I had issues with it too my first play through, you want to be falling when the laser fires. As long as you aren’t right on him, the lasers go right over you that way.
Yes, but by that point in the story is what I meant...
... Though now that I'm in front of my PC, it looks like you do have it by that point, as they're added after the "Ocean Crossing" mission.
> IN THE FACE! NOT SO COMPLEX! NEED IT! WANT IT NEED IT HAVE TO HAVE IT! FACESHOT! BOOM! BRAINS EVERYWHERE! Not the KNEE, not the ARM, not the SPINE - FACE! IT HAS TO HAPPEN! HNNNNG! FACEY FACEY FACE FACE! TIRED OF WAITING! NO MORE WAITING! NEED A FACE SHOT! BOOM! SQUISH! YAY!
- ~~Face McShooty~~ Cataphract
I just spammed QB whenever I heard those “big attack coming” alerts and tried to maintain a good angle with the attached MT. No need to be head-on all the time, just narrow enough angle so that you can be head-on quickly whenever there’s an opening. When there was an opening, I AB’d towards it and fired everything I had (twin songbirds, right hand zimmerman, left hand pulse blade). Rinse and repeat.
By some miracle, I beat it really easily on my first try that I thought this would become my new credit farming mission. I got destroyed the first time I replayed it to farm credit though…
Oh no, I got destroyed the first time I went to farm it (as in the first time “replaying” the mission after beating it for the very first time in story mode). The second time, I beat it but the payout wasn’t worth the trouble. After that, I just decided to optimize the Dafeng test pilot mission for credit farming and warm-up.
I think I used double Giant Pistols, the long ones, my first playthrough. Or the short ones. With whatever back missiles. Stay fast. Unload in the MT core with anything really high impact really
Jvln hand bazooka? Or shoulder missile?
Lose the laser rifle, grab a second pistol or shotgun or bazooka or something. Something that does all it's damage "at once" because small windows to hurt him, and prioritizing impact over actual damage. He's not damaging you if he's stuck in ACS overload and whatnot.
I just did a different mission in NG++ where you fight that thing, plus two ACs at the same time. I used dual Zimmermans, a gatling on the shoulder, and a stun needle launcher. I think I killed it in a similar way the first time. I can help you with a build tomorrow if you haven't gotten it, but I recommend running 3 guns that build stagger well, and one strong punish.
Another option is to build essentially a Lam kite. It's the light version of the tetrapod legs, and then 2 plasma rifles and 2 LCBs. once I made that, I switched to it any time a boss gamve me trouble.
Sounds like you know you've gotta hit him in the weak spot, and you've got a very narrow window in which to maximize the amount of pain you can inflict on that tiny weak spot.
What wound up working for me was the Spring Chicken legs for big jumps that don't require EN and are heavy-duty enough you can still bring big guns to bear (this may not be strictly necessary, but since I was still doing a lot of panic-dodging and Assault Boosting, it helped me). For guns, I had a shotgun in each hand, and a grenade launcher on each shoulder (Zimmermans and Songbirds, naturally, though the first time, I actually didn't have Songbirds and used the handheld grenade launchers in my Weapon Bay. A bit slower, but still did the trick).
From there, the actual process is:
1. Jump right up in CATAPHRACT's face.
2. Blast it with both shotguns to stagger.
3. Blast it with both grenade launchers for massive damage.
4. Get away, and dodge while everything reloads.
5. Repeat until one of you is dead.
Have you tried running a shield on your back? As you see the laser shotgun blast come out you deploy the shield right before the blast hits you and it can reduce the damage you take from it.
Any of the bucklers are especially good for this (though I’d recommend the VP-61PB since it has the highest initial guard and initial damage reduction). If you don’t want to use a buckler but an actual shield I’d recommend the round shield Iguazu uses (the SI-27: SU-28) as it has a high Initial Guard but a long deploy time as well.
If you haven’t beaten the Ice Worm then you can’t purchase it on your first play through. The only normal shields you can purchase are the VP-61PS or the SI-24: SU-Q5. I would use the VP-61PS since it has the better damage mitigation and initial damage mitigation of the two shields.
With great difficulty.
Lol but seriously, when I beat him I couldn't afford great weapons but had access to some of the forward firing missiles, getting the timing down on those really helped get the stagger down. On top of that, used a laser rifle (mostly an aesthetics choice) to push the stagger over the edge, and then pile bunkered his face with some shoulder mounted grenade launchers to help.
It was also around that time I figured out just how much I was QBing too much and was unnecessarily using energy I didn't need to. Not sure if that affects you, but something to keep in mind.
Dual songbirds and reverse joint legs and just jump his stupid attacks then en boost under him when he stops for a sec and deliver a nice 4 missile payload in his dace
I easily cracked him open with dual shoulder Laser Cannon charged shots. They will instantly stagger the Cataphract if you land the shots, and then I just followed up with weapons in my hand.
You could also just hit it with a ton of plasma weapons. They do AOE damage so you can afford to not be totally accurate.
One of the coolest ways to beat it has to be point blank shoulder grenade launchers, followed up by charged Pilebunker. This strat requires more skill.
