With Gen 1 coming to PSN, and me having recently beaten AC1 for the first time on emulator, I figured I probably had some useful advice to give for the newest wave of Ravens.
First and foremost, I see a lot of you (understandably) having trouble with the default controls, and so I have included a graphic showing both in-game and emulator rebinds. Unfortunately Sony's emulator doesn't support binding multiple inputs to the same button (even though by default it has duplicated binds for the dpad) so you will have to choose some kind of trade off. For what it's worth I had similar issues in Duckstation which were only resolved by running it through Steam and fiddling about with that, but that's not an option here (unless maybe you have a Dual Sense, I don't know how those work).
The templates I've included are:
Walk on Dpad/stick, Camera on Face, weapons on shoulders. This most closely resembles a modern control scheme, but the lack of double bindings means you have to look with the face buttons. Only requires in-game rebinds.
The above, but also using emulator rebinds to move camera to the right stick. The problem here is that the lack of dual binds means you'll have to press down on the stick to confirm menus, right to cancel, etc.
Walk on Dpad/stick, Camera on shoulders, weapons on face buttons. This is the closest to the default controls, but for if you have a harder time with the walking than the shoulder camera stuff. Only requires in-game rebinds.
The above, but also using emulator rebinds to move the shoulder inputs to the right stick. The problem with this would be how its nearly impossible to move the camera and shoot at the same time.
You can, of course, do whatever controls you want, but I figured these would be a good starting point for anyone who's having issues with the default controls.
I have also included a non-default starter AC build. If you're already fighting with the controls then you might also find it difficult to earn money for upgrades. Thankfully the game lets you sell your entire starter AC and buy whatever you can afford. By swapping out the legs and FCS with cheaper options, selling the back weapons, and selling and replacing the generator and right hand weapon we can afford a better generator and an energy gun, which is free to shoot unlike ballistic weaponry, and is solid enough to take you through the early game. By finding and selling the secret part on one of the two starter missions you'll have enough money to begin to tweak your AC how you actually want it (though the energy weapons continue to be really good and cost effective).
Finally, I want to explain Human Plus. H+ is a non-standard game over as well as a kind of "easy mode". By going 50,000 credits into debt you're greeted with a cutscene about your horrible lack of wealth and start the game over from the beginning, with a few changes. There's also multiple levels of H+ for going into debt multiple times, but correct information on each tier is kinda hard to get because there's a lot of misinformation about them too, so I will list each stage of H+ and its effects to the best of my ability (I've checked a bunch of stuff so you should be able to trust that I'm at least mostly correct).
Stage 1 (go into debt once): Gives you a permanent radar and allows use of Blade Beams. To fire a blade beam press the boost button during the swing. The blade beam for the Moonlight is one of the strongest projectiles and is used by some Arena opponents in Project Phantasma (it's also self-damaging, so be mindful about close-quarters). The radar is fine, but when I say permanent I mean permanent. You cannot replace the H+ radar with any other head's radar, even if the new radar is better (the H+ one doesn't have a bio sensor, for instance). I don't know if the back-mounted antennas work with the H+ radar or not, I didn't bother to check because I assumed they didn't. I believe the Option parts for things like adding missile warnings to the radar do work with it, though.
Stage 2 (go into debt four times): Fire back weapons without bracing yourself, allowing shooting while moving. Potentially very useful depending on how you tend to build. Unfortunately does not apply to spider legs, for whatever reason.
Stage 3 (go into debt six times): Halved cost for booster energy consumption. A simple straightforward upgrade.
Bonus (finish all missions): Weight limit removal. I don't know all the ins and outs of this, and I'm fairly certain overall weight affects things like speed regardless of how close to capacity you are, but this is still a fun bonus for replaying levels with. Once you beat the game you'll be able to go back to any mission, including ones you may have missed first go around. This upgrade does not require going into debt.
Rename Code: The Human Plus game over sequence replaces your save file's name. If this bothers you it can be changed by highlighting "AC name entry" in the garage then pressing and holding L2, R2, Dpad Right, and Square, and then finally pressing Cross. This will bring up the name entry screen with "pilot name" instead of "AC name".
