Armored Core 5 Walkthrough Part 9: Order 7

After a brief stint fighting against the Migrant Flame Fly AC, you will be back to battling against the former city police in this next Order mission. This time, the main enemy force will consist of Recon AC Units. These are new enemies that demand a new strategy, but more on that later. As usual, you will be able to bring in up to two units to assist you.  This is the first of the Order missions that will really demand careful play, and while you certainly won’t need to bring in any other ACs to get your back in order to come out victorious, more aggressive or rash players may benefit from having a mercenary follow them into battle, just to act as a distraction. Also note that the previous strategy of simply dodging the enemy’s fire while launching back a few salvos of your own will not work against the Recon ACs. They’re just too fast. You might want to consider going into the maintenance menu to do a little work on your AC before taking this mission on, especially if yours isn’t as fast as you’d like.

In this Order, the former city police have deployed a wave of Recon Units into an abandoned desert facility. Watch out for their dodges and dashes, and kill them all. When you begin the mission, HQ will warn you that these Recon ACs are more powerful than anything you will have faced so far. She will mark three waypoints on your map on various sides of the desert. You will have to destroy the enemy forces occupying all three in order to win. The closest waypoint will be a mere 600 meters to your left, down the train tracks that curve around in that direction. They will immediately start by launching artillery fire at you. Boost towards them, down the train tracks, to avoid it. Loop around the tracks to reach the enemy encampment nestled in the desert hills. Avoid going over the hills at all costs, as it will attract the attention of all three camps at once, and you will be shelled to death by artillery units long before you can wipe out all three encampments.

HQ was right about these enemies – these are the toughest ACs that you will have faced yet, largely because of their extreme mobility. Two Recon ACs will emerge from behind the pipeline. They will start out hovering just over the ground, but will quickly raise up into the air and fly towards you. They will charge you and hover over and around you raining bullets down upon your AC. Stay mobile yourself, bobbing and weaving back and forth to avoid their rapid-fire machine gun attacks. Return fire when you can. In general, it is a good idea to try not to get in too close to the Recon ACs. Their weapons fire very quickly, and they can move faster than you can aim, so it can be surprisingly easy to lose track of their position when they are up close. A good way to fight during this Order, then, is to equip Pulse Guns, Short Range Missiles, and Rifles of some sort. Equip a Shotgun only as a backup weapon. When you get a lock on one of the Recon ACs, spam all three of your equipped weapons until it falls. Repeat this process for the rest of the enemies in the area.

Kill the first two Recon ACs that charge out of the base towards you. When they are dead, you will just have to deal with the artillery unit. It will be sitting on top of the building to the north, behind the pipeline. Lock on to the artillery unit with your Rifle and blast it from range, skirting around its shots using your boost.

After the first base is captured, head to the left-hand camp, as it is the closer of the remaining two camps at about 400 meters. As you boost over to the left-hand camp, watch out for artillery fire coming not only from that camp, but the right-hand one as well. It is mildly annoying, but you will be able to dodge them easily enough, and the artillery units will be down soon since both remaining camps are relatively close to each other. As soon as you get in range of the left camp, two more Recon AC units will peel off from the middle of the area and attack you. Backpedal away from the camp, back towards the first camp. Fire at them as you go. Take cover behind the desert hills when the Recon ACs begin to fire back. Weave through the buildings in the first base so that you are harder to hit, and bring the Recon ACs down just like you did the others.

Return to the second camp. As you do, a third Recon AC will intercept you from the back of the camp. Either backpedal and try to dodge around their attacks, or use your momentum to hurl yourself off of one of the desert hills and into the airborne enemy, hitting it with a Shotgun or sword to finish the job. Head towards the tall landing pad in the center of the base. Look to your left to find the artillery unit. Shoot it with your Rifle and turn around to head for the third camp behind you.

When you reach the third camp, skirt around the perimeter of this small town to draw out the two Recon ACs guarding its west side. Focus on them before you kill the artillery unit or the Recon AC on the other side of the town. When they are dead, head to the opposite side of the town to find a third Recon AC. Take it out before boosting into the heart of the city and targeting the artillery unit on the tall building in the center. This will be the final enemy that you need to kill, so get it done and collect your rewards.