Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (Fully Revamped)

⚠️ READ THE PLAYER'S GUIDE IN THIS DESCRIPTION BEFORE PLAYING — IT EXPLAINS HOW EVERYTHING WORKS ⚠️ 【 FULLY REVAMPED TOP TO BOTTOM 】 Entirely rebuilt from the ground up. The old build had a critical AP health bug — armor pools tracked separately from the combat health bar. FIXED: the health bar IS your AC's AP — one pool, one truth. Every system below was reworked and verified: frame stats stack exactly, hangar swaps are free and instant, mission-gated commerce, the OST Chip economy, Arena ranks F→S, return-to-garage settlement, replay cycles, and the three canonical endings all function as written. ════════ PLAYER'S GUIDE — HOW THIS DIFFERS FROM THE REAL GAME, AND HOW TO USE IT ════════ This is not the real AC6 interface — it is a narrated TTRPG reconstruction; menu systems happen as in-fiction interactions with terminals, vendors, and the garage. Read this before playing; narration will not re-explain these systems. 【 #1 — SINGLEPLAYER: CANON CHARACTER LOCK (DIFFERS FROM THE REAL GAME) 】 HERE, SINGLEPLAYER: CANON (the campaign, Arrival on Rubicon 3) REQUIRES the premade C4-621 preset — no other preset, no custom pilot. Character creation presents no pickers for this mode: no identity questions, no background traits, no AC part selection. Confirm C4-621 and play; the tutorial and entire campaign run as 621 under Handler Walter regardless of any name. Custom creation is NOT gone — it lives in SINGLEPLAYER: ARENA and all multiplayer modes (see below). 【 #2 — THE HANGAR ASSEMBLY LOCKER (AC SWAPPING WORKS DIFFERENTLY HERE) 】 • Parts fitted on your AC ride the machine — carried in its inventory, persisting everywhere. • Every owned part NOT mounted sits in the Hangar Assembly locker, physically docked wherever the Garage is. • To swap: return to the Garage, open the Hangar Assembly, view owned inventory by slot (head/core/arms/legs/booster/FCS/generator/right-arm/left-arm/right-shoulder/left-shoulder — shields mount LEFT BACK only), and select any owned part. Swaps are instant, free, reversible; the displaced part drops into the locker. • After every change ALLMIND prints: EQUIPPED: [parts] / IN STORAGE: [parts], and your health/AP pool JUMPS to 100 + the AP sum of the new frame set (example: 12,709/12,709), both bars equal there. Treat that printout as your real-time Assembly screen. • Refits happen ONLY docked in the hangar — no mid-sortie refits; plan your loadout per contract. 【 #3 — THE AC VENDOR UPLINK (SHOPPING — DIFFERENT FROM THE REAL GAME'S SHOP) 】 Purchasing is an in-fiction console: the AC Vendor Uplink and Dealer Network in your cockpit buy parts and ammo anywhere — but the CATALOG is mission-gated, not a flat shop: • Baseline gear (RF-024 TURNER, MG-014 LUDLOW, HC-2000 FINDER EYE, CC-2000 ORBITER, 2C-2000 CRAWLER, BST-G1 P10, FCS-G1 P01, AG-J-098 JOSO) is always purchasable. • Fyra the Fixer's mid-tier stock unlocks after the Watchpoint breach; elite Coral-grade kit (IA-C/IB-C relics, VE/VP premium) unlocks at the Lost City ruins beneath the Coral. • Dealers REFUSE anything your mission record hasn't proven you can handle — the gate is your record, not your wallet. • CRITICAL: paid orders SHIP TO THE HANGAR LOCKER, joining your inventory at NEXT docking — you cannot buy a part mid-mission and mount it. 【 #4 — THE ALLMIND OS TUNING TERMINAL (OST CHIPS — TRADING WORKS DIFFERENTLY HERE) 】 One place to tune: the ALLMIND OS Tuning Terminal, docked at the Garage and Arena lobby. • OST Chips are EARNED (Arena payouts, mission rewards) — you do NOT choose OS Tuning at creation. • 17 tuning lines (boost kicks, terminal armor, pulse armor/protection, access speed, repair kit optimization, direct-hit damage tuning, weapon bay, and more); each tier has a flat chip price. • Upgrading charges the DIFFERENCE to the next tier; downgrading REFUNDS the difference; selling refunds the full tier price. One tier per line; all 17 can be held simultaneously. • Chips are scarce — plan lines before spending; you never pay twice for what you already own. 【 #5 — RETURN-TO-GARAGE SETTLEMENT (MISSION ENDING IS DIFFERENT HERE) 】 • A sortie is NOT complete until your AC physically docks at the Garage. Quest completion, COAM payouts, and campaign progress are HELD until docking. • At docking, in order: (1) settlement bills Ammo expenditure and AC damage in COAM (8 COAM per AP point; light sorties ~2–8k, mangled endgame runs 40k+); (2) Repair Kits restore to 3, Ammo resets to 0, OS charges restore; (3) the reward pays out and campaign changes take effect. • AC destroyed before docking = sortie fails unsettled — no payout, no restorations. • ARENA BOUTS settle in the Arena lobby instead. • PAYOUT GATE ONLY: this law never physically restrains you — dismounting the AC at any time stays valid (see #8). 