Early on in Armored Core 6, you will come across a rather innocuous mission titled “Investigate BAWS Arsenal No. 2.” It may not seem like much – Survey an abandoned factory site and find out where all its workers and security teams went. But upon entering the facility you will be immediately jumped by a seemingly invisible force shooting high-powered lasers at your AC. How do you fight something you can’t see? Here’s how to fight the mysterious Stealth MTs called the “Unknown Craft.”
In the first half of the mission you will fight two distinct types of these mechs, ones that shoot and ones that will attack you from up close.
The shooter types will begin by firing at you from a very long distance away and are clearly indicated by an alarm and a red arrow on your HUD indicating the general direction their shot is coming from, and then they can be spotted easily by the bright blue flash before their beam hits you.
To dodge, right when you hear the alarm, perform a Quick Boost to the side and you will typically always evade the attack. Utilize solid cover with the cranes and large structures to flank them from the side. You can also use your AC’s Scan Pulse to detect them while cloaked if you are out of their direct line of sight and set up an ambush. When you do engage with these mechs in direct combat, they will try to blind you with chaff grenades and resume shooting you from a distance. To prevent them from escaping, use weapons that induce heavy Stagger damage to stun them then go in for the kill with a Blade if your AC has one equipped. If you stay at close range, typically they cannot escape.
The melee attackers can be somewhat tricky to deal with as their “laser whip” weapon packs a hefty punch, but it can be easily evaded with Quick Boost if you can observe some obvious telegraphs of the direction of the incoming attack. They usually will start the fight while invisible and try to get the jump on you, but if you hit your Scan Pulse, you can detect these enemies before they ambush you first. Like the shooter types, they are incredibly susceptible to heavy Stagger damage and can be quickly dispatched with a few swift hits from a Blade’s charge attack.
In the second half of the mission is when it gets tricky. Make sure you have preserved your Repair Kits and ammunition because the second wave of enemies is more durable than the first. When you jump down into the massive well down below, you will be ambushed by a more advanced close-range type Stealth MT and three snipers hiding on the walls around the room about halfway up. The close-range enemy, the boss proper, can be evaded if your AC is set up to be somewhat agile with a strong Booster part equipped, but keep your eye on your back as it can sneak up on you and hit you for tons of damage, potentially stunning you in one swift combo from the whip.
Deal with the snipers perched around the room on the walls by flying up to their height and your AC will automatically lock onto one if you’re in close or use your Scan Pulse to reveal them from a longer distance away. If you shoot them while on the wall, they will automatically become stunned and drop to the floor. Quickly deal with them and then concentrate on the shielded enemy chasing you.
This new type of MT is using a feature known as Pulse Armor, an extra layer of protection that provides extra defense against weapons and melee attacks and gives the unit more resilience towards staggering. This can seem like a hard nut to crack, but Pulse Armor can be negated quickly by using a Pulse type energy weapon like the Pulse Blade given to you at the beginning of the game or a Pulse Gun, which can be obtained from the Parts Shop. The best strategy is to keep up sustained fire on the enemy to hit its ACS Load Limit and stagger it, allowing you to deal the most damage possible and break the Pulse Armor faster. Once you break through the shield, typical weapons fire will quickly make this boss a pile of rubble.
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