Welcome to this post. This ARMORED CORE™ VI FIRES OF RUBICON™ – Melee Builds and Strategy Guide was written to be helpful to you, and we genuinely hope that you do.

This article is intended for AC Pilots who wish to build a melee-focused build but are having difficulty determining how to create one or maximizing its potential. The only thing left to do is add a few more images to break up the long text passages.

Frame and Inner Components

The Value of Attitude Stability

“Attitude Stability” is the stat that governs how easy it is to stagger your AC. For the most part, it’s HIGHLY recommended to try and get at least middling amounts of attitude stability as having really low stability WILL likely result in your AC being stunned while trying to close the gap for the melee hit.

How much attitude stability is good will be up to you and how light you want your AC to be but make sure to keep this in mind when you choose your body, arms and legs. As with any game though, you can always do fashion if you just don’t care.

Arm Parts

For the actual frame parts (body, arms, legs, head), we only want to pay heavy attention to the arm parts.

Each arm section has a unique stat known as “Melee Specialization” that you can view by selecting the “Toggle Display” button to view the full stat distribution of that particular part. An early type of arms with a high “Melee Specialization” is the Firmeza brand.

You should swap out the arms with something that balances the numbers for both the Melee and Firearm specializations in hybrid builds. You should balance “Firearm Specialization” according to your goals for both melee and ranged weapons because, unlike “Melee Specialization,” it doesn’t immediately enhance your damage but it DOES improve the accuracy of your ranged weapons.

Booster

For this we want to note the type of booster you’re using mainly. The premiere booster option for melee (IMO) is the KIKAKU, it has the max possible “Melee Attack Thrust” which is the stat that determines how far you lunge forward when you attack an enemy with a melee weapon.

This score is EXTREMELY crucial for melee-focused builds because the difference in distance traveled while attempting to use melee weapons might impact whether you completely miss or land an attack. I will admit that these are all my personal conclusions from playing only melee and how to build it via all ending ways, so they may not be the most accurate.
The difference in travel between the highest melee thrust booster KIKAKU and the second lowest MULE (7001 stat difference) is around 75m (148m vs 72m), which might make or break the build depending on what you like.

This will also have an impact on some Melee weapon-specific technology that we shall explain later.
If you want to use two melee weapons, definitely use the KIKAKU; it’s worth it. For hybrid, it depends on how you use your melee weapon; the KIKAKU overall is a very good booster, but if your build requires a different stat spread, just make sure that your “Melee Thrust” isn’t abysmal if you’re using harder to hit weapons like the Pile Bunker.

FCS

This one I’m not very sure about this, I’ve always used TALBOT for a mix of close and medium tracking but I have no concrete evidence that FCS helps improve melee attack tracking, if anyone has any real concrete evidence of this do let me know, and I’ll change this, but for now the recommendation I have is to use an FCS that suits your side weapons.

For example, my melee build uses a shotgun and a shoulder grenade launcher. The specific shotgun I use is mostly close ranged so I’d use an FCS with really good close-range tracking, etc.

To Charge or Not to Charge?

Short Answer

Yes, charging weapons is very useful, but it highly depends on the weapon, situation and how safe you are.

Long Answer

Most weapons’ basic attacks will almost always result in more damage and stagger on the enemy, however, this is not always the case. The timing of a charge attack obviously varies on the weapons you’re using, but the basic rule of thumb is to look at the stats and how the weapon is utilized (a video playback button is available to demonstrate how).

For example, with the basic Pulse Sword, the charged attack is fine if you can’t get more than a single hit in because it does somewhat less stagger and damage than hitting both sword slashes while still lunging at your target, but it’s better to obtain the full two slashes in terms of damage. This is the inverse of the Laser Sword, which has two hits on its charged assault but does not lunge forward, making it more difficult to hit your targets. When using the laser sword, use the single basic slash to target foes you’re not sure about, while the charged hit is for tremendous damage, either to stagger or towards staggered enemies, and should be saved for when you’re sure it’ll hit.

Melee Cancelling

What is Melee Cancelling?

Most melee weapons have a window where you can boost to cancel the attack before it lands, canceling the attack without putting the weapon into overheat.

I didn’t find out the exact mechanics of this until Vaati’s tips video so credit goes to him/whoever found it and published it first – [youtu.be]  but this small tech can actually be chained together to create a sort of super dash that is faster and has more tracking than Assault Boost.

For me though, the true value of this mechanic is the ability to bait and mix-up/confuse the enemy, especially in a PvP setting as it uses a lot of EN for travelling, though it is, in fact faster than just assault boosting.

When should it be used?

Overall, the main use for it is the ability to cancel your attack and save yourself from a whiff. Whiffing a melee can, more often than not, lead to you being punished, staggered or likely even killed so using it defensively should be the first priority.

However, due to it being somewhat faster than Assault Boosting, you can also use it to close the distance between you and an enemy AC should your normal melee lunge be barely sufficient at letting you land the hit.

We are grateful that you took the time to go through the ARMORED CORE™ VI FIRES OF RUBICON™ – Melee Builds and Strategy, and we sincerely hope that you discovered it to be of assistance to you in any way. You are more than welcome to point out any mistakes or make suggestions for changes in the comments box below, and we will attend to them as quickly as we can. My warmest thoughts and prayers are with you today. To give credit where credit is due, I’d like to mention that an article written by Citrine inspired this guide. Don’t forget to add us to your bookmarks if you like the post; we update the site frequently with fresh articles.