Part 2 coming Wednesday. I hope you've been enjoying your playthroughs! May Balteus have mercy on our souls

The Ice Worm fight was my favorite purely because you get to do it with the other characters you encounter through your play through. It’s kinda like the Radahn fight in Elden Ring, both have this sense of camaraderie with you and your allies charging at this massive threat

Damn you got pretty lucky against O’keefe, normally he just floats around the whole map just outside of reach

Also whenever you assassinate Swinburne, if you accept his proposal to let him live and then immediately attack him, you can one shot him with literally any attack. You will also get some unique dialog from Ayre if you do this.

just gonna put it out there, diffuculty in this game is completely different for each player as different builds play so differently, great vid but dual zimmies really gonna change a few encounters

Every boss is easy if you use dual Zimmermans... I committed to playing NG+ and NG++ without touching a Zimmerman, Songbird, or the stun needle launcher. I wanted to get more of a sense of the difficulty curve that the developers intended. Facerolling everything with broken weapons was fun the first time through, but I actually wanted to get good on subsequent play-throughs.

Ice Worm was by far the most epic boss battle, even if it wasn't the hardest. So much characterization for so many other pilots you will encounter numerous times.

I feel like difficulty is entirely subjective based on what build you're using, and once you're going in with 2 Zimmermans and 2 cannons of any kind, you've trivialized the fight so much that you can't really determine if a fight is difficult at all

The fact that you can get Roku's fight on your first playthrough is pretty wild. I found him to be rather difficult fighting him then as opposed to later on.

It's interesting to see just how much alternate builds (and playstyles) completely change how difficult a boss battle is. In my case Nepenthes was super easy, just stick to one of the 4 elevator pillars and work your way down between volleys. The alternate mission "Protect the Strider" just completely tore apart my dual wielding boost build. It just didn't even come close to cutting it. So I switched to a quadruped build and just hovered in the air with heavy artillery. They didn't stand a chance

Out of all the Fromsoft mechanic style bosses, the Ice Worm might just be my new favorite. Like the best Zelda bosses, it's not about understanding the "gimmick" of the fight, but how you execute it! From the Dragon God and Bed of Chaos, to Rykard and the Ice Worm. Fromsoft has come a long way.

Fun fact about Swinburne: if you accept his offer and hit him while he's thanking you, he'll instantly die (while cursing you with his final breath). It doesn't matter WHAT hits him either, so you can just punch him to insta kill him as well. Also don't think I didn't hear that song used for the smart cleaner, Furi boss ranking soon?

my favorite part of the ice worm fight is when rusty channels all of the city's power for that last shot an you can hear static on the radio due to the sheer amount of power generated. it was such a clever sound design and it gives me chills every time

Best part about the Ice Worm is the stun launcher is technically optional. You can sortie without it equipped and your allies will comment on your ability to mess things up. The fight will be overall harder because of it, but still possible

i loved v.III O Keeffe fight. because for me he was gliding in the air above the pit. and there was a lot of platform jumping. and energy management not to fall down, pretty unique and epic

O' Keefe acted very differently for me. He kept hovering away from the platform so I couldn't effectively deal with him using my CQC build at the time. That being said, he was a great opportunity to try out my missiles only build 🤣

i like how almost everything he calls easy hes also using zimmermans on lol

I think the ice worm has taken the trophy from the divine dragon for best cinematic boss fight. That first shot from the ORC with the music crescendo and Rusty dropping "I won't miss" at it's peak is just auditory bliss. Edit: the butthurt going round about Zimmermans is hilarious. People act like they can't be hard countered like every weapon in the game. I can only assume you got wrecked in pvp and still havent got over it... that's a you problem cheif.

Correction, most AC bosses - including G2 Nile - do have repair kits; it is however possible to deny their use to them if you can stagger and stun them hard enough. 2: The Street Cleaner has a secondary weakpoint right on top of it, if you can shoot into its smokestack; this takes a lot of the risk of engaging it out of the equation.

The worm's challenge comes with assembly, interestingly enough. If you don't bring enough burst firepower, it will recover before you can kill it for good, which leads to a failed mission and retry.

It's a bit strange to realize that my experience with this giant mech action game changed quite drastically once I discovered the raw power of kicking and fisting.

My favorite boss will always be Balteus, for the pain.

I'm about to finish Ng++ and holy smokes, this game completely surpassed my expectations! Easily one of the best games 2023. Also enjoyed almost each of the boss fights so far!

swinburne can be insta killed and ayre basically says "ayo, what has Walter been teaching you?" Cataphract can be insta killed with a dual stun needle and lazer lance-pile driver combo (for me that was one of the easiest missions yet) max out songbirds maul the jugg big time also you can do the ice worm fight without the stun needle launcher and Michigan will ream you for it

I wish I had your encounter with O'Keeffe because, for me, he spent most of the fight hovering aimlessly over the cliff.