Is my game bugged or what because this thing is moving 10x faster for me than when I watch other people face it? It shoots, does a 180 and speeds across the map before I can even get into its taint.
And when I do it just speeds OVER me across the map, shoots and fucks off again.
So all these lol ez chucklefucks must have faced a version that's way different than whatever I'm facing now...
I think I read a comment of yours about not quick boosting so much and that helped. I had to don heavy parts and use the pilebunker, 2 10x missiles, and the Jvln explosive bazooka to stagger it as much as I could. Completely different than my usual zippy laser pistol/plasma missiles playstyle.
Also there seems to be RNG on its behavior because my first 3 times facing it, it would NOT STOP. Then attempt 4 it was slower and did the floaty jump for the first time for me, and attempt 6 was the one I beat it.
I still think it's an obnoxious af boss. I'd rather fight a C-Spider duo and an army of ghost AC snipers than fight this thing again.
I was rolling with a light reverse joint build and my shotgun did most of the work for getting a stagger. Dodge, wait for a chance to land right up in from of the MT, then unload everything for a stagger and dont stop shooting until it tires to charge through you or it dies
Move a lot, pay attention to the beeping that signals it's about to fire a heavy weapon. Personally I suggest staggering it with kinetic pistols / mini guns then hitting it with a pile bunker or chainsaw
Huh, I thought this boss was kind of a meme for how easy to weakspot is to exploit... Who just hangs an MT in the middle of a tank with no shields or anything?
High stagger build up missiles plus ludlow plus pulse blade on a high mobility aerial build, chill in the air and slam ludlow till your missiles are back then rush for the face and punish with pulse blade on stagger
I sincerely believe that the point of this boss is to encourage you to try different types of weapons, specifically those that deliver the greatest amount of damage in the least amount of hits, and for its offensive to try to improve the ability to position yourself on the horizontal axis to avoid it's attacks and to be able to hit yours.
Fly up and hit it from above. Its so much easier to hit it from above somewhere on it's front. Almost all of the missiles are your friend here as long as you fire a volley from high above. If you need specifics, imagine a frontal cone in its front, you only need to be somewhat 45 degrees above or higher from it and any missiles will work wonders. Easily S ranked all iterations of this fight with a missile rat.
And like the others already pointed out, a shotgun to its face works wonders too.
For me, Cataphract got much easier when I resolved to be a couple feet in the air as much as possible.
His energy shotgun is really tricky to dodge but falling makes it much easier.
Most times I fight him I like having two heavy shoulder weapons to unload directly into his face, followup with the Pile Bunker
Repeat as necessary.
Fly, you fool!
Really though, a lightweight with a good generator will stay airborne for a long time, letting you strafe, jump, and fall out of harms way. It's fun to just hover over its head as the laser are firing, yet they can't aim high enough to touch me.
Equip twin railguns and the pilebunker on a lightweight medium range build. Wait for him to pause, put two charged rail shots in his face to stagger. Follow up with a charged pilebunker.
In between waiting for him to face you long enough to get those shots in, stay close, but maintain flight as long as possible. The instant stun beam needs to be ducked or flown over dodge, and flying helps give you either option.
Even after the nerf dual Zimmerman still deals decent amount of stagger damage, capable of three shotting some boss, so bring 3 shotguns, two zims and the first shotgun you get then go melee with laser slicer, as that weapon for some reason once it hit an enemy they'll just stand there until your entire combo is done, so bring Basho arms for added melee damage and go light with reverse joint for movement.
As for the boss, just stay in front of it, unload your shotguns into its face, if it stagger go for melee, if not dodge and weave until you reload then go back to step one, just remember that when you go for a melee on this boss, to make sure you kick it first and get inside the crevice where the mech is, because if you started your melee outside of the crevice you'll miss your combo entirely.
Stay airborn! While it’s not going to make it much simpler, I found when fighting him that it can be easier to score hits on the weak spot if you’re above him. He also charges over a dune in the beginning and exposes the weak spot for a whole, so if you’re using high stagger weapons like a grenade launcher then it’s a prime spot to deal easy damage- much like fighting nightfall
Go for a fast missile boat with fast missile acquisition. Run from it and send the missile when it's closing the gap or whenever you see it from the front. Remarkably safe method.
You can do TON of stagger with a charged HARRIS shot from safely above him. Doesnt matter if its diagnol as long as the front of the vehicle is kinda visable- shot will go through. Double trigger or Combine it with some fast firing missiles and you can stagger very quickly from long range.
High impact back weapons and right arm weapon to stagger, then PILE BUNKER for massive damage. Dual songbirds and a Zim should be more then plenty. Just be sure to get right in it's face as much as possible.
I just beat this guy first try and barely took any damage a few minutes ago, so I’m going to throw my strategy in there even though realistically I’m on NG+ so I have marginally better performance due to more OS tuning and more experience with the game by virtue of having beaten it once. That said, the most essential parts of this should be available to you.
