Having blasted through Armored Core 6 for review, I accidentally fell face-first into the most meta build during my time with the game: Double Zimmermans. The Zimmerman shotgun is an absolute beast that dominates the PvE portion of AC6 with incredibly high Impact and Direct Hit Adjustment values, all at a respectable range that even makes some machine guns blush. We all thought the reckoning was coming, but it looks like Fromsoftware has opted to go in a different direction: buffing the bad weapons (mostly machine guns, in this case).
The weapon buffs can be found below.
- Weapon Unit balance adjustments:
- MA-J-200 RANSETSU-RF: Increased attack power/rate of fire, decreased reload time.
- LR-036 CURTIS: Increased attack power, decreased reload time.
- RF-024 TURNER: Increased attack power/projectile speed, decreased reload time.
- RF-025 SCUDDER: Increased attack power/projectile speed, decreased reload time.
- MA-J-201 RANSETSU-AR: Increased attack power/projectile speed, decreased reload time.
- MG-014 LUDLOW: Increased attack power/total rounds/projectile speed, decreased recoil and reload time.
- DF-MG-02 CHANG-CHEN: Increased attack power/total rounds/projectile speed, decreased reload time.
- MA-E-210 ETSUJIN: Increased attack power/total rounds/projectile speed, decreased reload time.
As you can see, there are a lot of buffs on the menu. Mainly machine guns and assault rifles are being adjusted, with increased projectile speed, ammo, and decreased reload times. This should help them land shots during mid-range engagements, where they’re meant to excel. Before this patch, I had a very hard time getting them to perform consistently, so I’d just go feed my enemies shotgun shells up close.
Now fans of mid range engagements have far more options at their disposal, which is a welcomed change to Armored Core VI.
We didn’t only see weapon buffs this patch, as one tricky boss fight that had players stumped has been slightly reworked.
- Adjusted certain attacks performed by the enemy units AAP07: BALTEUS, IA-13: SEA SPIDER and IB-01: CEL240.
This is undoubtedly a net nerf: I can’t think of a single instance where Fromsoftware has made a boss more difficult post-release. Balteus has proven to be the bane of many a fresh Armored Core player, so maybe this will ease the onboarding just a bit.
