Armored Core 5 Walkthrough Part 13: Chapter 00 Part 1

This will be your first real story mission. By now, you should have collected plenty of AU from completing side missions across the world map. Put this money to good use before heading into this mission. Purchase powerful Rifles, Energy Blades, Shotguns and Missiles before you start this mission up, and customize your AC to be as heavy or light as you feel comfortable piloting. You will be facing off against the Resistance, a group of rebels who are battling against your government-mandated ACs. The main enemy forces here will consist of tanks, Defense ACs, and helicopters, although you will have to battle several bosses over the course of this lengthy mission as well.

The Resistance’s attempts at overthrowing the government have largely failed already at this point. Now, they are just trying to mount a retreat before they are utterly obliterated by the government forces. Time to retreat means time to regroup and strengthen, though, so this is something that you cannot allow to happen. With half of its forces decimated in recent attacks, the Resistance will try to escape and counterattack from the west. You will have to destroy some of the key leaders of the Resistance and ensure that the others do not have the opportunity to escape.

The mission will begin with a cutscene. The city will be engulfed in chaos as the Resistance attempts their escape. Numerous ACs will be dropped into the crumbling city to clean up the remaining enemies. You will be one of those ACs, dropped from a helicopter onto a ruined highway leading into the city. Although much of the fighting is now over, you will still have to contend with a serious amount of enemy forces here. In addition to the stated objectives, which you will receive soon, you will have to destroy ten helicopters, ten tanks, and ten Defense ACs. This shouldn’t be too hard, though, since the enemy forces will be thick in the city. Boost down the highway, destroying cars and concrete barriers that lie in your way as you go. You will soon reach the first enemy blockade, right under one of the highway signs. There will be four tanks at this barricade. Destroy them before they have the chance to fire back, and weave back and forth between their shells if they do get a chance to fire.

Keep boosting down the highway. Radio chatter will ask about the whereabouts of the Chief as you approach the next enemy blockade underneath an array of highway exit signs. Four more tanks will make up this next blockade. Dodge back and forth as best as you can in these tight quarters, returning fire on the weak tanks to destroy them. Watch out for the helicopter steadily advancing from the upper left as you pass the flaming remnants of the tanks. Shoot the helicopter down and proceed. Two more tanks will wait in the mess of abandoned cars ahead. Blast them from medium range, and then look to the upper right to find another helicopter advancing from behind the skyscrapers there. Blast it out of the sky with your Rifle.

Once the helicopters and tanks are dead, continue to boost down the highway. As you pass the piles of shipping containers in the right lane of the highway, look above you. Three more helicopters will be circling directly above your AC. Lock on to them and bring them sputtering down to the highway, where they will crash and explode. Immediately look back down at the highway after killing the helicopters. A Defense AC will burst through the rubble in front of you and open fire on you with a Chaingun. Get in close and take it down with an Energy Blade attack before it can do too much damage. At the next bend in the highway, you will encounter two more tanks. Blast them with your Rifle and continue onwards. You will soon come across a ruined segment of the highway that droops down into the streets below. Jump across the chasm in the highway to reach the other side, and shoot the two helicopters overhead as they try to flee. After you have defeated the helicopters, HQ will contact you with instructions to find a large helicopter on the ground. This helicopter will be used to evacuate members of the resistance. You will have to destroy it, and four others like it before they get a chance to leave with the survivors.

A new route will be uploaded to your GPS. Follow it to where a skyscraper has fallen onto the highway, crushing it. Drop down to the right of the highway and follow the blue path into the city streets. You will find two more tanks and a Defense AC in the street directly ahead of you. Watch out for the Defense AC’s Chaingun and be sure to keep up a constant weaving pattern to avoid the tank’s shells. Take down the Defense AC first, because it is the strongest of the enemies on the street. Once it is dead, focus your attention on the two tanks in front of you. When all of the enemies in the street are dead, look ahead. A Resistance transport helicopter will hover over the park around the corner to the right ahead of you. Bring it crashing down with sustained Rifle and Missile fire. This will be the first escape helicopter taken care of. You will now have to find and kill the other four.

Follow the route to the right, down the street. Watch out as you pass by the barricade of downed helicopters to the left. A Defense AC will emerge ahead of you and attack. Weave around its Chaingun fire, or jump and boost over it to get behind it. Hit the enemy from the sides or the back to circumvent its frontal shielding and destroy it with ease. When the Defense AC is dead, hurry forward to find the second helicopter picking up Resistance members from the middle of the street ahead. Shoot it down just like you did the last one. When the helicopter hits the ground, prepare for battle as a cutscene begins.