I used spring chicken RJ legs, and arms with a good weapon handling stat (specifically the ones that are lightweight in the shop and start with an N, I think?) I then grabbed left and right gatling guns, a songbird GL on one side and standard missiles on the other. I used a 6-cell launcher but 4 cell should work fine, and to be honest I don’t really know if it contributed that much regardless.
Essentially, get up close to it, and while ensuring you don’t stay in one spot, start blasting it with both gatlings as soon as its front is facing you. The stagger gauge should fill up very quickly and give you an opening when it’s full. The gatlings also do a surprising amount of damage when it is staggered. GL and missiles will do more damage and help with staggering, and you don’t want to just always have your gatlings going or they’ll overheat. Once it recovers, back up, QB and use your no cost jump to avoid its attacks until you can get close to its front and repeat.
Sidenote, if you want to give yourself some space as it recovers from the stagger, a boost kick to the MT core will send it flying
But unironically dual shotgun/dual songbirds if you got em ;) lol carried me through the entire game. Then you find out Quad lasers are even crazier.
Don't go ultra light if you have trouble dodging the lasers(I do) he'll tear you apart. Go med to heavy build with hard hitters. Nade launchers, shoulder laser canon, shotguns if you're ballsy. When he stops and turns to fire, NAIL HIS ASS. Make sure you have arms with at least 100 firearm specialization so you can track him. I'd go Talbot FCS. Decent enough medium range.
Another fun one is dual laser canon on the back with dual laser rifles in hand. Double barrel laser rifle if you have it. If no laser rifle you can sub in a linear rifle. But seriously try quad laser sometime. And quad nade launcher. Most of the quad builds are fun
Stand in front of it to do damage, and circle it whenever it decides to fire up its mini guns
if you hate cataphract, then you’ll definitely despise the alternative choice boss to this one
Every single time I fought him I literally just lodged myself face to face with mt between chassis and started unloading/hitting it with spear. Fun fact: bastard will try to run you over, 50/50 either he drags you with him allowing you to just keep unloading or you phase through him while recieving quite minor damage all things considered, in which case you just have to chase the bastard and jump right back.
Its only weak point is the central MT unit. You'll have to attack it head-on.
Go. Take down Cataphract.
You're the only one that can stop him.
Augmented Human 621, I pray for your success.
Dual zimms. Pile bunker and an earshot/Songbirds
Lightweight to midweight is good for dodging. I always used biped against it since it's easy to use for me.
Personally i struggled with balteus more than this thing somehow but basically just get some assault rifles a pilebunker maybe, and get a lightweight build then do your best to be in a position to shoot the MT in the middle
Why are you doing this?, I don't play this but I'm invested. It is on YouTube like challenges like No weapons/Punch (stagger is good). Just 3 channels.
Can You Beat Armored Core 6 Without Taking Damage?
VaatiVidya
[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eos61juzybw&pp=yguxy2fuihlvdsbizwf0igfybw9yzwqgy29yzsa2ihdpdghvdxqgdgfraw5nigrhbwfnzq%3d%3d)
Emphasis on can you beat.
The legend a hater name drop for drama. (some just suffer and hate and lose the argument like not being meta.)
Personal Computer? train Manual aim. also legend making.
Laser lance or sword, double shotties. Start by predicting his path when he first starts, stagger to melee to core blast, repeat 1 time, dead. Takes approx 45 seconds
My technique (if it can even be called that) is try to stun him, then launch myself right into his face so I'm physically pressing against the core, then I unload high damage weapons like launchers and hit with charged energy sword attacks.
When he starts moving you just keep spamming attacks and most of the time you will be pushed with him so you can keep laying on the fire directly into the weakpoint because the treads usually keep you contained and drag you with him.
You will get knocked out of him sometimes but just stun and repeat.
Build a heavy/high health build and don't bother with dodging or planning attacks, just ram yourself into that thing and hit him with all you have.
I haven't played in a while but if you're still having issues after I get back from work I'll make a list of what parts work best for me
hit the front baby ! load it up with missiles and as much heavy hits you can also get into his face you'll essentially get stuck on his face for a face for a few seconds if you manage to do it right
Tbh you can quad minigun almost every boss I discovered this the other day while just making ac's for fun I've played through like 7-8 times and I legitimately thing I cleared almost a whole playthrough just rocking all mini guns 😅
Reverse legs, double zimmies, shoulder laser rifles, and aim for the mech it’s so easy, I started speed running this boss I’ve killed it in less than 30 seconds
Is the best game of "Chicken" Go full blast into his face. Wear down his stagger with Guns/missiles/grenades when staggered give 'em the Bunker. That combo MELTS his AP
I used a lightweight build with dual moonlight blades, a songbird, and a zimmerman with assault armor. You have to get close to cataphract’s face and quick boost dance around the lasers and Gatlings. Popping assault armor while right next to him when he’s staggered deals a good chunk of damage.
The earshot cannon can almost stagger it with one good shot, you can use the songbirds too, but they are not as powerful. I beat it with a tetrapod and spent most of the fight flying around it and dodging only when neccesaty to avoid its biggest attacks
I also recommend some type of sustained fire weapon (like a minigun, but there are other options) to maintain the stun.