The MT's can be cheesed during the first warship encounter. All you have to do is either hide behind the large fuel takes near the edge of the cliff or get access to the top of the one ledge near the jump pad and simply wait for the warship to arrive, and it will insta-kill all the MT's on the ground, leaving only the LC's for you to combat against before the main fight with the warship, and if you get to the warship fast enough, you can actually kill it before it has time to launch its drones, thus taking out the drones along with the warship itself.

The fun thing about the Cleaner boss fight is that it takes drastically increased stagger damage if you fire shots directly into the opening on its back while flying over it.

Maeterlinck and Li Long are on the same side, Li Long switched sides. If you kill all the mobs they'll tag team you. Usually you end up killing one before the other kills everything so it often end up a 1v1 anyway. Just a correction on allegiance.

Fun fact, when you`re fighting the eye on the strider, the deck right in front of it circles around it completely. Meaning if you have at least a decently quick build, you can strafe around it faster than it can turn. I found that out my first playthrough when i didn`t have enough damage to stunlock it and didn`t want to peek around the corner 10 times to kill it.

Finished the last ending yesterday. Incredible game, with so much packed in for you to experience and experiment. Glad Demod also gave it a go, he always has some great insight to patterns i didn't see

Its been too long since a great boss ranking!

idk why but juggernaut was a push over for me. i think mostly cuz i had a light bipedal build which let me jump over its charges

It was only a matter of time. I'm just glad to see more high-quality Armored Core 6 content on KZfaq.

prefect example of bringing the right AC for each mission

This makes me wanna revisit Zone of The Enders. Thanks, Demod.

I absolutely Adore that this game feels like a boss rush at times. It is genuinely some of the most fun I've had in gaming!

Man I'm always in love with the songs you choose as background to your videos. Idk if it's you or an editor you have but when the Digimon Cybersleuth music kicked in hell yeah

Love that your mech matches your souls bourne character skin colour

So glad I completed all three endings before you made this.

I'm crawling my way through the old games first. Seeing this while playing the first game shows me how much ill have to look forward too

So happy to see AC content on KZfaq. A couole years ago, I never would have seen this day coming. AC VI was fantastic. Great vudeo, Buddy.

My favorite boss is a tough one between Balteus and Ayre. Balteus was a surprise encounter with the missile machine gun monster that left me wanting to absolutely conquer the intense fight. From wombo vertical missile barrages that incentivize me to dodge in to long range volleys that push me to zig zag mobility only to close in just for Ayre to tell me that I can only do meaningful damage when it’s pulse shields are low (yes shizo voice, I KNOW). Then phase two hits and this mech is spewing out more fire than the Abyss Watchers or Fire Giant that absolutely FRIED me the first go around! And I can’t forget that absolute banger of a track, Contact With You, playing in the background adding a chef’s kiss! After a total of five tries I managed to conquer Balteus and on subsequent play through a or mission replays, I still cherish the fight to the fullest even if I basically steamroll him! And then there’s Ayre. I honestly have no idea where to begin with this fight. I LOVE Ayre’s fight just as much as Balteus. From the story build up of having her trust only to break, renaming the tragedy to Fires of Raven. The fight begins with her walking slowly firing a volley of coral beams and switching between a balanced melee and ranged play style as if she learned that from you, the player, to firing the same sword-coral style waves that CEL-240 fires and swooping in with a melee dive, which if perfectly timed with her dialogue adds so much weight to the fight. Of course, to even damage her you have to retrace BACK to the Balteus fight of: Break through the Pulse Shields to deal meaningful damage. In this case coral. Phase two hits and-did I mention how HARD Cries of Coral goes in the background?! That shit is amazing! Anyways, phase two starts and now it’s an all or nothing fight to the end of Rubicon as Ayre starts throwing everything she has and has learned, from firing Coral Lasers, constant Coral Waves focusing more on bum rushing you instead of keeping her distance and flying space high to hit you with a surprise until you finally take her down! She took me roughly half an hour and I will forever cherish choosing to fight her first in my first play through! I would rank her as the second hardest boss in the game.

I like that you factored in a players experience and equipment level when encountering the bosses.

My favorite thing about the ice worm is what happens when you go to the fight without the anti worm cannon, Michigan just chews you out and Ayre realizes she's stuck with an idiot. XD

“Inserting your ballistics into its exhaust port” Is the funniest quote to start my morning hearing

My first time fighting Swinburne I killed him so fast that he didn't even have a chance to use repair kits, so I genuinely didn't know he had them.

