Introduction to Armored Core

What Is Armored Core?[]

Armored Core is a mecha genre franchise produced by Japanese game developer FROM SOFTWARE. It is a game franchise, spanning 14 video game titles (not including Playstation Portable remakes) and some books, as well as scale model kits. For people new to the Armored Core universe, the vast amount of information may be challenging to get a grip on, but we're here to help!

What is the plot of Armored Core?[]

The basics of an Armored Core game is to customize and pilot a giant mechanized fighting machine called an Armored Core (or AC for short). The pilots of Armored Cores are generally mercenaries employed by corporations to do their dirty work. Generally speaking, the story behind each entry in the Armored Core series is mostly self contained, a larger plot line can be seen between some games, such as Armored Core 3 and Silent Line: Armored Core.

What is an Armored Core?[]

An Armored Core is a giant mechanized fighting machine. Armored Cores are designed to be modular, meaning that their parts are interchangeable and can be set up to accommodate varying combat situations. Armored cores are composed of the following components;

Core: The central part of an AC, the Core, is important as it largely determines what kind of AC you will have. A heavier core has more armor but lacks the number of Optional Part slots than an AC can equip while lighter cores feature more slots but less armor
Head: A very important part, the Head determines what kind of sensors a head has along with the radar and it's range. The more advanced heads aren't well armored but feature a wide suite of features. Heavily armored heads typically lack these features, meaning they also require less power during use.
Arms: These are important choice in that they come in two categories: Arms and Weapon Arms. The standard set of Arms are broken down by weight classes. Lighter arms are more accurate while heavier arms have more health. Weapon Arms are rather unique in that they have low health and overall defense is questionable, but are often more accurate, manouverable, have more ammunition and lower EN drain than standard arms equipped with weapons of similar power.
Legs
F.C.S.: A system that aids in targeting enemies.
Generator
Boosters: An imortant part of many AC's introduced in Armored Core 2, boosters increase the movement speed of a unit. They are also used to evade attacks from enemies
Right Arm Weapon: A weapon equiped in the right arm of the AC.
Left Arm Weapon: A weapon equipped in the left arm of the AC.
Back Weapon Right: Back weaponry attached to the AC behind the torso, on the respective side.
Back Weapon Left: Back weaponry attached to the AC behind the torso, on the respective side.
Optional Parts: Optional parts are parts equipped to the AC that add certain benefits ( Increased generator capacity, Reduce shell damage, etc.)

This list is based upon the part slot line up from the original Armored Core. Additional part slots exist throughout the Armored Core series. Some part slots listed are not available in all Armored Core games.

As of AC4 and AC:FA, the functions of each part has changed drasticly, the game series taking what seems to be the final shape as it comes to what parts are meant to do what.

Legs:[]

Biped, two legged: Normal legs, types are: Light, Middle and Heavy, Light are close combat types with good mobility. Middle models have more armor, better health and greater load capacity.

Reverse jointed: designed for air combat with light overall EN drain and the ability to "jump" higher than all other leg types:

Tank Type: Massive armored fortresses, slow but capable of rolling straight through all but the heaviest bombardements without trouble, able to carry.

Quad legged: Heavy Legs with high EN drain and huge weight, outwaged by impressive load capacity, unmatched turning ability and stability.

Note: Biped legs and reverse jointed legs must kneel when using back weapons ( except missiles, rockets and orbits).

Arms:[]

With the lightwheight AC models, the Light Arm has become more of a specialized close combat part designed for low EN use, good mobility, but able to handle only lighter weapons.

Heavy arms still have the most health but now have better accuracy, lower mobility but can wield heavier weapons.

Middle arms: Specialized for different tasks, Sniper types have almost silly accurracy but their ability to wield Energy weaponry is severely limited.

Close combat versions: Heavier lightweights with greater EN drain, enhanced protection, weapon stability (decreases recoil from weapons and determines how a heavy weapon affect the arm's movement speed, the more stable the arm, the less the weapon's weight decreases arm movement speed), but generally lacks adequate protection.

All round Arms: manufactured primarily byRosenthal as of both AC4 and AC:FA, these arms have no real strenghts, but nor do they have any real weaknesses, good with any weapon types, they allow for many different fighting styles to be used during the same attack

Standard Arms:[]

Not a real arm model, these are arms simply designed to use the weapons avaliable from the designer company, designed to be effective at mid-range combat.[]

The Interior Union has arms designed to enhance EN weapon damage while using very little EN, good with EN weapons, bad with solid shell weapons as it has a very low stability due to being designed for EN weapons wich has low or no recoil.

GA Has allways used solid shell weaponry with good power and ammo count, thus they need arms that can carry relatively heavy weapons, lacking EN compatibility as a result.

Rayleonard Heavy Industries (wich ended up as just "Rayleonard " when the firm became specialized at AC development) uses mid to close combat weapons like machineguns and blades (aswell as plasma cannons from Akvavit) requiring arms with mobility and EN compatibility. These abilities does have their downsides though, and the 03 arm model has both EN requirments that would make most generator designers quit their jobs, aswell as the lousiest accuracy of all arm parts in AC4 (surpassed in AC:FA by the ultralight X-SOBRERO arm)

Heads:[]

The Head part has not changed very much compared to other parts, as all other main part types, thare are Light, Middle, and Heavy models. The head contain the main computer systems and its capabilities affect the entire craft's overall system stability.

Light: Light heads, these heads have little armor and their sensors are quite bad, not exactly the best for long range combat. They do however recover very quickly when knocked out (sensors may be knocked out fo some time by a bright flash, the whole system might have to be reset after a grenade hit and so on).

Middle: Designed for different combat styles, they have more armor than Light heads, and have room for more sophisticated sensors (Sniper models) aswell as having better backup sustems (in case the craft is knocked off balance by a grenade).

Some Head parts (Like that of White Glint in ACFA, or that of the TYPE-LAHIRE ) can also retract their visual sensors to shield them from flash-based interference.

Heavy: Heavy heads with lots of health and huge ammounts of armor plating, that's about all they have, but don't underestimate them.

PLUS Or Not to PLUS That Is the Question[]

Human PLUS (OP-INTESIFY in Armored Core 3) is an upgrade that the player character can achieve, via mechanical enhancements, that increases the performance of an AC.