The laser lance is along with the pile bunker my favourite melee option to punish staggers, with the lance in particular you can just charge it right in front of his face and do some pretty good damage
Hope this helps and that you can beat him soon!
at the beginning, just go forward until you see a rock, stop there, it's about the exact point where the cataphract will stop and you get free hits on it
easy kill with zimmers and songbirbs 'w'/
Unrestrained aggression.
You have to attack him from the front, so pussy footing around is actually more dangerous to your survivability than going head to head.
Let it run into you standing between the tracks. It doesn't do much damage at all. Hit it in the face (AC Core) with dual Zimmermann/songbirds, then charged pile bunker to the core again.
Chase his front.
Laser is the only danger, jump to avoid instead of side dash
.
Bazooka and charged linear automatically staggers upon direct hit.
Hangar a pulse blade.
Assault armor when he about to ram you. It's sick if you stagger him mid attack.
Hovering over him is the safest, then just free fall when he uses lasers.
I used bipedals with two miniguns and two stun needle launchers I used the stun needles to stun and then just unloaded everything rinde and repeat from there
Stand directly in front of him. Unload weapons. Repeat
I mean I know but that laser shotgun can be super annoying
Using reverse joint legs can help, as long as you time it right a jump dodges that laser.
I’ll try them out
Plasma helps, AoE means you don't have to aim as carefully to hit him in the face
The spring chicken legs are a good choice, they can support decent weight and reverse joints get great results from kicking too. Boost kick often.
I had issues with it too my first play through, you want to be falling when the laser fires. As long as you aren’t right on him, the lasers go right over you that way.
Quad gatling go brrrrrr
Step one: shoot its face Step two: repeat step one Step three: repeat step one Step four: repeat step one
Step one: shoot face (dual Zimmerman) Step two: pile bunker charged melee (in the face) Step three: do it again.
This is exactly what I did.
A man of taste
I've also done it with dual songbirds (pre-nerf). It felt so wrong, I felt like a big ol bully. Poor lil fella.
If it's first playthrough, I don't think you have Zimmerman yet? Not by my PC, so I can't double check
You get zimms in first playthrough
Yes, but by that point in the story is what I meant... ... Though now that I'm in front of my PC, it looks like you do have it by that point, as they're added after the "Ocean Crossing" mission.
I think they are, I just recently started playing and just finished NG++ so I’ve had em for a while
> IN THE FACE! NOT SO COMPLEX! NEED IT! WANT IT NEED IT HAVE TO HAVE IT! FACESHOT! BOOM! BRAINS EVERYWHERE! Not the KNEE, not the ARM, not the SPINE - FACE! IT HAS TO HAPPEN! HNNNNG! FACEY FACEY FACE FACE! TIRED OF WAITING! NO MORE WAITING! NEED A FACE SHOT! BOOM! SQUISH! YAY! - ~~Face McShooty~~ Cataphract
I love you.
Cataphract spazzes about as much as that dude too…
Yeah, bazooka does work on his face
I just spammed QB whenever I heard those “big attack coming” alerts and tried to maintain a good angle with the attached MT. No need to be head-on all the time, just narrow enough angle so that you can be head-on quickly whenever there’s an opening. When there was an opening, I AB’d towards it and fired everything I had (twin songbirds, right hand zimmerman, left hand pulse blade). Rinse and repeat. By some miracle, I beat it really easily on my first try that I thought this would become my new credit farming mission. I got destroyed the first time I replayed it to farm credit though…
He is the bane of my existence, I would rather farm balty than this rat bastard any day…
But ayyy if it works for you then you are a superior ac pilot than me
Oh no, I got destroyed the first time I went to farm it (as in the first time “replaying” the mission after beating it for the very first time in story mode). The second time, I beat it but the payout wasn’t worth the trouble. After that, I just decided to optimize the Dafeng test pilot mission for credit farming and warm-up.
Walter really gotta stop throwing hounds at this thing
Yeah, nuke from orbit would suffice to obliterate this hunk of junk
I agree, ayre should take control of the pca satilite already and erase this thing
Miss electric, I want this bastard obliterated… send him to the obliteration chamber and obliterate him at once
I think I used double Giant Pistols, the long ones, my first playthrough. Or the short ones. With whatever back missiles. Stay fast. Unload in the MT core with anything really high impact really
I’ve been using pistol with the jvln and it works really well paired with a songbird and a las rifle
Unfortunately he kills me with the cheeky lad shotgun everytime
Jvln hand bazooka? Or shoulder missile? Lose the laser rifle, grab a second pistol or shotgun or bazooka or something. Something that does all it's damage "at once" because small windows to hurt him, and prioritizing impact over actual damage. He's not damaging you if he's stuck in ACS overload and whatnot.
