Armored Core Guide

Introduction

This guide will help you get setup to play the older Armored Core games, pre-AC6. This guide currently covers:

  • Armored Core 3
  • Silent Line - Armored Core

More games will be added in the future

Armored Core 3/Silent Line #

Armored Core 3 and Silent Line are considered the “3rd Generation” of AC games. Saves from AC3 can be imported into Silent Line so it’s recommend to start with 3 and import your save to bring over credits and builds.

Running on real hardware

AC3/SL run perfectly fine on recent builds of OPL. For multiplayer, I recommended running on an early model PS2 - pre SCPH-5000X - as later models removed the iLink port required for LAN setups.

Running on PCSX2

Links to compatibility wiki pages:

A preconfigured emulator with optional dual analog controls can be found in the Armored Core Discord, pinned in the #oldgen channel

Controls

These are the default controls:

  • D-Pad Up - Move forward
  • D-Pad Down - Move back
  • D-Pad Left - Turn left
  • D-Pad Right - Turn right
  • L1 - Strafe left
  • R1 - Strafe right
  • L2 - Aim up
  • R2 - Aim down
  • X - Boost / Jump
  • Square - Use selected right arm / back weapon
  • Circle - Use left arm weapon, Interact
  • Triangle - Cycle through weapons
  • L3 - Enable/Disable extension parts
  • R3 - Enable/Disable overboost

Dropping Weapons:

  • L1 + R1 + L2 + R2 + L3 - Drop extension part
  • L1 + R1 + L2 + R2 + Triangle - Drop currently selected right arm/back weapon
  • L1 + R1 + L2 + R2 + Circle - Drop left arm weapon

No, Fromsoft really hadn't figured out analog stick controls yet :/

There are a few options for improving the controls, but they each come with some downsides:

Rebinding Controls

Every button can be reassigned in the KEY ASSIGN menu in the options. A good option is to move aiming to the face buttons, strafing to the D-Pad, and weapon/boost management to the triggers:

  • D-Pad Up - Move forward
  • D-Pad Down - Move back
  • D-Pad Left - Strafe left
  • D-Pad Right - Strafe right
  • L1 - Use left arm weapon, Interact
  • R1 - Use selected right arm / back weapon
  • L2 - Boost / Jump
  • R2 - Cycle through weapons
  • X - Aim down
  • Square - Turn left
  • Circle - Turn right
  • Triangle - Aim up
  • L3 - Enable/Disable extension parts
  • R3 - Enable/Disable overboost
Due to an oversight by FromSoft, weapon dropping no longer works on these controls, even when pressing the new buttons the actions are bound to. This isn't a major feature in AC3/SL, but in order to drop parts the default controls must be used.

Analog Patch

GitHub Link

This adds the dual analog aiming introduced in Nexus into the older PS2 AC games which is much easier to learn when combined with the shoulder button aiming above. The PCSX2 starter pack also includes macros for weapon dropping. This is a great starting point to play the single-player without needing to learn the older controls.

This patch does not work with multiplayer. In split-screen, only 1P has access to analog controls, and LAN games are completely broken.