【 #6 — THE ARENA AS ALLMIND'S INTERFACE (MODES ARE LOCAL HERE) 】 • The Regular Arena is 21 simulated 1v1 duels, fought at HARD difficulty: NO repair kits, NO resupply — one sortie, one opponent, winner takes the record. Fixed chip payouts (F 2, E 2, D 3, C 3, B 4, A 4, S 6); next rank unlocks on wins (3 F→E, then 4 each through S; 3 S-rank wins crown champion). Found at the ALLMIND Arena's regular_records area. • The Analysis Arena is cycle-gated: A-group opens in New Game+, D-group only on the Alea Iacta Est NG++ route. Never available before its gate. 【 #7 — REPAIR & LOGISTICS (FIELD KITS ARE POOLS HERE) 】 • Repair Kits are 3 charges per sortie; each restores a chunk of AP mid-mission. Replenished at hangar settlement, not bought in the field. • Ammo is a sortie-long expenditure accumulator billed in COAM at docking — firing freely has a cost you settle later. • No fast-travel shopping: your AC and mounted parts are the machine you have until you dock again. 【 #8 — MECH-EXIT FREEDOM LAW (NEW — PILOTS CAN DISMOUNT ANYTIME) 】 • You may dismount your AC at ANY time — mid-sortie, pre-mission, in the hangar — and the narration will never refuse or block it. • Exiting is a mechanical state change, NOT damage: parts leave your inventory, their stat bonuses clear, and your pool reverts to the on-foot base 100/100. It is NEVER narrated as losing health or taking injury. • Re-boarding any AC re-fires the equip law: parts return and auto-equip, and the pool JUMPS back to 100 + that machine's AP sum, FULL at that exact number. Re-boarding is always allowed. • Return-to-Garage gates only PAYOUTS — never dismounting. A dismounted pilot on foot is vulnerable; fair game in multiplayer too. • Every part and weapon carries its authored stat block (AP, Attack Power, Impact, Wgt, EN Load...) in its item data; equipping applies those exact numbers — narration reads item stats as authored, never invented. 【 #9 — CUSTOM PILOT PARTS SHIP AT GAME OPEN (NEW) 】 In SINGLEPLAYER: ARENA and every multiplayer mode, the parts you pick in character creation are your actual starting mech, enforced at the opening turn: • Every picked part is granted to starting inventory (1x) and AUTO-EQUIPS into its authored slot with its stat bonuses — not just backstory flavor. • Your pool JUMPS to 100 + your frame's AP sum at the very first beat, FULL there; ALLMIND opens: EQUIPPED LOADOUT REGISTERED: [your exact part list]. • Your character page names your equipped parts by exact catalog name — the dossier IS your machine's manifest. • Incomplete picks launch as-is; missing slots simply carry no bonus. No shopping trip required. • SINGLEPLAYER: CANON keeps its C4-621-only lock: the loaner kit auto-equips there instead. ════════ WHAT'S CANONICAL — WHAT ISN'T ════════ You are C4-621 in the canon campaign — fixed, sparse-identity, under Handler Walter. Mission chronology, factions (Arquebus, Balam, RLF, PCA, Overseer, ALLMIND), characters (Rusty, Carla, Ayre, Walter, Iguazu, Snail...), Coral revelations, mission-gated gear, NG+/++ replay variations, and exactly three endings — Fires of Raven, Liberator of Rubicon, Alea Iacta Est — are canon. No fourth ending, no secret true ending, no invented missions or parts. Failure is real: destroyed ACs and dead sorties carry consequences. Every part traces to an authored acquisition path. ════════ GAME MODES — CHARACTER RULES ════════ • SINGLEPLAYER: CANON — full campaign. ONLY premade C4-621; pickers suppressed (see #1). Opens in the drop pod cockpit; the tutorial runs inside the starting AC down to Garage assembly. • SINGLEPLAYER: ARENA — Arena life replacing the campaign (hard difficulty). Canon 621 OR custom mercenary with the FULL picker flow; starts with 3 OST Chips and 48,000 COAM; chosen parts grant and auto-equip at creation (see #9). • MULTIPLAYER (1v1, 2v2, 3v3, NvN, FFA) — custom-pilot freedom, canon AC6 rules, even teams, synthetic opponents from canonical parts. All pilots may dismount freely per #8. 【 QUICK INDEX — NEW SINCE THE FIRST REVAMP 】 • MECH-EXIT FREEDOM LAW: dismount any AC anytime, any mode; exit is a mechanical state change (parts leave inventory, pool reverts to 100/100, never narrated as damage); re-boarding always allowed, restores full pool (#8). • Custom-pilot picks ship at game open: ARENA/multiplayer picks auto-grant, auto-equip, jump the pool full at the first beat; ALLMIND reads EQUIPPED LOADOUT REGISTERED; character page lists parts by exact name (#9). • Authored item stat blocks are the engine's source of truth: every part and weapon carries its own slot tag and bonus list; narration applies exactly those numbers in every mode. 【 BOTTOM LINE 】 One AP pool, physical parts in a hangar, mission-gated commerce, chip-priced OS tuning, settlement at the Garage — and a pilot free to step out of the cockpit at will. Learn the differences once, and the war on Rubicon plays by the rules you already know. Read it twice, Raven.