite taking nearly no damage, not even 10% and no repair kits used, and using mostly rifle shots with little ammunition waste; I ended up getting a C and I figured out it was because going to get the log had me behind on defending the helicopter - and it ended up with 15% health left.
My second run through, I took a lot of damage. Close to 170% - two repair kits used, and I used a bunch of rockets, shotgun shells, and a lot of rifle shots. But, I killed everything and the helicopter had 95% health left. This was an S Rank despite nearly the opposite of my first run. Times not a huge factor on this mission because it's on 'rails'. Only the end against G2 Nile can make it take a little longer.
Check out Oroboro's weapon tier list if you're curious about what weapons are actually good. He talks about them through a PvP lense but it's still kind of accurate. The main weapons that are decent in PvE but terrible in PvP tend to be missile/launcher type weapons.
I think it's built off of datamined information from the game
The rank calculator should be accurate, since it's meant to account for every stat that contributes to a rank. (Disclaimer: I made it. I did a lot of testing and running through most missions multiple times, seeing how different actions affect the stats in real time.) A few missions have super important goals which are more heavily weighted than any other factor. For example, Prisoner Rescue effectively requires >80% health for the helicopter, Take the Uninhabited Floating City effectively requires 100% health for the control tower, and Coral Export Denial effectively requires all helicopters destroyed. That said, I don't want to take away from the fun of discovering strats yourself. I made the calculator mainly to clear up common misconceptions about how ranks are determined, because all cost-related factors (ammo, repair, time) *always* have the same weight in all missions.
@@thefifthmatt Apologies, I didn't mean to say it wouldn't work at all - just meant that some missions do not follow the same rules; especially those with special objectives.
I can definitely agree with all basic criteria having equal value - because some missions you can easily make up for a shortfall in one category with exceptional performance in another.
IE: Alt Attack the Dam - I got absolutely thrashed by Iguazu & Volta (Mainly Volta, Iguazu is a punk) - I ended the mission with
just got my platin trophy, after 27 hours of playtime, this game was amazing
on ranking missions when you play them in the story they really should have made it so NG+ did rank them, It made me play the game 4.5 times to 100% it because I had to get all 3 endings, then S rank everything and on top of that I didn't pick eliminate the red guns on any playthrough. Towards the end I was not enjoying the game enough to finish the playthrough in which I eliminated the redguns.
This competition gave me an idea. What about a pvp tournament where balanced builds are assigned to you, you can’t choose. It would prevent meta from dominating.
You all understand that we’re in the Allmind right? That’s why it’s Groundhog Day’n. Watch Eureka Seven, Matrix and Groundhog Day.
50:00 MAD STOMP
I HAD THREE GOD-DAMNED HEALS LEFT AND HAD THE EXACT SAME RUN DURING ATTACK THE REFUELING BASE
let's gooo! I was waiting for the next part
Vaati's emblem is slick as hell
Have you tried dual laser pistols and dual laser drones? DPS monster.
I would've loved maybe a checklist of things you need to achieve S rank from fromsoft, along with turning up the difficulty a little bit. I feel like some of the missions weren't hard at all to get S
I believe the objectives that are given for each mission, including the side objectives, are the checklist. Not every mission gives bonus pay for eliminating certain enemies but the ones that do require at least a decent amount of them for S rank.
If you want the challenge, try AC4 For Answer, missions have a "hard" variation where mission plays a different scenario and the rank is separate from the normal one. I kinda wish they did it with this one.
Do you have a streaming schedule? I have notifications turned on but didn't get notified 😑😑😑
I feel like 2x needles 2x dizzys or 1x dizzy 1x pile driver should cover the ice worm well enough
Not gonna lie I'm so pissed at some of thoses S rank.
The Xylem mission and the "Eliminate the Enforcement Squads" S rank determinator are either completly random or they have updated it to make it more difficult.
I did the Xylem mission more than 10 times, multiple ones where I took less time than you did, didn't use any Medkit, and didn't use a gatling type of weapon to not spend too much on ammo and you got it on such a sloppy try... It required me to finish the level a +7k AP without ever healing to finally get the S rank, WTF is this.
For the enforcer mission, any time I took a medkit, it would ruin my S rank, did more than 30 tries, most where I killed the enforcer faster and didn't took 2 medkit and yet never got S rank. I guess killing that AC at the beginning is worth more in the games eye than doing the mission properly.
If From is going to nerf shotguns, they should give them less ammo. That way you have to balance the overwhelming close-range firepower with endurance.
They shouldn’t nerf the power, though. Then no one will ever use them.
If anyone wants to know what’s this is all about, watch Eureka Seven. You’d be doing yourself a favor as it is THE best anime ever.
Probably cause itd feel bad if you were riding a high of beating a mission and it told you you got a C. Also pulls you out of playing the next story mission and you pursue rank more.