Discussing AC6 Nerfs (up to ch 4 spoilers)

So I beat the game once. I dunno how difficult some route's bosses were but generally it's like IB-01 is the hardest, but by then you have so many tools. Balteus is the hardest in context because you have so little options and not enough familiarity with the game yet. I was also cosplaying a Breloom and had quad energy shotgun to simulate bullet seed with a leap type leg that makes you jump a bit on dashes. I will tell you it makes the IB-01 fight complete hell because it's easy to get hit multiple times before you can even land, but I won regardless after many tries.

But the nerfs have the community in an uproar due to the casualization of the game. Well the datamines are starting to come out and this seems to be the consensus:

Balteus' missiles have significantly worse tracking, which is good cuz that shit fucking hits me sometimes by looping around AFTER I already dashed past it, which is impossible to see cuz they're bh you

Sea Spider takes approx 1.3-1.5x dmg from various weapon types

IB-01's dmgs on certain attacks straight up got reduced by 15-25%. so despite the reports, it seems the hardest nerf was actually on IB-01 than anything else

https://twitter.com/king_bore_haha/status/1701109593689207089

I don't think this game was that hard overall. Some pretty hard stuff that can usually be countered with better builds, and at one point you just get so good, nothing is a threat. The last 3 Arena fights, for example, took me 4 tries total, meaning I only lost once. They're really easy once you realize you can have tank legs to dodge everything, and decent enough tracking to stun them before they can stun you.

Yeah the missile tracking was a bit wild it needed to actually be nerfed a bit

Balteus was the only one I wanted nerfed, it's pretty nuts at that point in the game before you've gotten good equipment. It's a chump on NG+ and beyond once you have decent parts to actually build around and fight back, but that early on Balty was just opressive.

C-Spider and CEL 240 didn't really need nerfs imo. They were really hard but totally manageable once you understand their patterns.

The enemy missile nerfs need to happen in general to be honest. The only reason Inis is hard is because its a flighty bitch thats hard to hit.

Im just glad they didnt nerf the Stun Needle and Zimmerman, as I havent gotten all S-Ranks yet.

I'm only on Ch 2, but Balteus' misses were one of the only things I could consistently dodge. I kept getting fucked up in the late phase where I'd get stuck in the fire once and be almost dead

Balteus' missiles weren't too hard to dodge at a distance but there were times where the missile would "magic bullet" my mech when I was behind it or somewhere where the missile couldn't realistically route to me if I were too close to Balteus.

I think there's also the matter of there being too many goddamn missiles, which all have that ridiculous tracking. You get hit by anything random, you get stunned and instantly swarmed by a bunch of missiles for the insta-death.

Without the missile, even if you make a mistake but slid past the missiles, you can still survive. Supposedly it's not so big of a nerf that the missiles just straight up miss you. It just doesn't do that 180 rotate bullshit anymore

Balteus was only hard first play because the only decent weapons you had against him were laser sword and a damn bazooka.

I'm currently stuck on B. Granted I only tried attempts once, and got him the 1/4 health one of those attempts - but I really feel like my load out just wasn't good enough. And unfortunately I was all about that 'sell everything you aren't using' life, so I decided to just restart the entire mission at some other point.

Lol on my NG+, I went up against Balteus, lost like 1000 life and just crushed him immediately. I think the machine gun buffs might also make Balteus feel a lot easier.

But also, it was like I just leapt through the missiles and didn't even get punished hard. I swear I tried that shit in my first playthrough and got completely washed

Oh shit, I can finally beat Sea Spider now.

The missiles weren't the hard part of baletus tbh. I'm only just now in chapter 3 so I can't really speak on the differences, but I could add that.

wanderingshade posted...

Balteus was only hard first play because the only decent weapons you had against him were laser sword and a damn bazooka.

Nah, bubble guns and FEET

https://youtu.be/a4hfVR8Vwpc?si=lE3nCo1JXIA__yxx

Yeh im not very good, lol. Better than I was then though.

No, I still can't beat the Sea Spider.

Feels bad.

DeadBankerDream posted...

No, I still can't beat the Sea Spider.

Feels bad.

