After a decade of defining the Souls-like genre, FromSoftware is finally returning to its gritty mech action franchise with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. This is by far the most complex and ambitious entry to date, with a focus on high-speed action and verticality.
If you haven’t played an Armored Core game before, however, this will be a bit of a different experience, doled out through a mission structure rather than an explorable world. With that in mind, here’s exactly how long you can expect to spend with Armored Core VI, whether that’s a single playthrough or 100 percent completion.
How Long Is Armored Core VI?
It takes roughly 20-30 hours to complete a single playthrough of Armored Core VI, with the game split into five chapters and dozens of missions. Playtime can vary quite a bit because of the high difficulty, like most FromSoftware games. There are quite a few boss battles and tougher missions that might take multiple tries to beat, especially later in the game, and it’s possible you may need to replay past missions in order to buy more parts to upgrade your AC.
It’s also important to keep in mind that Armored Core VI has “decisions” you can make during its story, which open up alternate missions and story beats. There are three different endings in total, dictated largely by those decisions that you make.
Does Armored Core VI Have New Game Plus?
Yes, Armored Core VI does have a New Game Plus, but it’s not described as such in-game. When you beat the game once you’ll instantly be launched back into the menu on a second playthrough with access to the second mission, meaning you won’t have to play through the prologue again. You’ll retain everything you had at the end of your first playthrough, including OS upgrades, parts, Arena battles, etc.
One of the game’s endings is seemingly only accessible by doing a second playthrough, as the second time through there are some interesting wrinkles added in that change the experience, provide extra story details, and add new decisions. At the same time, this second playthrough almost functions as a “hard mode” that significantly ramps up the difficulty and also unlocks new parts.
Armored Core VI 100 Percent Criteria
With everything in mind, if you’re looking to 100 percent Armored Core VI, you’re looking at around 60 hours at least, likely more. There are three endings, so you’ll need to play through three different times. After that, however, there are trophies/achievements that require you to obtain all Assembly parts and S-Rank every single mission, which is no easy feat. There are no difficulty options in Armored Core VI, so you’ll simply need to tune and refine your AC until it’s good enough to get all those S-Ranks.
