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Armored Core

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Armored Core 3

Armored Core is a mecha-based video game series for the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Mobile Phone platforms.

Armored Core games

PlayStation

PlayStation 2

PlayStation 3

Xbox 360

PlayStation Portable

  • Armored Core: Formula Front (Japan only)
  • Armored Core: Formula Front Exteme Battle (U.S. only) (Coming October 2005 - Delayed)
  • Armored Core: Formula Front International (Japan only)

Mobile Phone

  • Armored Core: Mobile Mission (Japan only)
  • Armored Core: Mobile 2 (Japan only)
  • Armored Core: Mobile Online (Japan only)

Anatomy of an AC

The structure of an AC is standardised and modular, consisting of a number of parts which are fitted together in the AC Garage. Radiators, inside parts, extension parts, and hovering legs are found only in Armored Core 2 and subsequent games.

Required Parts

An AC must have all of these parts in order to function, or it will be declared incomplete.

Contains visual sensors. May also contain radar and computing equipment. Some heads are better armoured than others, but at the cost of lacking extra sensor equipment. The radar and sensor equipment is broken down into several categories including Bio-Sensor, Noise Canceller, Night Vision, Missile Sensor and Auto-Map.

  • Bio-Sensor allows an AC to detect and target biological organism, which appear in many of the games.
  • The Noise Canceller appeared in previous games and was a prelude to Nexus and beyond's ECM. It helped an AC recover from electronic interference.
  • Use of Night Vision has only appeared in Nexus, but its abilities have been carried over into Nine Breaker, Formula Front and Last Raven. Night Vision initiates automatically and lights up an area that would otherwise be too dark to see anyting. It is akin to modern night vision goggles and cameras.
  • The Missile Sensor detects in-coming missiles on the radar screen so that a player has the chance to dodge them before they hit. If a head has a radar but no Missile Sensor, the ability can be supplemented by an Optional Part equipped with the sensor.
  • Auto-Map is a function that allows a player to check the map screen of the game and see the whole area map of a mission while heads without such a function can only see a limited portion of the area.

Core

The 'armored core' from which the robot and the game series take their name. The human pilot sits inside the core, which is the 'torso' of the robot.

Cores come in different weights to suit different styles of robot; the lighter ones are less well protected but more suitable for more mobile ACs. Similarly, there are highly defensive heavyweight cores.

Cores contain a number of slots into which Optional Parts can be placed to improve its operation. Also, some cores have built-in anti-missile systems.

Since Armored Core: Nexus there have been three types of core:

  • Overboost Core - Introduced in Armored Core 2, this core contains a high powered booster system that operates in combination with the external or leg based booster of an AC. When activated, it allows the player's AC to move at amazingly high speeds, but can only be used to move forward, left, right, or diagonally left or right at a forward angle, backward movement is impossible. While it offers a tremendous amount of extra speed, Overboosting both drains energy very quickly and causes a massive increase in the core's heat level when initially used. These two factors heavily limit the amount of time an Overboost function can be used.
  • Exceed Orbit Core - Introduced in Armored Core 3, this core contains one or more orbital pods that can be deployed to hover above the AC and retracted at will. They possess energy weapons or shell weapons (depending on the model you purchase) and will automatically target and shoot enemies. The rate of fire, power, and field of vision for EO pods varies from model to model. Unlike other energy weapons, the ammunition supplies of Exceed Orbit pods gradually regenerate over time when not in use. Two important factors that limit Exceed Orbit usage are the small amounts of added heat that occur whenever an EO pod is deployed, as well as the energy drain from the pod firing. EO Cores with solid ammo do not suffer from an energy drain while firing.
  • Hanger Unit - Introduced in Armored Core: Nexus, any core with this unit can hold one spare piece of equipment for each hand. Only small devices can be stored inside this unit, for example, a hand gun or an energy shield generator. Some cores are equiped with both Overboost and Hanger functions.

Arms

There are two types of arms; normal arms capable of holding weapons, and weapon arms that are weapons.

Normal arms have various differing attributes; the most important are the weight and defensive qualities, which are usually related - heavier arms are better armored. Other attributes are recoil control, which keeps the arm steady whilst firing, and reaction speed, which determines how quickly the robot can swing a laserblade.

Weapon arms sometimes possess two different firing modes, and are more powerful than ordinary weapons because they can be fired from two arms at once. However, they are greatly lacking in defense compared to normal arms. Weapon arms can be useful in keeping the weight of an AC down, as they are lighter than having separate arms and weapons.

