AC Movement
A nimble AC is a functioning AC, so you will absolutely need to learn the in’s and out’s of controlling your machine if you want to stay alive for any amount of time. For the most part controlling your AC is pretty straight forward with some evasive tricks thrown in here and there. To start, use the left stick to move your AC. Easy enough to move, but it sure isn’t quick now is it?
To get your AC moving a little faster, the left bumper/L1 is your boost button and will allow you to move quicker. Press it to toggle it on and off and to get around faster. The A/X Button is the Boost Drive and will make your AC leap into the air and, depending on the weight and the boosters equipped on your AC, will determine just how high it goes. When boosting and jumping, you will obviously go farther and stay airborne longer. If you are not using boost, A/X will just perform a small jump.
If you want to jump on top of a building or a structure, you can jump against the wall and you will automatically jump your way up, continuing to jump upwards until you reach the top. This will also turn on your boost when you are done jumping, so be sure to turn it off it before going off any ledges. Note: Climbing up walls of building and such will require your AC to have legs, so keep in mind that having tank legs assembled on your AC will not allow you to perform this.
For some quicker moves, pressing the X/Square Button and pressing in any direction will make your AC do a High Boost and dash in that direction. Holding X/Square will cause your AC to do a Boost Charge and dash forward whether it is in boost mode or not. For some really impressive speed, pressing L3 will do a Glide Boost and cause your AC to dash forward until you either turn off the boost with L1 or until you have run out of energy- which usually doesn’t take too long. Note: You already have to have Boost turned on to use Glide Boost.
Sorties (Order and Story Missions)
Now that you have a grasp on your AC building skills, it’s time to take it out into battle. There are many different types of combat scenarios that you can encounter in Armored Core V, like the Conquest Mode, and Territory Missions, but until you have raised your Team Points, or have joined a team of high ranking, you won’t need to deal with these just yet. So, we are going to focus on the Order and Story Missions that are on the World Map.
When you are on the World Map, select “Start Mission” from the left side menu and you will be given a list of territories on the left side. On each area when there is a new mission available, it will say “Order” or “Story” or both. Select the territory and then move the crosshair to the mission you want to enter. For each territory there are multiple missions so you don’t have to worry about running out any time soon.
When you start either an Order Mission or a Story Mission, and you should start with Order Missions first to start to build your currency, which is called “Au” as well as getting a feel for how the AC will handle in actual combat. You will also notice in territories that there are yellow banners that are “Invasion” and “Stronghold” missions. Inside these there are a variety of different types of missions, but we’re going to ignore these as they are more advanced and not so useful at the start —but once you start to knock out Order and Story missions, they can be used to raise your team level and team points rather easily and quickly.
When you move your crosshair over a mission, it will give you the name as well as the difficulty of it. When you hit A/X, it will give you a brief summary of the mission, including what kind of enemies you’ll face and the max number of member that can come on the mission. If you need a hand through missions, you can hire Mercenaries from the next menu known as the Compose Corps screen, but again, that’s more advanced and not something you need to worry about just yet. These early missions are pretty simple once you start to get the hang of handling your AC.
Hit Confirm Briefing and you will get a short rundown of the mission along with the mission objective. From here you will be given one last chance to enter the assembly workshop to make any changes to your AC before heading into battle. Also you can choose any other saved ACs from the AC Data tab on the menu, where we learned how to save our AC builds earlier during assembly.
Once you are in a mission, click R3 to enter Scan Mode and then follow the route marker that will lead you to the objectives. If along the sortie you find that you have taken too much damage or are running low on ammo, you can look for a workshop or a garage landing spot. Workshops and Garages however are only available during Story Missions and not during Order Missions.
You can only see these in Scan Mode, so when you are in trouble, keep an eye out and remember their locations. When you find one, make sure the area is clear of enemies and then pull the RT/R2 when the prompt for the workshop pops up on the screen. Entering these will cost you some coin, but not much at first. The more you use them however, the more they start to cost. When you enter them, you can use them as an Assembly to make changes to your AC or just get you AP repaired and reloaded with ammo.
At the end of each Order mission, you’ll get a reward depending on what the mission was. Sometimes you’ll get emblems and sometimes it will just be money. At the end of story missions, you’ll receive the same thing but along with new weapons as well as a load of Au that you can then use in the store to buy new parts, or parts that are being sold to continue to upgrade your AC and make it the meanest sumbitch on this side of the tracks.
