Part 5: Project Phantasma - Chapter 5: Destruction (Arena Ranks #19 - 10)
Another split in the campaign where we can pick one of two missions to progress the plot. As always, we'll be going for the one that has the slightly higher pay.
We need you to completely destroy the Doomsday Organization
detachment.
The detachment has been seen gathering in the downtown area of Amber
Crown.
Their intent is currently unknown, but it's a perfect opportunity for
us. We're hoping that if the detachment is destroyed, Project Phantasma
will fall through.
Nothing like a little ambush on the enemy.
And now we start against the first of three waves of enemies in this mission. Three Tauruses sit there doing nothing while the two Ogres do most of the fighting.
The buildings are good at providing cover if you need to avoid fire. Though this level if anything likes to chug a bit in framerate.
Sumika informs us of reinforcements arriving, as we've finished the first third of this assignment.
This time, Eagails are thrown into the mix with more Ogres.
Third wave throws the last group of Ogres at us and I try to clear them out with the back cannon.
Although one of them gets in close and actually uses its melee attack on me. Has a bit of knock back to it.
And that's the end of that. About half a million in credits now, not counting all the random parts I bought for the arena and money earned from ranked fights.
Got a new message for us from Sumika. She's been mailing us a lot lately.
Sender: Sumika
As you know, their detachment
has been destroyed, and their
power source eliminated.
We will now conduct the assault
operation as planned.
Well, now we know the basic idea of what our next mission is going to be.
We request that you begin an assault on the Doomsday Organization's
HQ.
We have recently heard that they are near completion on a new weapons
system code-named "Project Phantasma".
Before the project is on-line, sneak into the main office and extract
detailed data about the project from their computer system.
The target is located in the lower room of the office complex. On your
way, destroy all obstructions as you see fit.
This will be an extended mission, so prepare your AC ammunition stores
accordingly.
This is the first long mission we've had since rescuing Sumika. Though we don't need to carry as much ammo as the briefing would imply.
Back underground, we go.
But first, and elevator ride.
The primary enemy we'll be facing here are the Nashorns. They've not been seen since the second mission of the game, and back then we only came across two. This time though, there are a total of 100 of these things that appear throughout the mission, but killing them all isn't a requirement.
They also don't attack immediately and die in one hit, so they're not very threatening.
There are also ceiling turrets posted at various places throughout the base, and they can be a bit more annoying.
We find another elevator later on descend further into the base.
Eventually you reach this part of the level where there are multiple corridors and rooms that don't lead to anywhere but more enemies. I had briefly forgotten to go down the correct path and spent a minute or two blowing up Nashorns.
Once we reach the destination, cutscene time!
Sumika goes through the door to do computer stuff...
We're introduced to a new enemy type, the Papagai. It's a very similar design to the battle rigs, and flies around everywhere firing its missiles and machine guns. We have to hold out against 8 of these things until Sumika finishes her business.
Any second now.
Now we leave, and conveniently all our ammo is refilled, and we never came close to running out prior.
The rest of the mission is just retracing the steps we took to get to this point and return to the exit. Until we get outside at least.
Yep, we're outside now right as the place is being bombed to hell.
And we've got one last enemy type to deal with, three Heat Waves. They're a returning type from Armored Core 1, and it originally appeared in a mission where we had to kill a Human PLUS that had gone rogue.
And, that's the end of that one. Doesn't feel quite like the end of things, though.
Once again, Sumika's got another message from us.
Sender: Sumika
The Doomsday Organization
has essentially been destroyed. We
are assuming that their contributor
was the one who bombed the HQ
and sent out paratroopers to take
care of the rest.
It seems as if they wanted to
destroy all evidence of
the Phantasma Project.
With that set of missions done, on to the next batch of Arena fights.
Arena Ranks #19 - 10
These ten fights was where I started to get my shit kicked in the more I tried to experiment with AC builds, so as a result, these are all on the same cavern stage just to keep the ranked ACs from flying all over the place. I do show off some more of weapon arms though, primarily machine gun and energy cannons. Also, all of these ranked AC are PLUS capable, so it's a whole bunch of rule breakers we're dealing with.
Starting off with the AW-XC65 energy cannons and I have two M118-TDs equipped to double the amount of ammo. These things have the highest attack power of weapon arms from the original Armored Core but also extremely high energy drain. Having the optional part that cuts energy consumption in half is wise to use in this case.
Reward: 49000 C
This guy has the exact same arm weapons we have, and the WM-L201 missile launcher on its back deals quite a bit of damage on its own as well (it's attack power is 4300 points). It being a heavyweight AC doesn't stop it from being threatening, but moving around quickly in a level like this is to player's advantage.
Reward: 51000 C
Special Part: AW-DC/2
Sadistic is the first member of the Scorpion AC team, and is the first PLUS opponent to demonstrate the ability to fire energy waves from a laser blade swing. Since he has the Moonlight blade equipped, this makes these blasts hurt a ton. The rest of his weapons aren't that big of a concern though.
Finishing this fight nets us a new part that boasts the single highest attack power of any weapon arm part. They're dual grenade launchers, and have less ammo than the current weapon arms I'm using, but I don't make use of them later on because the energy beams did a better job of dealing damage to enemies. The grenades still fall under shell damage, and some ACs have considerable defense against solid attacks.
Reward: 52000 C
This was one of the faster fights I finished, but Gepard's arm weapons and back mounted grenade launchers (the fucker had the audacity to equip two of them) all deal significant damage both directly and through splash damage. His speed is still hampered by have tank treads, so while he can get a good aim on you, keeping him in sight is just as easy.
Reward: 54000 C
A breath of fresh air after hard hitters that were the last few fights. He uses a lot of similar parts to what I used in the past, but both his sword waves and KARASAWA shots aren't difficult to dodge.
Reward: 56000 C
I think I set a new record for myself with fastest time completed on an Arena fight. Slick's loadout is similar to Gepard, but aside from the opening attack, he seemed to barely doing anything. Still, less than 20 seconds, holy shit.
Rank description has changed, and with that we're swapping out the energy cannons for the AW-GT2000 gatling guns. Single attack power doesn't matter much when these things shoot so fast that the damage adds up.
Reward: 62000 C
Kind of a similar situation as the last fight, but only slightly longer if only because of me using gatling guns rather than energy cannons. I started to wonder at this point whether the game was starting to go easy on me after that bullshit with ranks #19-17.
Reward: 70000 C
Seeker has machine gun weapon arms, and this fight is as much of a DPS race as you could imagine. Though he does mix things up by firing his back mounted missiles.
Reward: 75000 C
One thing to note regarding the ACs named Panzern is that they're all tank types. He's not the most maneuverable or accurate with his cannon arms, so he goes down after taking a steady stream of bullets.
Reward: 81000 C
This guy moves around a hell of a lot, and he also is a machine gun weapon arm user. Also, while I said at the start that this stretch of opponents are all Human PLUS, this guy oddly enough is an exception. He has the back mounted chain gun, but has to stand in place in order to use it.
Reward: 90000 C
Special Part: RZ-Fw2
Guy's similar to the last Scorpion AC we fought. Keep moving, continue firing, don't let it deal more damage than you are. Beating this AC earns us a new AC part in the form of a radar. It's the best one of its kind, having the highest range and its own radar type known as octagon. Most radars usually display the data on the hud as either a square or circle, so instead whenever we use it our radar on screen will be octagon shaped. Pretty nice.
You're goddamn right I'm not gonna quit. There's only nine more ACs left above us.