Part 5: A Choice is Made

Directly following from last time, this post has only one mission and is shorter than previous ones, but it is important as it determines the type of missions we’ll be receiving for the rest of the game. And the mission we are going to take is…

Secret Factory Recon! Murakumo Millenium won the vote, so we’ll be supporting them. The briefing again so you know what we’re doing this time.


Our intelligence has determined that Chrome has an underground factory in the snowy region of Whiteland. We plan to send our Special Forces to destroy the factory.

We are looking for someone to scout out the entrance to the factory in advance of the attack. Your mission is to find the point of entry and destroy the door lock system.

There is no particular need to engage the enemy, but we will pay an 800 C bonus per enemy MT destroyed.

The main force will attack 6 minutes after you start, so your executing the mission within this time limit is absolutely necessary for the surprise attack to succeed.
Due to its nature, this mission will be a night maneuver.


We’ve got six minutes to find the lock, which is more than enough time for finding that, the hidden part, and destroying as many enemies as we can with our KARASAWA. Let’s get to it.

Secret Factory Recon



First order of business is to find the secret part in this mission.



This is one you need to be careful with when acquiring because it’s on the edge of the area, and crossing over the red border will forfeit the mission. In the southwest corner past a gun battery is a box. Destroying it reveals the part. We’ll take it and proceed with the main objective.


This mission has nine Tiger Moths and six gun batteries. Obviously destroying them all isn’t a priority, but each kill gives us an 800 credit bonus and getting as many as we can with our limited ammo would be wise.


There’s the lock switch to the factory. All it takes is one shot to destroy it.



And with that, the mission is over, with around 4 minutes to spare. They were quite generous with the time limit on this one.


We didn’t get all the enemies, but 7200 as a bonus more than makes up for the 4095 in expenses for AC repairs. Nothing really lost on this one.

Now, Murakumo has sent us a new email, so let’s check it.


The success was all thanks to you.

It was a beautiful job.

I wish that Chrome would change their tactics, even a little. They are too forceful, don’t you agree?

The right leaders are necessary in order for all of humanity to be able to return above-ground.

Chrome is not suited for this.

A simple congratulation for our work in the last mission. I’m not particularly fond with the tone of the message trying to sound too friendly, but it’s probably better than having to deal with Chrome’s PR.

Now, even though we’ve done our one mission for today, we have something else important to cover here in this update. The Ranking system.

I originally had a lead in for introducing the Ranking screen by completing the Attack Urban Center mission, but that disappeared after completing the other missions available, and since we won’t be able to access it again until all missions are unlocked after beating the game, well, I might as well explain what it’s about.

To describe the original context, the Attack Urban Center mission requires you to go on a rampage in Fortgarden city and you get paid for how much damage you cause, but that’s not the interesting part. In the last minute of the mission, you fight against Losvaize, piloting the AC Valkyrie and is the #2 ranked Raven in the Nest. To put it simply, the fight is fucking tough. Not only do you have to deal with Fortgarden City guard before hand, a powerful AC is thrown into the mix, and the mission only ends when you survive the three minutes you are supposed to be active in the area for. But it is possible to defeat Valkyrie if you’re prepared, and it’ll be necessary if you want to be the #1 ranked Raven.

Here’s the email you receive after the mission concerning the encounter with Valkyrie (dug up from an old 100% save I have on the side).


This means that sometimes Ravens may fight against each other.

This time, you fought against the ranking Raven “Losvaize”.

He is one of our top-ranked Ravens. You should consider yourself lucky to have escaped with your life.

I’ll be in touch.

Even though you can destroy Valkyrie during the mission, the email you get from “R” makes it sound like you survived long enough for the mission to end instead of defeating the AC. I guess FROM figured most people wouldn’t be able to destroy it their first time.



Anyway, this is the ranking Raven leader board, as of the point we are at now in the game. While it only lists the top 10, there are more Ravens that show up as the game continues. And with the exception of three Ravens on the list, you do not fight against these ranked ACs at any point. Obviously you do fight more Ravens during the missions, but they never show up at any point under Ranking. So who are the three ranked ACs we end up facing during the game?


As mentioned before, the first one is Losvaize, and whether or not you defeat him/her in Attack Urban Center will determine whether or not Valkyrie is removed from the leader board and you move up in rank.


The second one is Mizuho Kamui, piloting the Kamui mk. 17. He appears in the mission Destroy Plane Computer, but that’s not likely to come up until post game due to supporting Murakumo. And who’s the third Raven we face?

Hustler One. Nine-Ball.


I have nothing to say regarding this particular character, because his time has not come yet. Any Armored Core fan who’s played the hell out of these games will know who he is and what he represents. And if you don’t know why he, or his emblem for that matter, is as significant as he is, you’ll see.


You will fucking see...

That’s all I wanted to show for this update. We’ll be going through our new set of missions next time, as well as picking up some extra parts for our AC since we have tons of money to spare right now.

I’ll be in touch.

Edit: I miscounted, there are five Ravens on the leader board you face during missions. The remaining two are Boss Savage, piloting the AC Sledgehammer, and Barutazaru, piloting the AC Fefnir.