Legs

The legs support the AC on the ground and determine how it moves, and are usually the part by which an AC is classified. There are several different kinds of legs:

  • Humanoid - classic bipedal humanoid-style. Comes in many different weights, speeds and strengths. Humanoid ACs are limited in that they must kneel down to use many of the back-unit weapons (except for missiles and rockets). This takes time and also leaves them unable to move whilst firing.
    • Heavy Legs are well armoured and can support heavy weights but very slow.
    • Light Legs are very fast but have very low AP and weight limits.
    • Standard Legs are a ballance between the other two types, with average AP, speed and weight limit. These legs are always equiped on the default AC that the player is provided at the start of each game.
  • Reverse-Joint - also bipedal, these legs resemble those of a bird. Reverse-jointed ACs tend to be faster than standard humanoid models whilst still having a reasonable carrying capacity; they can also jump higher. However, they have the same problem with back weapons as standard bipeds. They are also generally less well-armoured.
  • Four-Leg - quadrupedal, in the manner of an insect. Four-legged ACs tend to be quite fast and have the ability to fire back weapons whilst moving on the ground. However they generally cannot support heavy weights, are less well-armored than bipeds, and have a high energy usage. In the latest games, the quadrupedal legs now walk. In the earlier games these legs appeared to hover or roll.
  • Tank Tracks - slow and heavy, but very well protected and can support massive loads. Tank ACs can fire any weapon even if moving or airborne. As these kind of legs don't have any real leg joints, Tank ACs cannot jump, and instead use an inbuilt booster to thrust upward.
  • Hover - does not touch the ground. Hover ACs are the fastest and most maneuverable of all robots and can travel over water, which obviously gives them a huge advantage on aquatic missions. They are, however, generally the least well-armored and can only support very light loads. They suffer the same limitations as bipeds with regards to back-unit weapons. Like Tank ACs, Hover ACs cannot jump and have inbuilt boosters instead.

FCS

The FCS or Fire Control System is the targeting computer, and controls weapon targeting and missile lock-ons. There are several different kinds, which vary on serveral attributes such as lock-on speed, maximum lock-on range, maximum lock-on number, or shape and size of lock-on area, suitable for different styles of weapons.

  • Missile FCS - FCS designed for use with missiles normally have a long vertical lock box, lock on very quickly with missiles and have a very long detection range.
  • Rifle FCS - FCS designed for rifle, pistol or shotgun weapons normally have a wide horizontal lock box, lock on very slowly with missiles and have a fairly short detection range.
  • Standard FCS - Standard FCS don't show any perticular prefrence when it comes to lock time, have an even square lock box and a ballanced lock on distance.

Booster

Boosters enable an AC to move quickly, and to fly. They come in different strengths and efficiencies. Tank and Hover ACs have inbuilt boosters. In Armored Core: Nexus players have to be cautious when equiping and using Boosters because they now not only drain energy but produce heat too, which can hamper the preformance of the player's AC if it overheats.

Generator

Supplies power to the AC. Power is an important consideration in the Armored Core games - the generator can only generate energy at a certain rate, and if the AC uses energy at a faster rate, the charge held by the generator is depleted. If the energy produced by the generator is depleted past the generator's red zone it immediately shuts off all other high-energy dependent functions and recharges. The time it takes to recharge varries from generator to generator but one fact is constant, an AC is at its most vulnerable point when its generator is recharging. Recharging ACs cannot use their boosters or energy weaponry until the generator has completely recharged, and in battle up to a minute without weapons or mobility can end of costing a heavy price.

Radiator

ACs can get very hot, and when overheated they become damaged. Radiators attempt to release this heat, with varying efficiency. A Radiator normally bleeds off accumulated heat and returns the AC to normal, but if the AC is overheated at a faster rate than the Radiator can bleed off heat then the AC's armour will begin to take damage until the Radiator can restore the Core to an optimal temperature. Heat is produced by taking hits from various types of weaponry, by the external environment and in Armored Core: Nexus by the AC's own Boosters. In Nexus the heat system was completely reworked. Now heat does not do damage to an AC, but when an AC becomes overheated the Radiator begins sucking massive amounts of energy from the AC's Generator to cool down the Core which can quickly deplete its energy supply and leave it vulerable if the Radiator is not very efficient.

Non-Essential Parts

These parts can be left off if the player desires; however, an AC will have difficulty progressing far into the game without a weapon of some kind.

Inside

An internal compartment from which a variety of devices can be released, including bombs, mines, decoys and radar-jammers. In Armored Core: Nexus small rockets and napalm rockets were added to the selection. These rockets needed to be fired blindly because there were no targeting aids for these weapons.

