The beauty of Armored Core VI Fires Of Rubicon’s gameplay design is that you can build a mech with a variety of parts combination to suit a specific scenario or fight. But should you decide not to equip any weapon at all, can you still beat the mecha action game?
Apparently you can, with some caveats. Content creator ZeroLenny attempted a no weapons-run of AC VI, which is the equivalent to a Broken Sword run in Dark Souls games, where no weaponry was used whatsoever. Except for one particular fight.
(The video contains spoilers for AC VI, including one of its ending sequences.)
In the video summary of the whole no-weapon run stream, ZeroLenny showed how it is absolutely possible to take on the toughest of boss fights by simply punching and kicking. Balteus, the end of Chapter 1 boss where players have been “getting filtered” seemed easy. And apparently punches are good enough to stunlock heavy MTs, LCs, HCs, and ACs making these fights trivial.
However, ZeroLenny encountered some issues with this challenge. The first mission has you equipped with weapons with no way to drop them unless it runs out of ammo. You only get the ability to “purge” weapons later in the game, and ZeroLenny didn’t know that weapons auto-drop by default when they run out of ammo. So the solution was to just ram every enemy with only the Assault Boost.
That includes Assault Boost ramming the Rubicopter, the new nickname for attack helicopter boss that has been filtering people left right and center.
ZeroLenny also uncovered some info on how to maximise this build. First, you’ll need to also unlock the Boost Kick in the OS Tuning as kicking deals more damage to just ramming an enemy with Assault Boost. Quad legs (tetrapods) have the best hitbox to ensure the kicks connect better, though Tank legs deal the most one-shot damage from Boost Kicks.
You’ll also want arms with the highest Melee Specialisation stat. The BASHO arms should be best in slot for that. Plus, Boosters also has stats that helps you track melee attacks better and thrust you further.
The one particular caveat of this no-weapon run is the end of Chapter 3 boss. This particular encounter requires you to fire a Stun Needle Launcher to start doing damage. And the DPS check required for the fight means ZeroLenny had to make use of the Assault Armor expansion to get through this gimmick encounter.
Other than that, the run really is just punches and kicks. It’s a tedious one, but it proves that if you’re determined enough it’s still possible to make any meme build run viable, like any FromSoft action RPGs as of late.
Check out our review of Armored Core VI Fires Of Rubicon, which we didn’t beat by just punches and kicks. But the twin Zimmerman shotguns help.