Now Armored Core 6 has arrived, those who’ve been eagerly awaiting the chance to dive into some action-packed mech battles are finally getting the chance to do just that.
While some fans had been looking forward to the game’s story, many were mainly excited about the prospect of building a bot that can decimate opponents in duels, and even possibly have a chance to batter a similarly-sized Elden Ring boss - provided modders can work their magic.
Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t taken long for players to start putting together an array of cool and bizarre bots. Meanwhile, some of those who’ve managed to drag themselves away from mech creation have already progressed to the point of making one of the game’s toughest boss fights look incredibly easy.
Have you managed to beat any of Armored Core 6’s bosses without taking any hits yet?
The battle in question is the encounter with Balteus that takes place at the end of the game’s first chapter, which has already cemented a formidable reputation for being a particularly difficult test for players and sorting the bad builds from the good.
While many people are still scraping through the fight by the skin of their teeth, some players have already managed to scythe through it in rapid fashion without taking any damage whatsoever.
One of these hardened mech battlers is user themadman502, who’s shared a clip of them reducing Balteus to a pile of burning metal in just under a minute. “[I’m] not the first person to do it, but God I'm so glad I managed it,” they declared, later adding: “I died so many times on my first time playing [the battle], [so] this was my revenge.”
While the majority of their fellow players were very impressed by the achievement, a few debated whether themadman502 had benefited from some unusual behaviour from the boss’ AI, making their feat a bit of a fluke.
This prompted the player to reveal that they “got lucky in phase [two]” of the fight due to the boss not unleashing a missile attack that had brought an end to many of their previous attempts.
On the other hand, they claimed to have worked out that the key to beating the fight’s first stage was to retreat behind Balteus while he’s stunned, which caused the boss to stick to unleashing dodgeable rocket attacks.
As they alluded to, a number of others have also managed to beat the boss without taking damage to this point, while a few have miraculously already scythed through the fight in under 15 seconds.
Regardless of whether you’re now trying to build a mech that can replicate these remarkable feats, make sure to follow us for guides to both Armored Core 6 and Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, as soon as the latter arrives.