Intercept the Redguns | Armored Core 6 Wiki

Mission Description

...Just get it done." — Handler Walter

V.VIII Pater briefs you on this mission. He first explains to you the state of conflict between Arquebus and Balam at Watchpoint Alpha. The Watchpoint's defenses inflicted heavy losses on Balam's initial wave, with many deserting. They also recently engaged with Arquebus forces only to continue their downward spiral and despite this, the Redguns' commander, G1 Michigan, remains alive and well. With AC LIGER TAIL being readied to lead the surviving Balam MT forces as we speak. Your task is to intercept them to hammer the final nail into Balam's coffin. If you decline this mission, they have V.IV lined up to take over.

Recommended Assembly

Recommended Assembly Description

• R-Arm Unit: WB-0000 BAD COOK [FLAMETHROWER]
• L-Arm Unit: WB-0000 BAD COOK [FLAMETHROWER]
• R-Back Unit:
  • VE-60SNA [STUN NEEDLE LAUNCHER]
  • OR
  • MA-T-222 KYORAI [NAPALM BOMB LAUNCHER] (requires the Weapon Bay ability from the OS Tuning)
• L-Back Unit:
  • Vvc-706PM [PLASMA MISSILE LAUNCHER]
  • OR
  • MA-T-222 KYORAI [NAPALM BOMB LAUNCHER] (requires the Weapon Bay ability from the OS Tuning)
• Head: ??
• Core: ??
• Arms:
• Legs: RC-2000 SPRING CHICKEN [REVERSE JOINT]
• Booster: FLUGEL/21Z
• FCS: ??
• Generator: DF-GN-08 SAN-TI

Intercept Balam's main MT force

This mission has many enemies you will run into ammo problems if you waste ammo. Movement is mandatory and killing off the small MT's is highly recommended before tackling Michigan and the beefed up tetra mt. Kiting and getting the many small MT's to group and line up is encouraged because it makes multilocking with missiles easier. In the third and fourth wave a helicopter will appear if you kill it before it lands you can save yourself from killing  its payload of about 6 mt's.

Defeat G1 Michigan and Balam's main MT force

After the small fries are dealt with Michigan will be chasing aggressively in his Tetrapod AC and there is a beefy Tetrapod MT that cannot fly like Michigan but still  has canons and melee attacks. I recommend you lure Michigan to the other side of the arena from the tetramt so you don't have to fight them at the same time. Though be aware the tetramt can slowly climb over the middle and surprise you mid fight with Michigan.

Michigan will heal during this fight and a well timed assault armor expansion on top of him does alot of damage and will save you expending your limited ammo.

 Details and Tips

• The background dialogue mentions that Michigan can't join the fight yet because he needs to get the Liger Tail AC warmed up, so you will need to face a few waves of his soldiers before facing him.
• There 3 waves of MTs before you can fight Michigan. The first wave has no requirements so the second wave will appear after a specific amount of time.
• The second wave requires you to kill a few shielded MTs
• The third wave ends regardless if you destroy the giant tetrapod, Michigan will appear after a certain amount of time has passed. 
• Michigan has the same abilities as his Arena counterpart, with the addition of 2 heals and the assistance of 50+ MT of various types attacking you from all sides. 
• Mentioned by Ayre, it is ideal that you constantly keep moving and taking out as much soldiers as you can before each wave comes and the accumulated numbers become to much to handle. Which would mean you would need to constantly fight on the move with you back against Michigan. This may not be ideal if you AC is not built for speed and endurance. 
• An additional difficulty is the numerous MTs everywhere and Michigan's high aerial mobility with his tetrapod build, it will be incredibly difficult to lock onto him when your auto-lock is constantly attaching to every minion on screen. This is even more difficult if you don't have high graphics and framerate, as you can't make split-second decisions as to where he is. 
• You can make it easier by exploiting the requirements of each wave mentioned above. The MTs are not indefinite, there is a finite number of MTs in each wave and in the entire fight, albeit a very large amount. You will need to kill all of them to win so kill them is not necessarily a waste of bullets. 
• Michigan will use the repair kit twice throughout the whole fight. He will use the armor expansion shield before he heals, but he can't use it again. 
• [need more information on this] Michigan may sometimes be assisted by an additional fifth wave of MTs midway into the fight, which includes a second giant tetrapod. Some people did not encounter this fifth wave, so it's possible it only occurs if you take too long to kill Michigan or you do not engage upon him for long periods of time. 
• Because of the massive numbers and being a battle of attrition, the CHEESE BUILD (2 miniguns, 2 songbirds, and a tank build) is not considered ideal, as you are likely to run out of bullets and be too heavy to continuously keep moving. 
• The flamethrower build is considered highly ideal in this situation. Most of the issues will not only be from Michigan's high mobility, but from the numerous small MT's. A flame thrower can pass through multiple enemies at once, so waiting for them to group up so you can sweep through them with a flamethrower it much more efficient for ammo conservation. 
• A possible cheese strategy is to never engage until Michigan comes out. There are two possible hiding spots to simply wait out the waves until Michigan arrives.
• One hiding spot is in the center of the map, the broken NEPENTHES (the giant laser gun that you destroyed in Mission "UNDERGROUND EXPLORATION - DEPTH 1". Note that in the briefing, this laser gun was the reason why Balam forces were unable to go underground.) Go to the top of the laser and you should be able to find a crevice among the broken wreckage where almost nothing can reach you ( I mention almost because there are flying missile drones who can graze you. Deal with them and it should make it a permanent hiding spot to cool your head. The crevice is so good that not even Michigan could reach you. 
• Second hiding spot is in the corner of your spawn. You spawn in a hallway to opens up the giant ring-shaped arena. There is an indent where you can sit and wait out the enemies. This spot makes it impossible for you to be hit by drone missiles, but enemies can still go down the hall and reach you. However because if stupid enemy AI, they only walk in a straight path with occasional jumping. Only a few of them at a time will ever confront you, making it easy to pick off without being swamped. Most of them are likely to pile up and be stuck on the divots of the map.  Most importantly is that this hallway is where you want to fight Michigan. 
• Because of Michigan's mobility and his constant support of all of Balam, you would be at a complete disadvantage fighting in the open. Fighting in the hallway that was your spawn is much easier. The tight location makes it hard for Michigan to fly out of range. Because youre more likely to be at point-blank range, he's less likely to dodge. (note that fighting in such location will make it harder for you to dodge enemy attacks shooting into the hallway, but it hurts Michigan more than it hurts you. 
• Because of this tight space an Michigan's attempt to maintain aerial superiority, it's best to use AoE attacks, like plasma explosions, since they linger in the air and create less space for Michigan to move, and as the guide recommends, flamethrowers. 
• Flamethrowers and the Napalm launcher when shot at the floor, walls, or ceiling, will create fire zones that will burn any enemy touching them. Michigan may be able to dodge the flamethrowers from time to time, but he will still need to move around and the tight hallway means he will always come into contact with something on fire. The accumulated burn damage means that he will take burn damage overtime (great for doing damage without wasting ammo or aiming) and the burn damage means he takes additional damage since the fire burnt his damage resistance.
• Michigan's only advantage in the hallway is his armor expansion shield. It's massive size takes up nearly the entire hallway, making your shooting almost useless. Simply wait for the shield to drop or carry the fight elsewhere until the shield disappears. 
• When you kill Michigan, note that the fight is not necessarily over because you still need to kill the remaining enemies.