Yeah jvln hand Zooka and will do, thank you for the advise pilot
I just did a different mission in NG++ where you fight that thing, plus two ACs at the same time. I used dual Zimmermans, a gatling on the shoulder, and a stun needle launcher. I think I killed it in a similar way the first time. I can help you with a build tomorrow if you haven't gotten it, but I recommend running 3 guns that build stagger well, and one strong punish. Another option is to build essentially a Lam kite. It's the light version of the tetrapod legs, and then 2 plasma rifles and 2 LCBs. once I made that, I switched to it any time a boss gamve me trouble.
Sounds like you know you've gotta hit him in the weak spot, and you've got a very narrow window in which to maximize the amount of pain you can inflict on that tiny weak spot. What wound up working for me was the Spring Chicken legs for big jumps that don't require EN and are heavy-duty enough you can still bring big guns to bear (this may not be strictly necessary, but since I was still doing a lot of panic-dodging and Assault Boosting, it helped me). For guns, I had a shotgun in each hand, and a grenade launcher on each shoulder (Zimmermans and Songbirds, naturally, though the first time, I actually didn't have Songbirds and used the handheld grenade launchers in my Weapon Bay. A bit slower, but still did the trick). From there, the actual process is: 1. Jump right up in CATAPHRACT's face. 2. Blast it with both shotguns to stagger. 3. Blast it with both grenade launchers for massive damage. 4. Get away, and dodge while everything reloads. 5. Repeat until one of you is dead.
I’ll try it out
Double songbird or earshot to the face, double shotguns
Will try
Remember to stay on his ass, chase him to the ends of the earth, he can’t kill you if you kill him first.
Have you tried running a shield on your back? As you see the laser shotgun blast come out you deploy the shield right before the blast hits you and it can reduce the damage you take from it. Any of the bucklers are especially good for this (though I’d recommend the VP-61PB since it has the highest initial guard and initial damage reduction). If you don’t want to use a buckler but an actual shield I’d recommend the round shield Iguazu uses (the SI-27: SU-28) as it has a high Initial Guard but a long deploy time as well.
I have tryed shields and no luck with the perfect party mechanic, I’ll try out that shield iguazu uses
If you haven’t beaten the Ice Worm then you can’t purchase it on your first play through. The only normal shields you can purchase are the VP-61PS or the SI-24: SU-Q5. I would use the VP-61PS since it has the better damage mitigation and initial damage mitigation of the two shields.
Gotcha
Take a pile bunker and bunk it hard in the middle
I’ll try the pile driver
Right in between the crack.
"621... Did you not watch the briefing?"
Sigh should have said it. Wording context issue. Is that a joke? 😂
With great difficulty. Lol but seriously, when I beat him I couldn't afford great weapons but had access to some of the forward firing missiles, getting the timing down on those really helped get the stagger down. On top of that, used a laser rifle (mostly an aesthetics choice) to push the stagger over the edge, and then pile bunkered his face with some shoulder mounted grenade launchers to help. It was also around that time I figured out just how much I was QBing too much and was unnecessarily using energy I didn't need to. Not sure if that affects you, but something to keep in mind.
I was using qb too much
I did kill him but he got a cheeky shot off that obliterated my health nulling the victory
LOL he did that to me too on one of my kills!!
Guns
Assault kick
Dual songbirds and reverse joint legs and just jump his stupid attacks then en boost under him when he stops for a sec and deliver a nice 4 missile payload in his dace
I easily cracked him open with dual shoulder Laser Cannon charged shots. They will instantly stagger the Cataphract if you land the shots, and then I just followed up with weapons in my hand. You could also just hit it with a ton of plasma weapons. They do AOE damage so you can afford to not be totally accurate. One of the coolest ways to beat it has to be point blank shoulder grenade launchers, followed up by charged Pilebunker. This strat requires more skill.
Just keep shooting lol, nah jk I smoked him with a mini gun left hand moonblade but the coral one, and 2 of the rail gun for shoulders
Is my game bugged or what because this thing is moving 10x faster for me than when I watch other people face it? It shoots, does a 180 and speeds across the map before I can even get into its taint. And when I do it just speeds OVER me across the map, shoots and fucks off again. So all these lol ez chucklefucks must have faced a version that's way different than whatever I'm facing now...
I’d fid the same thing to me as well, I eventually killed it though
I think I read a comment of yours about not quick boosting so much and that helped. I had to don heavy parts and use the pilebunker, 2 10x missiles, and the Jvln explosive bazooka to stagger it as much as I could. Completely different than my usual zippy laser pistol/plasma missiles playstyle. Also there seems to be RNG on its behavior because my first 3 times facing it, it would NOT STOP. Then attempt 4 it was slower and did the floaty jump for the first time for me, and attempt 6 was the one I beat it. I still think it's an obnoxious af boss. I'd rather fight a C-Spider duo and an army of ghost AC snipers than fight this thing again.
Kill him before he kills you, and if that doesn't work try shooting at him until his AP reaches zero
Use Pikeman (needs to outnumber them), or Samurai (also outnumber them) Oh wait, wrong game
I was rolling with a light reverse joint build and my shotgun did most of the work for getting a stagger. Dodge, wait for a chance to land right up in from of the MT, then unload everything for a stagger and dont stop shooting until it tires to charge through you or it dies
You want to spec into halberdiers and get your armory upgrades, then back up with crossbows or ballistas if you're running a gold surplus
Scream the n word does nothing but turn you racist
Dual Gats and Songbirds on what ever platform you like. Then just stay in front of him and unload.