Saturday afternoon? Check Leftover chinese takeout for lunch? Check New D-Mod vid? Check Vibes? Immaculate

After doing all 3 playthroughs i still believe the tutorial helicopter, ibis, and balteus are the hardest fights on a first encounter. Every fight in the game i did in 3 runs or less except these 3

So much music from Digimon games in the background,nice

For nepenthes i found that you can just descend from any of the center-most platforms in between his burst firing (making sure to do so while not in QB mode to fall a lot faster). This made it almost impossible to die and super quick to beat

Doubt you’ll read this Dmod. But I’m glad to see you’re uploading again semi-consistently. I’ve always really liked your content and always enjoy your boss rankings. Personally I’d like to see more essay vids or even the old boss breakdown series come back but anything from you is a joy to see.

Been waiting for this list. Bravo

Hype for part 2!

Completed this game in 22 hours and have no idea that I missed so many boss attacks. (I have got all three endings)

Good to see you back buddy

IVE BEEN WAITING!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!

For me, while I had a good amount of fun with AC6, the bosses... generally weren't the highlight, simply because more often than not, I had absolutely no clue what was happening on my screen. C-Ibis was pretty much the tipping point, FAR and away the hardest boss that, even now that I have gotten all three endings, I just can't understand how it moves and attacks. I only ever kill it by going unga-bunga, mouth frothing aggressive and don't even try to think about its attacks or how to dodge them. Most AC fights, Ayre, and ALLMIND fall into this category to varying degrees, with special shoutout to the Enforcer with my vote for by FAR the worst boss in the game. It is so fast, so resilient, stunlocks me to death, escapes my melee attacks so effectively, and its bubble blower is pretty much a death sentence if I'm at low HP. Every victory against the Enforcer has been by the skin of my teeth, and not in a good way. (For context, my build was a Quad-leg with a machine gun, a missile launcher, the laser sword with the massive spinning attack, and the basic laser sword. I would later change to a Biped with a Laser Drone, Bazooka, Stun Cannon, and handheld missile launcher, but that was in NG+) On the other hand, Strider, Nepenthes, Juggernaut, Smart Cleaner, Ice Worm, and even Balteus and Sea Spider are bosses that are so much better for being comprehensible in their attacks and movement. And as for the best boss for me, it is hands down Arquebus Balteus. Its attacks are well defined and telegraphed, it is well within the bounds of a simple Biped to evade and outmaneuver its attacks. Its Super Attack is also probably the most simple super move to grasp of anything in the latter half of the game, and the satisfaction of putting whiny little Snail to bed and the catharsis of hearing his pathetic last scream alone makes this the best boss for me. But the normal missions, THOSE were all, to put it mildly, excellent. It is so reassuring to see that From still knows how to make satisfying normal levels, something that was sorely lacking in Elden Ring. My biggest hope for Shadow of the Erdtree is for From to improve their legacy and side dungeon design, making dungeons that aren't "80% of the content is optional" but instead actually make a dungeon that can hold its own with the best linear levels lf their past games.

one of my favorite things about AC6 is to watch other people play and compare it to my own style. A feeling i dont get from Souls. Its just fun to see...... as long as its not the Gatling wheelchair of doom XD

Its good to see you back man

Great video and I enjoy your takes on explaining boss fights. I love playing Armored Core 6. Mine gameplay can bee a bit challenging thanks to the build I'm running. I'm heavy on mobility and I typically wield a shotgun, a plasma rifle, and cannon.

*Never thought the day would come. Our man here stepped into the Raven Fold!!*

With the strider, if you’re close enough to the Eye you can pivot around it faster than it can rotate.

Ice Worm fight is goated for „I Wont Miss“ Rusty, my beloved

I basically forgot the Juggernaut and kinda surprised that he rank quite high tho. I used to use him as a money farming tho

Nepenthes can be quite a joke when you know the timings and just drop down long distances because if you stand still while falling you move MUCH faster

I firmly believe Fromsoft needed a break from souls games after Elden Ring, and Armored Core 6 was the best method to do so. Feels great to do more in a boss fight again than just roll I-Framing for an entire fight

That cat made that croc’s life flash before it’s eyes when it shook its little paw at it.

Quick question, do you fight bosses multiple times to judge your rankings, or do you judge them on a one-and-done fight?

Don't think I don't hear that shovel knight ost in the background. Good shit.

This will be pretty hard to rank since the difficulty depends so much on the build you are using. A clueless player will have trouble with a good few of the AC fights that are at the bottom here.

Amoung my issues with this list i have to talk about the smart cleaner, the smokestack when you fire from above is also a weak point, and the escort the strider mission is defanged by using missles, the units boost away in a single direction making it very easy to take down everything with missles

Rustys lines during the ice worm fight were such a big part of making it an awesome fight.

You can also attack the Smart Cleaner from above, firing down into the cone on its back for the same damage boost.