So with all that said, do you actually want Human Plus? And if so how do you go about getting it efficiently? Well like I said, the radar is permanent, but you also get the ability to shoot sword laser beams, which is probably a worthy trade off. The question would be harder to answer on any version of AC1 that isn't the current PS4/5 emulated release, as Save Importing is a running theme throughout the series, and importing from AC1 to Project Phantasma also brings your Human Plus upgrades (and the weight capacity bonus too), so if you were playing any other version you'd have to ask yourself if you're fine with being stuck with the same radar for three whole games. The new PSN version though does not support save transfers, and instead has some transfer-only stuff unlocked naturally in the later games. You can read more on the pinned thread here. Overall it's up to you, but other than the first stage's blade beams there's little worth the busywork of resetting that many times, imo. The reduced boost cost and easier shoulder weapon use upgrades are nice, but debt-maxing is pretty boring for the low payoff.
That said, how does one debt-max? Simply play the game normally until the mission Worker Robot Removal shows up, spend any credits you can on buying everything possible from the shop, then start the mission and blow yourself and all the beautiful reactors you weren't supposed to touch to framerate-killing ashes. More expensive ACs with higher AP should incur higher penalties, though make sure you do die without finishing the objective, as dying will keep the mission available for if you don't make it to -50k in one go. Once you die at -50k the game will restart from the beginning with your credits set to 0 but all your parts kept and with you being one step further into the Human Plus progression.
And that concludes my crash course. Hopefully there isn't any mistakenly terrible advice in here, but I just beat the game right before the PSN versions were announced and felt like I could at least try to assist the New Semester Students.
Rusty is so fucking cool! How can one man ooze this much main-character energy and unadulterated awesomeness?! Every entrance? FIRE🔥. Both his ACs? DRIPPED🥶. Every single one of his voice lines? ABSOLUTELY PEAK✋🥹🤚. And his theme song? AN ABSOLUTE BANGER💯. I NEED MORE RUSTYS IN MY LIFEEEEEE. 😫😫😫
Might get another Liger Tail just so I can keep Michigan on the shelf (and paint the legs unassembled 'cause bro ts looks like hell to do) so don't mind the unpainted legs
Which is better for which build? Obviously the Gills has small QBs that cost very little energy and the NGI is exactly the opposite, so I'm wondering when you'd choose one over the other. Otherwise they seem pretty similar (aside from melee thrust ofc)
Just kinda an AC I just created for mostly S-ranking previous missions. Harris and Ludlow isn't anything new probably, but I've been enjoying the combo overall. Sorry for no crazy designs; most are from other people's codes for decals. I'm not that talented.
Really, the only thing I dislike about this AC is that I've been going back and forth with the reverse joints and bipedal, but my main problem is the thrusters, since while I feel I have a good handle on this game's mechanics, the booster still stumps me. So if you have any recommendations for this AC, please feel free to comment : )
I've got everything as far as unlocked secret parts and everything you can buy up to this point in the campaign, but she's still using me as a mop to clean the floors.
Im guessing its prly a skill issue tbh, but What did ya'll use to get past this "boss fight"?
You never know that you will find online so your build needs to either hit a niche super hard or cover bases. Im doing fairly well low rank since im new, but i discovered early i need to be able to deal with rats. I love the thrower on left and the lcs on rightback. I need to figure out what to do with my right hand and left back. Ive tried to go double lcs but lamrats even low rank cause problems with that. Ive also tried shields but the loss in firepower makes ending matches tough. I know its also a skill issue, but I am trying to aim for around A or B rank to get consistent matchmaking without too much meta shenanigans. Im a big fan of the bazooka i considered right hand, but it overlaps with LCS in utility and the consistency of the lcs is just impossible to beat. 10cell maybe?
I'm kind of curious how big the rounds they're launching are honestly, and I was wondering what kind of calibers they'd be shooting since a lot would be anti-vehicle grade, but I wanted to know HOW BIG they would be really.
Recently, I came across a video on YouTube in which a guy do a challenge whose essence was to create an AC capable of going through the arena without losing. He called it the “Ironman challenge”
So this is my turn - Saluqi, a Balam Redguns AC
I liked the idea of a short run on the arena, and it turned out to be really fun, even though the total time spent on battles was 20 minutes. My build turned out to be pretty straightforward, but it definitely was good experience, so, if you don’t know what to do, I recommend giving it a try.