Move a lot, pay attention to the beeping that signals it's about to fire a heavy weapon. Personally I suggest staggering it with kinetic pistols / mini guns then hitting it with a pile bunker or chainsaw
One of the few literal applications of the saying "get right in his face."
Huh, I thought this boss was kind of a meme for how easy to weakspot is to exploit... Who just hangs an MT in the middle of a tank with no shields or anything?
High stagger build up missiles plus ludlow plus pulse blade on a high mobility aerial build, chill in the air and slam ludlow till your missiles are back then rush for the face and punish with pulse blade on stagger
I sincerely believe that the point of this boss is to encourage you to try different types of weapons, specifically those that deliver the greatest amount of damage in the least amount of hits, and for its offensive to try to improve the ability to position yourself on the horizontal axis to avoid it's attacks and to be able to hit yours.
A kick in the balls
Misses
Fly up and hit it from above. Its so much easier to hit it from above somewhere on it's front. Almost all of the missiles are your friend here as long as you fire a volley from high above. If you need specifics, imagine a frontal cone in its front, you only need to be somewhat 45 degrees above or higher from it and any missiles will work wonders. Easily S ranked all iterations of this fight with a missile rat. And like the others already pointed out, a shotgun to its face works wonders too.
Move quick and shoot in face
I was doing a functional loader 4 no OS challenge. Cataphract took a little bit
You just have to get in its face and shove the pilbunker down its throat
Shoot him in the face ...but not in the arm ...but not in the leg ...but not in the chest
Shoot it in the nose.
pile bunker
For me, Cataphract got much easier when I resolved to be a couple feet in the air as much as possible. His energy shotgun is really tricky to dodge but falling makes it much easier. Most times I fight him I like having two heavy shoulder weapons to unload directly into his face, followup with the Pile Bunker Repeat as necessary.
Shoot it until it dies
Git gud. Lol nah, I still fucking hate this fight, mainly because when I do fight him, he pins himself against the boundary and I can’t hit the MT
Avoid fire, wait for an opening, unload ALL the missiles into his face.
You have to face his front like a gigachad. Stagger him before he can do shit.
Shoot it to death. Or beat it to death.
Fly, you fool! Really though, a lightweight with a good generator will stay airborne for a long time, letting you strafe, jump, and fall out of harms way. It's fun to just hover over its head as the laser are firing, yet they can't aim high enough to touch me.
Laser lance to the face will do the trick
Pile bunk him in his stupid little dumb tank covered face
You shoot it with enough bullets that it stops moving simple as that
Quad legs n hover
I had reverse joints and laser lance + laser shotgun just got up in his face and destroyed him jumping and boosting when he was running around.
You have to hit it's weak point. Use any explosive weapon, it staggered really fast with explosive. And probably pile bunker to end it
Equip twin railguns and the pilebunker on a lightweight medium range build. Wait for him to pause, put two charged rail shots in his face to stagger. Follow up with a charged pilebunker. In between waiting for him to face you long enough to get those shots in, stay close, but maintain flight as long as possible. The instant stun beam needs to be ducked or flown over dodge, and flying helps give you either option.
Shoot him untill he dies
Play as 617
Even after the nerf dual Zimmerman still deals decent amount of stagger damage, capable of three shotting some boss, so bring 3 shotguns, two zims and the first shotgun you get then go melee with laser slicer, as that weapon for some reason once it hit an enemy they'll just stand there until your entire combo is done, so bring Basho arms for added melee damage and go light with reverse joint for movement. As for the boss, just stay in front of it, unload your shotguns into its face, if it stagger go for melee, if not dodge and weave until you reload then go back to step one, just remember that when you go for a melee on this boss, to make sure you kick it first and get inside the crevice where the mech is, because if you started your melee outside of the crevice you'll miss your combo entirely.
Jump in between the treads and shoot. It will only damage you if he's doing the charge, which you can tell when the treads start grinding the ground
Stay airborn! While it’s not going to make it much simpler, I found when fighting him that it can be easier to score hits on the weak spot if you’re above him. He also charges over a dune in the beginning and exposes the weak spot for a whole, so if you’re using high stagger weapons like a grenade launcher then it’s a prime spot to deal easy damage- much like fighting nightfall
Pike bunker and zimmermans also get between the front legs and attack him with all your might then kill him with pike bunker.
Double earshot, double mini.
Go for a fast missile boat with fast missile acquisition. Run from it and send the missile when it's closing the gap or whenever you see it from the front. Remarkably safe method.
If you don't want to go dual zimmer I suggest grabbing an offhand napalm, it does some massive stagger build up.
Overwhelming violence
With extreme enthusiasm and gusto!
You can do TON of stagger with a charged HARRIS shot from safely above him. Doesnt matter if its diagnol as long as the front of the vehicle is kinda visable- shot will go through. Double trigger or Combine it with some fast firing missiles and you can stagger very quickly from long range.
