Cypress

	Cypress
	General information
Classification	Human
Gender	Male
	Affiliation and military information
Affiliation	Global Cortex; The Controller
Occupation	Raven; Irregular
Rank	B-7; Later Unranked
Craft	AC Shade
	Real world information
Appearances	Armored Core 3; Silent Line: Armored Core

Cypress is a Raven appearing in Armored Core 3 and later in Silent Line: Armored Core. He was ranked B-7 in the Arena during Armored Core 3. In the Extra Arena of Armored Core 3 he is partnered with Huntress and they hold the title of the sixth ranked team.

Biography[]

Through the events of Armored Core 3, Cypress served as a Raven who supported The Controller. During the events of Silent Line: Armored Core, he continued as an Irregular Raven (no longer affiliated with Global Cortex) and worked with Crest to retrieve information from The Controller's core in the mission Data Retrieval. He worked alongside Ori and Gold Bit and ended up fighting against The Raven, who was hired by Mirage. Despite numerical superiority, he alongside Ori and Gold Bit were defeated.

Quotes[]

Data Retrieval
- Roger that, proceeding as planned.
- Moon Salt down. Engaging the target now.
- Good timing Clover Knight, let's finish this! ^{(when Gold Bit arrives)}
- Guahh....^{(if he is defeated before Gold Bit)}
- I'm finished...Recovery team...Pull back...^{(if he is defeated after Gold Bit)}

AC Shade (US)/ Ten Commandments (JP)[]

Cypress uses a hover type Crest AC that specializes in shell damage. The unit is equipped with an Overboost core, anti missile extensions, two identical chainguns on both back weapon slots, a high-heat round handgun and a laser blade. His AC is composed of an amalgamation of Crest equipment, making it well-balanced and suited to a variety of combat styles. Due to the unit being equipped with OP-INTENSIFY it can fire blade waves and use the chainguns while moving.

Parts[]

Head: CHD-SKYEYE
Core: CCM-00-STO
Arms: CAM-11-SOL
Legs: CLR-00-MAK
Booster: None
FCS: VREX-WS-1
Generator: CGP-ROZ
Radiator: RIX-CR14
Inside: None
Extension: CWEM-AM40
Back Unit R: CWC-CNG-300
Back Unit L: CWC-CNG-300
Arm Unit R: CWG-HG-80
Arm Unit L: CLB-LS-2551

Gameplay[]

In-Game Information[]

Steadfast in his belief that The Controller must be preserved, he pays his respect prior to every match. His AC is composed of an amalgamation of Crest equipment, making it well-balanced and suited to a variety of combat styles.

Strategy[]

The lowest B-Ranker can be a tough wake up call for the newcomers. Since this guy is equipped with OP-INTENSIFY and hover legs, he is able to move at breakneck speed and evade your attacks easily. He also has enormous energy reserves, which he makes use of with prolonged vertical boosting. Besides this, he is known to use his chainguns while doing so, thus it is paramount that your AC has enough mobility to avoid his chaingun attacks and also be able to keep a lock-on onto him most of the time. Running away from the chaingun barrages is a hard task even at best of times, these being both accurate and rapid. You have to dodge laterally as far as you can and periodically break the line of fire to minimize incoming damage. The chaingun rounds also deliver moderate thermal value, making it extra important to not get hit multiple times in a row. After a while of using his chainguns, Cypress will switch to his handgun and close the distance, which has a deadly amount of stun effect and heat stress. Just a few hits are going to send your AC into overheating state, making this weapon no less dangerous than the chainguns. It is also at this point where Cypress will try and close in on you and attempt to land a blade hit, so watch out for this. Not only he is adept with the blade and will strike fast whenever an opportunity presents itself, his melee attack is enhanced with a blade wave feature, ramping up its damage. Quickly get out of its way to avert this occurrence and you may get a chance at some backshots instead. It can be said that this opponent serves as a taste of what is to come in the B and A Ranking echelons of the Arena, all of them utilizing OP-INTENSIFY for various exploits - and Cypress is absolutely ruthless about his own chaingun abuse.

Although Cypress has multiple considerable advantages at his disposal, he is far from imprevious. His Shade AC, though fast, doesn't harbor enough durability to withstand a huge payload of punishment, so fast-firing weapons like the 1000 round machine gun work well against him, given that he also likes to fight mid-to-close range. Other weapons like his own handguns or rifles work on him too. Missiles may not very effective as he is equipped with anti-missile extensions. He also becomes easier to hit during his handgun assault - since he stays solely at the ground level during this phase - provided that you can escape his own cone of fire and not get blade rushed. His biggest threat are the chainguns that the abuses liberally when moving in all directions. Evading Cypress' chainguns turns the fight into a game of cat and mouse; once you are able to keep the pace required to escape their crosshairs, you may wait for Cypress to close in and make himself open in direct firefight. Enduring the fight until he runs out of ammo is not recommended, since his reserves are considerable and extremely difficult to dodge away (and even then, he remains a skilled blade user notwithstanding). If you are adept at close range combat, you may try to force Cypress to confront you with his handgun sooner if you stay near him - but if you do that, you better be highly skilled at side dodging. Fortunately, as Shade does not sport much armor, it will not endure that much shots - provided that you can nail them.

In Silent Line, Cypress appears in the mission Data Retrieval, and he is the 2nd Raven to be fought after you have taken down Ori. In contrast to his fighting style in AC3, he plays it safe and keeps a distance from you whenever he fights, and has a higher tendency of going airborne than he did before. The battle area also works against him, rendering Cypress unable to make full use of his AC's mobility, also making it likely that he backs up to a wall when dodging sideways on the floor and becomes easier to hit in the result. Moreover, do note that his AC is not up to full durability (he only has an estimated 5000 AP), so he is much easier to take down here than he was in AC3 Arena. After he takes a certain amount of punishment (to the point that he's about to die), Gold Bit shows up and you can just finish him off before facing her (or if you manage to kill Cypress before Gold Bit shows up, you can focus on her entirely).

Gallery[]

Etymology[]

The name Cypress refers to the name applied to many plants in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is a conifer of northern temperate regions.

The name Shade refers to the blocking of sunlight.

In Japanese however, his AC name Ten Commandments (テンコマンドメンッ), refer to a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship that play a fundamental role in Judaism and Christianity. This in a way, reflects Cypress' own religious reverence in the Controller.

Trivia[]

Cypress is the first Raven to have appeared in more than one game (with the exception of Nine-Ball) and played a part in the story.
In the mission Data Retrieval, if you kill Gold Bit first after she arrives and then kill Cypress as the last, his line of dialogue will be different (i.e. he will say "I'm finished...Recovery team....pull back...").
One of the few Ravens who make use purely of Crest parts on their ACs, besides Agraya and Genobee.
Cypress is one of the several Ravens that are shown to fight for the Controller, besides Fanfare, Huntress and Nocturne. However, although these three other Ravens also could be largely motivated by the usual corporate mission assignments for Mirage, Cypress' faith in the Controller extends past the ritual prayer and adherence to Crest (the corporation most closely aligned to the Controller). This is ultimately shown in the sequel, where Cypress is revealed to have been hiding right inside the central complex of the Controller, decades after the Layered has been unlocked to the surface world. This might be interpreted as Cypress' rejection of the changing world, to the point that he chooses to defend what remains of the Controller against a new Raven, that breaches its inner sanctum once again.