Welcome to the extra episode of the Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon trophy guide—a preface designed to help streamline your 100% completion journey. While not mandatory for the guide itself, this section distills essential meta-information to keep each episode tight and focused, while also offering clarity on some of the more complex or easily overlooked aspects of the game. Consider this your behind-the-scenes prep talk before diving headfirst into Rubicon’s chaos.
Overall Difficulty: 6/10
Armored Core 6 isn’t brutal across the board. It spikes early—mainly due to the unusual control scheme and a formidable boss within the first five minutes. Once you adjust and start upgrading your AC, the game gets significantly easier. In fact, about 90% of the game becomes fairly straightforward as your mech evolves into a high-powered tank. Even the most demanding S-ranks late in the game hover around a 6/10 in difficulty. The true challenge is upfront—once you’re through it, the rest is manageable.
Grinding Rating: 2/10
There’s virtually no grinding required for Platinum. Repetition is minimal, and anything that doesn’t directly contribute to trophy objectives is rare. The only reason it’s not a perfect 0/10 is due to potential income disparities—reward payouts might vary slightly depending on your playstyle, so you may need to replay a mission or two just to afford specific parts. Also, S-ranking every mission isn’t likely to happen on your first try, which adds light repetition.
Missable Trophies Explained
Due to multiple playthroughs being necessary, defining “missable” becomes nuanced. For this guide, a missable trophy is any that would require more than the minimum of three playthroughs to achieve. Here are the key ones to be aware of:
- Fires of Raven and Liberator of Rubicon: These are tied to the two main endings. Choose wisely—getting one twice without getting the other will require an extra playthrough.
- Alea Iacta Est and MIA: Both related to the secret third ending and can be missed if you refuse to assist ALLMIND.
- Perfect Mercenary and Stargazer: Require unlocking and S-ranking all missions—fail to get the endings and exclusive missions, and you won’t be able to meet these requirements.
- Combat Log Collector, Weapon Collector, External/Internal Parts Collector, and Asset Holder: All of these rely on exclusive missions unlocked through branching paths.
- Master of Arena and Tuning Expert: The last three Arena fights appear in NG++ but disappear if you reach the third ending too early.
None of these are hard to manage as long as you follow the guide’s mission order. Collectibles are always replayable as long as you’ve unlocked the mission.
Important Systems and Playthrough Structure
- Three Playthroughs Required: The secret ending is locked behind New Game++ (NG++). There’s no shortcut—you must play through the campaign three times.
- Cloud Saves Are Not Useful: Due to how story progression works, using cloud backups won’t help. Everything must be earned legitimately.
Time to Platinum: ~11 Hours (Without Cutscenes)
The guide runner clocked an 18-hour total run including all cutscenes and dialogues. Skipping those brings the total completion time to around 11 hours. Keep in mind this assumes efficient mission order and familiarity with the game’s mechanics.
AC Builds Matter More Than You Think
Your Armored Core isn’t just cosmetic—it’s a 12-part machine of death. While this episode doesn’t dive into deep stats or comparisons, know that your build defines your success. This guide favors a heavyweight tank setup, prioritizing survivability and raw damage to make most missions significantly easier.
That said, expect situational flexibility. Some missions require high mobility, and you’ll be swapping parts as needed. If you want deeper part analysis, creators like Cryde have great content exploring weapon stats and optimal builds.
Understanding S-Ranks
To unlock the Perfect Mercenary trophy, you must S-rank every mission. The game grades you from D to S based on three key factors:
- Completion time
- Ammo consumption
- Damage taken
Important: Dying voids your S-rank, even if you checkpoint and finish the mission afterward. To earn an S, you must clear the mission in one uninterrupted run.
Some missions are tight on all three grading criteria. In these rare cases, killing extra enemies increases your score and becomes a near-mandatory hidden requirement. Though not normally efficient, this tactic can bridge the gap when you’re falling just short of the S-rank threshold.
Closing Thoughts
From boss fights to branching paths, Armored Core 6 is more manageable than it looks—if you’re prepared. Follow the guide, adjust your builds smartly, and don’t stress over grinding or collectibles. Every trophy is achievable with planning and some mech-based brute force.
That wraps the pre-run breakdown. Next up: the actual mission guide. Time to boot up, dive in, and melt some metal. Good luck, merc.
My Gaming Tutorials 
Leave a comment