Id help if I. Hold remember what was available at that point. Dual Zimmermans and dual Stun Needles absolutely shreds him, but you wont have either.

I'm pretty sure you have hand held missile launchers and Song Birds by the time you get to Sea Spider, and explosives go a long way with Sea Spider.

Yeah. Dual SONGBIRDS are a must until you get dual Stun Needles.

I got him like an hour after posting.

I am, or was, running curtis/songbirds on one side and laserblade/some grenade launcher on the other. I like the Songbirds but I was using it begore lesrning it was OP so Im deginitely not doubling down on it going forward. Might get rid of the one I have as well.

Oh good, I'm glad that they're actually nerfing the bosses. Armored Core games were never about stupidly hard bosses.

People keep claiming that this is how the series has always been, but I've played just about every Armored Core from 1 to Verdict Day and I never had to retry bosses as much as I have in AC6.

Man, I remember my first run against Ibis, it was intense and took me easily over 2 hours. It was still pretty intense on ng+ too.

Now on ng++ using things I would have already had before ng+ even, the fight took me like 3 tries after the patch.

I liked it better before. I think they nerfed him a bit too much. Now you can basically just slap him around with Zimmermans and stun needles if you don't feel like taking it seriously.

itachi15243 posted...

Man, I remember my first run against Ibis, it was intense and took me easily over 2 hours. It was still pretty intense on ng+ too.

Now on ng++ using things I would have already had before ng+ even, the fight took me like 3 tries after the patch.

I liked it better before. I think they nerfed him a bit too much. Now you can basically just slap him around with Zimmermans and stun needles if you don't feel like taking it seriously.

That combo is what Ive always used on him. You still have to get up in his face to hit him with them without taking massive damage from his spammy attacks and without him moving away (which he always does). Hes an annoying fuck simply because he wont hold still.

This is going to be the norm from now on huh. From nerds crying about patches

ragnarokius posted...

The missiles weren't the hard part of baletus tbh. I'm only just now in chapter 3 so I can't really speak on the differences, but I could add that.

The missiles did a lot more than you'd think. They'd chip you through a decent long fights with shit gears and build up the stun gauge so the next time you get hit by pretty much anything, you get stunned. Also because they follow you so hard, you had to boost through it twice, which meant you might not have the stamina to dodge through the next shit that comes your way.

Not having to worry about missiles anymore makes this fight so much easier. You can be way more aggressive boosting through the missiles instead of diagonally dodge twice.

DeadBankerDream posted...

No, I still can't beat the Sea Spider.

Feels bad.

I beat Sea Spider by staying in the air 100% of the time by firing weapons with huge recoil downwards at it. Bazookas and Songbirds or whatever. Big explosive shit that keeps you in the air.

I attempted Sea Spider for the first time just now. That boss was a complete joke. Did the update make him that much of a pushover?

I beat him first time pre-patch, I just think a lot of people tried to take him on with like a shotgun or a rifle and shoulder missiles.

legendarylemur posted...

Balteus' missiles have significantly worse tracking, which is good cuz that shit fucking hits me sometimes by looping around AFTER I already dashed past it, which is impossible to see cuz they're bh you

I fought Balt for like 45 minutes straight (just reset to last checkpoint whenever I'd kill him). This still happens after the patch, but it only happened to me when I was already right next to it when it fired them.

Haven't fought the others since the patch, already did my NG++ run and I'm not interested in S-ranking everything atm. The damage Ibis could do was nuts, I legit had moments where I'd get hit twice and have lost like 9k hp.

legendarylemur posted...

I don't think this game was that hard overall. Some pretty hard stuff that can usually be countered with better builds, and at one point you just get so good, nothing is a threat.

This is very accurate. Almost always changing up the build to suit the thing that was blocking me would make the difference, as long as the changes themselves made sense.

Scarecrow17 posted...

I attempted Sea Spider for the first time just now. That boss was a complete joke. Did the update make him that much of a pushover?

Sea Spider doesn't have much of a pattern. Just gotta dodge the missiles and you're fine. But doing more damage also makes it easier to stun him. It was probably a problem with my build, but I missed a lot of shoulder missiles, and on my winning run, I'm pretty sure I ran out. Post patch, running out of ammo is never gonna be a problem