Extension

Extensions come in pairs and are mounted on the sides of the shoulders. They are miscellaneous, usually non-offensive devices, and can be anything from extra boosters to stealth devices. A common extension is an anti-missile system.

In Armored Core 3, several emergency energy units were sold - these were usually 3 uses, and would quickly refill the energy of an AC in about 5 seconds. Emergency heat sinks were also introduced that allowed a quick cooling burst to bleed off potentially damamging head if an AC got too hot. In Armored Core: Nexus, additional booster and relation missiles also become available but the radar jamming equipment was removed.

Back Unit

There are two points on the back where weapons or devices may be mounted. These include:

  • Missile launchers
  • Rocket launchers
  • Cannons
  • Orbit cannons
  • Extra ammunition supplies
  • Radars

Some weapons and devices take up both Back Unit slots.

Cannon-type weapons must be fired over the shoulder, so there is usually a delay in activating the weapon for it to unfold or align itself. Bipedal and Hovering ACs have insufficient stability to use a cannon-type weapon whilst standing or moving, so it is more common to see missile and rocket launchers on these robots. In earlier games AC pilots who unlocked the Human PLUS modifications or gained the black market Optional Part OP-INTENSIFY were able to deploy cannons while moving but such features have been removed from more recent games like Armored Core: Nexus, Nine Breaker and Last Raven.

Arm Unit R

This is the right arm weapon, and for most ACs it is their primary offense. There are a large number of different weapons, including rifles, machine guns, handguns, bazookas, shotguns, grenade rifles, laser guns and various energy weapons.

In AC3 parrying blades are available - these are short-range blades used to counter a laserblade strike and deal heavy damage, however there is a significant lag time between when the tigger is pulled and when the blade activates.

The most powerful weapons in the games (with the possible exception of the WA-FINGER in Project Phantasma, Master of Arena and its later incarnations in Nexus, Nine Breaker, Formula Front and Last Raven) are the Karasawa series, named for one of the series' producers. Armored Core has the Karasawa, the Karasawa Mk. II in Armored Core 2, and Armored Core 3 saw the MGW Karasawa. In Armored Core: Nexus through Amored Core: Last Raven, this weapon is called the WH04HL-KRSW, but has been knocked off its pedestal by other more powerful weapons added in to the later games.

Arm Unit L

The left arm is traditionally used for melee weapons, typically the laserblade, which is a short-range blade of energy which can cause great damage to an opponent.

One can also equip hand-held energy shields which can absorb damage from weapons and laserblades. Since Armored Core 3 there have been a few ranged weapons designed for the left arm, such as howitzers. Armored Core: Nexus brings a much larger selection of left arm weapons, including copies of various right arm weapons, although the reacton time to fire these is far slower when compared to weapons held by the right arm.

Optional Parts

These are parts which can be plugged into slots in the core to enhance the AC's performance. They have a variety of effects, such as increasing damage resistance to certain weapons, or increasing the generator capacity.

Different cores have different numbers of slots for optional parts, and generally more powerful optional parts cost more slots, while those only applied to certain situations are less slot-costly.

In Armored Core 3 and Silent Line: Armored Core a special unlockable Optional Part exists known as OP-INTENSIFY, or OP-I for short. This part, awarded to you upon your completion of Armored Core 3's storyline, allows you to use new features on you AC like the Human PLUS enchancements of the pervious AC games. The part automaticaly takes up every single Optional Part slot provided in your equiped Core so no other Optional Parts can be used while the OP-I is equiped. Replaying past missions and completing specific tasks unlocks new abillities and powers up your AC. These abillities are:

  • "Blade wave" projection
  • Enhanced energy blade range
  • Enhanced radar abillites
  • All radar abillities added reguardless of equipment
  • Firing back cannons while moving
  • Enhanced cooling
  • Enhanced boosters
  • Enhanced missile interception
  • Enhanced turning abillities
  • Enhanced targeting abillities

The OP-INTENSIFY and Human PLUS were removed from later AC games like Nexus, Nine Breaker and Last Raven, yet enemies like Nexus' #1 Arena Raven Genobee still exhibited PLUS-like preformance levels and abillities in combat.

The OP-INTENSIFY and Human PLUS were used by a majority of novice players who wished for an easier way of playing the game. This was looked down upon by the veterans of the game series as they classed PLUS and OP-INTENSIFY as 'unfair' or 'cheating', though some veterans use PLUS and OP-INTENSIFY just for fun if there was nothing left to do in the game.

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