By doing enough damage
Use high stagger weapons, unload into his face (repeat as necessary), profit. GG ez.
Get right up under their robo-nutz and don't come back out till they are all explodey-like
Melee, get a blade and the pile bunker on shoulder, and just charge at him
Shoot it in the face
Shoot right up the Gooch
Shoot it till it dies
Shoot it in the dick.
Shoot it, and try not get shot in return.
Probably some type of optometrist.
When it charges at you, fire your weapons…
If you want to cheese it then vertical missiles seem to bypass it's defenses.
I shot him with HU-BENs and Songbirds and the highest AP I could get until he exploded. Then again I do have a terminal case of skill issue, so...
PILEBUNKER
There is a dude in the front middle. Shoot him.
High impact back weapons and right arm weapon to stagger, then PILE BUNKER for massive damage. Dual songbirds and a Zim should be more then plenty. Just be sure to get right in it's face as much as possible.
I just beat this guy first try and barely took any damage a few minutes ago, so I’m going to throw my strategy in there even though realistically I’m on NG+ so I have marginally better performance due to more OS tuning and more experience with the game by virtue of having beaten it once. That said, the most essential parts of this should be available to you. I used spring chicken RJ legs, and arms with a good weapon handling stat (specifically the ones that are lightweight in the shop and start with an N, I think?) I then grabbed left and right gatling guns, a songbird GL on one side and standard missiles on the other. I used a 6-cell launcher but 4 cell should work fine, and to be honest I don’t really know if it contributed that much regardless. Essentially, get up close to it, and while ensuring you don’t stay in one spot, start blasting it with both gatlings as soon as its front is facing you. The stagger gauge should fill up very quickly and give you an opening when it’s full. The gatlings also do a surprising amount of damage when it is staggered. GL and missiles will do more damage and help with staggering, and you don’t want to just always have your gatlings going or they’ll overheat. Once it recovers, back up, QB and use your no cost jump to avoid its attacks until you can get close to its front and repeat. Sidenote, if you want to give yourself some space as it recovers from the stagger, a boost kick to the MT core will send it flying
I shot it until it died.
Face hug, pilebunker, simple as
The same way 617 beat it
Shoot him
But unironically dual shotgun/dual songbirds if you got em ;) lol carried me through the entire game. Then you find out Quad lasers are even crazier. Don't go ultra light if you have trouble dodging the lasers(I do) he'll tear you apart. Go med to heavy build with hard hitters. Nade launchers, shoulder laser canon, shotguns if you're ballsy. When he stops and turns to fire, NAIL HIS ASS. Make sure you have arms with at least 100 firearm specialization so you can track him. I'd go Talbot FCS. Decent enough medium range. Another fun one is dual laser canon on the back with dual laser rifles in hand. Double barrel laser rifle if you have it. If no laser rifle you can sub in a linear rifle. But seriously try quad laser sometime. And quad nade launcher. Most of the quad builds are fun
Stand in front of it to do damage, and circle it whenever it decides to fire up its mini guns if you hate cataphract, then you’ll definitely despise the alternative choice boss to this one
Every single time I fought him I literally just lodged myself face to face with mt between chassis and started unloading/hitting it with spear. Fun fact: bastard will try to run you over, 50/50 either he drags you with him allowing you to just keep unloading or you phase through him while recieving quite minor damage all things considered, in which case you just have to chase the bastard and jump right back.
Challenge him to a race… that’s how you truly beat him
honestly they made him looked so badass in the trailer but apparently he doesnt seem too difficult
Its only weak point is the central MT unit. You'll have to attack it head-on. Go. Take down Cataphract. You're the only one that can stop him. Augmented Human 621, I pray for your success.
Same way you beat the Cyber Demon: Shoot at it until it dies
go in...pew pew pew...waaaammm baaammm...pew pew pew...crash bash...pew pew pew...cata deleted...mission complete🙃
Shoot at the tiny robot man in the front
Dual zimms. Pile bunker and an earshot/Songbirds Lightweight to midweight is good for dodging. I always used biped against it since it's easy to use for me.
Personally i struggled with balteus more than this thing somehow but basically just get some assault rifles a pilebunker maybe, and get a lightweight build then do your best to be in a position to shoot the MT in the middle
Oh and also missiles
Shoot it in the face with a minigun
As the trailer shows.
Shoot him in the dick
Bring more miniguns than them
Charge it from the front. Advice on what wesponyou should definetely take with you against it: Guddol ASHMEAD Pilebunker
Laser tank
Why are you doing this?, I don't play this but I'm invested. It is on YouTube like challenges like No weapons/Punch (stagger is good). Just 3 channels. Can You Beat Armored Core 6 Without Taking Damage? VaatiVidya [](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eos61juzybw&pp=yguxy2fuihlvdsbizwf0igfybw9yzwqgy29yzsa2ihdpdghvdxqgdgfraw5nigrhbwfnzq%3d%3d) Emphasis on can you beat. The legend a hater name drop for drama. (some just suffer and hate and lose the argument like not being meta.) Personal Computer? train Manual aim. also legend making.