Smart cleaner also have a weak point in its chimney, which trivialize the fight greatly. I didn't even knew that he also had one in the front since I was just flying above him the whole fight

You can get through the strider mission fairly easily with no damage or ammo using the ashmead. You just fly top speed a little left of where you start the level facing and you can avoid all combat before you reach the leg aside from one eye beam. The ashmead does enough damage to one shot the leg. Start with the left generator, loop under for the second, then up the right side for the third. Immediately after the one on top blitz the eye and hit it full power. Recharge then hit it again to destroy it.

I knew you will ranked this game as well. Can you rank Bayonetta 3 next in case if you played that game

Yeah, but are you going to do the entire Armored Core series? Some bosses are harder on the level of Ayre like nineball seraph from master of arena, zinada from last raven and white glint from armored core for answer

yay, welcome back.

God, I love the Ice Worm fight so much. Easily my new favorite fight in the Armored Core series.

Hell yeah, was hoping that DeModcracy would cover AC6

I think play style really determines how hard bosses are. I ran mostly melee in my build. I never gave up the pulse blade in my runs, beat the game with it. Like the strider boss was really easy for me, all AC fights (except Rummy) are harder than it, and the AC fights are really simple with melee builds, including the final fights. Even the Ice Worm didn’t feel hard the first time I fought it.

“You might as well give up. I’m…!” - Invincible Rummy

I really loved the Iceworm fight. It felt like a Zelda boss with you having to use a specific item to get it to a vulnerable state.

You can meet the worm’s gaze at the beginning from the ice worm missions anywhere on the map :) the first phase of wurm is basically free

for strider mission, going for speed build and when around the back rather going through a straight line is pretty render the laser useless since you will be already at the strider behind, making the laser unable to even fire the first shot

I have completed 1.5 playthroughs of this game, and I love it. I've played it for 60 hours since release date, but I've honestly spent around 1/3 of the time creating mechs and logos. Lol

I never understood it when I saw people fighting the laser eye on top of the strider in a cautious and slow way. I always just assault boosted right into melee range and hit it nonstop while circling around it to avoid dmg while being as close as possible; the fight is over in seconds and I hardly take any dmg because it can't hit you when you're constantly strafing to the side at minimum range. It literally never even occurred to me to find a hiding spot and popping out to attack between laser blasts.

Rusty has an extra dialog line if you managed to kill juggernaut before his scripted leave of the fight.

Hey Thedemodcracy, a new trailer for anima songs of the abyss dropped a few days ago. It is part of one of my favorite series being the anima gate of memories series. The first two games are the same game in the view of three different characters in the story. Could you do a boss ranking on the arcane edition of the first two games of the anima series? Both games collectively cost 40$, and the arcane edition costs 30$.

I know everyone says "bring the right weapon for the job." However, I eventually ended up with dual Burst Handguns, and a Laser Dagger. Rest of the AC built for absolute max boost speed. Think it was right around 400. That build, while playing hyper-aggressive, carried me through NG+ and ++ far easier than I would've expected. The few times I didn't clear something on my first attempt, it just felt like it was me, not the build that caused it.

14:23 there is actually something i need to point out, even if you have to crit the exhaust port, i found out dueling earshots to the square opening to be reliable but ONLY during the intro attack.

See my O'Keefe stayed in the air the entire time even going under the platform and I as a relatively grounded build had a hard time landing anything on him.

I got dragged by the catropacht and just lit him up on my 2nd try with minguns and songbirds on shoulders kinda reminded me of that c4 619 and I think 620 cinematic we got for a trailer

I could be wrong, but I always thought that it wasn't the engine you are blowing up, it's the bridge.

I honestly do have to say. I think Nepenthes should have been WAAAAAAAAAAAY lower. I was on my second playthrough when I discovered that you can essentially freefall down the interior platforms and be completely safe from the lasers in both phases and only seldomly needing to dodge the missiles before just gutting Nepenthes at the bottom. I honestly enjoyed the climb down my first time through but after discovering the freefall method, it's hard for me to even call Nepenthes a "boss"

Interesting review, though using Zimmies is cheesing hard, in my opinion.

Fun fact, if Swinburne begs for you to let him go, you can accept it and shoot him instantly after to instantly kill him, no matter what up he has left (machine guns might need a couple shots, but he won't fight back.) He ended up being my money farm for how quick I could reliably do that mission with 0 cost.

im amazed you used Cyber sleuth music XD

Wow i didn't even count the AC as bosses,i thought this game had very few boss fights

O’Keefe can float out of reach above the massive abyss and cause trouble for ACs with little air maneuverability, but if he decides to wedge himself in the platform, yea… so V lll seems to be a 50 50 when it comes to difficulty