As Armored Core 6 players finally make their way past the tutorial boss and finish getting filtered by Balteus, a disturbing trend has surfaced in the community. A lot of y'all aren't doing your training missions, and you really should.
Reddit user TrefoilTang noticed that, according to Steam achievement data, only 32.9% of Armored Core 6 players have finished all the tutorial missions while 35.4% have beaten a notoriously difficult mission in Chapter 2, which I believe you unlock after the last tutorial. Even in a vacuum, the fact that only a third of Steam players – and likely a similar portion of console players – have done all the tutorials concerns me.
First of all, a few of these tutorial missions give you some really good mech parts for free. They don't even unlock them for purchase in the shop; you just get them. And they're strong! The generator you get for free is so good that I used it for most of the mid-game on my first playthrough, and it's not the only standout component.
Secondly, the training missions are super helpful. As I said in my Armored Core 6 review, this is an extremely technical game, and short of a physical reference book bundled with the disc, the training missions are the best crash course you're going to get. Even if you're already comfortable with combat, I'm willing to bet you'll learn a thing or two about other play styles and weapon types. The training missions showed me that I can really vibe with the drifting, tank style of mech, for example. But again, do it for the free stuff if nothing else.
Armored Core 6 has flown past all the Dark Souls games to become FromSoftware's second-biggest Steam launch behind Elden Ring. Its launch rush has seen lots of players use its absurd decal maker to create and share custom art based on everything from Elden Ring to Batman, and also anime porn.
Here's another PSA for you: because FromSoftware can't help itself, this sword is better than any gun in Armored Core 6.