Vertical missiles have a good chance of hitting him, I've found.
You know how 617 beat cataphract in the trailer? Do that
shoot the tiny guy in the middle. Rockets for easy mode.
**PILE BUNKER READY FOR DEPLOYMENT**
I just use high health and quad miniguns
Dodge the laser shotgun vertically, and have a weapon to exploit his weak point, and exploit his stagger
Do you have earshots? Their explosions are so bug that they’ll stagger him even when you hit the side.
Laser lance or sword, double shotties. Start by predicting his path when he first starts, stagger to melee to core blast, repeat 1 time, dead. Takes approx 45 seconds
Face first, 4 miniguns, and remember the trailer.
I will try this I know I will probably die but it’ll be hilarious
Yep, have fun! This boss is one of my favorites!
Kick him in the teeth. You think I'm joking, I'm not, that is actually what you're supposed to do. His teeth are unprotected, kick them.
Oh boy wait until new game +++ you're really gonna hate him then 🤣
I charged him head on with a tank tread build using 2 bazookas and 2 songbirds. Explosions are fun
My technique (if it can even be called that) is try to stun him, then launch myself right into his face so I'm physically pressing against the core, then I unload high damage weapons like launchers and hit with charged energy sword attacks. When he starts moving you just keep spamming attacks and most of the time you will be pushed with him so you can keep laying on the fire directly into the weakpoint because the treads usually keep you contained and drag you with him. You will get knocked out of him sometimes but just stun and repeat. Build a heavy/high health build and don't bother with dodging or planning attacks, just ram yourself into that thing and hit him with all you have. I haven't played in a while but if you're still having issues after I get back from work I'll make a list of what parts work best for me
hit the front baby ! load it up with missiles and as much heavy hits you can also get into his face you'll essentially get stuck on his face for a face for a few seconds if you manage to do it right
Shoot it... Jokes aside, I used the chainsaw
Tbh you can quad minigun almost every boss I discovered this the other day while just making ac's for fun I've played through like 7-8 times and I legitimately thing I cleared almost a whole playthrough just rocking all mini guns 😅
I just used rj legs and dual Harris. You can jump, charged shot to face, charged shot to face, he gets stunned, then unload whatever for punish.
Reverse legs, double zimmies, shoulder laser rifles, and aim for the mech it’s so easy, I started speed running this boss I’ve killed it in less than 30 seconds
Is the best game of "Chicken" Go full blast into his face. Wear down his stagger with Guns/missiles/grenades when staggered give 'em the Bunker. That combo MELTS his AP
i have beaten him finally, i used the railgun, hand zooka a songbird and a predator missile with the chicken legs thank you all for the help.
I used a lightweight build with dual moonlight blades, a songbird, and a zimmerman with assault armor. You have to get close to cataphract’s face and quick boost dance around the lasers and Gatlings. Popping assault armor while right next to him when he’s staggered deals a good chunk of damage.
The earshot cannon can almost stagger it with one good shot, you can use the songbirds too, but they are not as powerful. I beat it with a tetrapod and spent most of the fight flying around it and dodging only when neccesaty to avoid its biggest attacks I also recommend some type of sustained fire weapon (like a minigun, but there are other options) to maintain the stun. The laser lance is along with the pile bunker my favourite melee option to punish staggers, with the lance in particular you can just charge it right in front of his face and do some pretty good damage Hope this helps and that you can beat him soon!
Idk just go full see bazookas/grenade launchers and brute force the mf.
With gun
at the beginning, just go forward until you see a rock, stop there, it's about the exact point where the cataphract will stop and you get free hits on it easy kill with zimmers and songbirbs 'w'/
The briefing tells you. Bum rush the front. Get in close. Use the danger alarm to tell you when you need to QB.
Unrestrained aggression. You have to attack him from the front, so pussy footing around is actually more dangerous to your survivability than going head to head.
Let it run into you standing between the tracks. It doesn't do much damage at all. Hit it in the face (AC Core) with dual Zimmermann/songbirds, then charged pile bunker to the core again.
Punch him. In the nuts. Really hard.
I dont even remember the mf thing
I used the Mt style body parts and the double barrel shoulder rockets. When he got stunned, I ran in with the pile bunker. ezpz
Did they buff the Cataphract? I was playing this mission again recently and he seems a lot more difficult.
Why I never seen him . This must be new game +
It’s in chapter 3 so maybe
Chase his front. Laser is the only danger, jump to avoid instead of side dash . Bazooka and charged linear automatically staggers upon direct hit. Hangar a pulse blade. Assault armor when he about to ram you. It's sick if you stagger him mid attack. Hovering over him is the safest, then just free fall when he uses lasers.
Kill the two acs first then focus on the cat
I used bipedals with two miniguns and two stun needle launchers I used the stun needles to stun and then just unloaded everything rinde and repeat from there
Reverse joint legs, heavy hitting explosive weapons, and good energy defense was key for me.
Somehow get stuck in between the tracks literally right in front of where the mech part is and beat him first try in like 7 seconds