How to Choose Your Head Piece (Detailed Breakdown) - Armored Core 6

IMO one of the final pieces to select for your AC to complete a build. More AC6 breakdown and builds coming soon!

If you really don't read:

[Chrightt]

PLEASE READ: Will be posting an updated video in the future (system recovery, scan, and fixing Verrill's weight)
SOLVED: System Recovery's description is very misleading.
#1 acts as your "status" bar (i.e. electrify/burn which you don't see until a status is applied).
#2 It doesn't reduce the scan CD (scan CD is a hidden stat - typical FromSoft.)
A follow up video will be made for the head piece in the future where scan/system recovery will be taken into account as well for more niche use cases.

Since the head piece's biggest focus is the additional defensive stats you can obtain, it often is a slot that I make the final selection last to "complete" a build! Hope this video helps, and I will be pushing out more AC6 content in the near future!

[Salacavalini]

You forgot one very important satistic: The HC-2000 Shade Eye has an animated visor that comes out when Assault Boosting or using Target Assist, giving it unparalleled Fashion score.

[FelisImpurrator]

Fun fact: For more casual play, reading lore descriptions is actually an excellent way to get a feel for which parts do what. The parts actually conform fairly closely to what they're described as in the flavor text, and the outstanding balance issue favoring heavyweights is more to do with the scaling of underweight load bonuses (they're not quite high enough to make up for the lost AP and defense, although I'd say matching Booster Ideal Weight to Total Weight can make a significant difference), not the parts themselves being bad (for the most part - the Tian-Qiang actually does seem to be pretty bad, but the game does explicitly say that Dafeng sacrifices function in "peripheral" parts like the head to focus on strength in the central parts like Core and Legs.).

The parts that are described as advanced or special in their flavor text tend to have something they're extremely good at, or be balanced with virtually no glaring weaknesses. Like the HAL set, which isn't the best at anything but has the best balanced midweight stat spread with no downsides. Or the Verrill, which does exactly what it claims (offers outstanding performance for massive EN load).

Also, if a part has a maxed out bar in any given stat, that means it has the highest possible performance in that stat out of any available part. The bars are effectively a Worst to Best ranking of every part with that stat in the game, and as far as I know, every stat that isn't ultra-specific has one part that hits the right edge of its bar. So the Mind Beta represents the highest value for stability in the entire part roster, and so on.

Basically, if you don't want to math crunch and still want a solid AC, other than making sure to check important sub stats like ranged versus melee spec, you can basically just read the flavor text and a lot of the time you'll get key info about what a part is good at. If it sounds really cool, it probably is. At least for the main body parts. Weapon balance is a lot less consistent, with damage to ammo ratio being the biggest issue on half the list.

[FelisImpurrator]

Scan range acts as a functional extension of your target softlock. If you can scan it, you can begin acquiring lock, which is excellent for missiles.

[austinhoff]

Love that you’re doing armored core videos and giving this series your high quality and in depth stat breakdowns

[dchousoseiso]

How to pick your mech head:

Drip

That is all. Saved ya'll some time

[HekateMGO]

I use Alba or Shade Eye heads, they have optimal aesthetics.

[saintsword]

Scan distance is really important on some PvP maps. I get a big head start in Xylem quite often because I can detect my opponent first. It can't just be called unimportant.

[RenoKyrie]

If you are wondering on the Status

Electric Discharge the Bleed/Scarlet Rot of this game comes from Stun Bombs, Stun Needles(The most overpowered of them right now), and Stun Handgun

For the second one its ACS anomaly which comes from Fire weapons(Napalm Launcher and Flamethrower) and they affect how much damage you take when Staggered(This can make the Standard Machinegun much more dealier)

[MadassAlex]

I think your analysis of the Tian-Qiang only accounts for its comparison to other head pieces, rather than accounting for weight as a currency spent on all kinds of equipment overall. When you're saving weight on a variety of components, it contributes to the ability to put strong weaponry or a heavy generator on a light mech, which is really useful when you're pushing 350 or more boost speed or playing strategies with high energy bar consumption.

Watching people's gameplay videos, I find there's a few things people are sleeping on which specifically benefit from a low weight/high EN bar combo; a combination of these is the laser dagger and assault burst, which is a more practical way to deal high damage than the pile bunker under a lot of circumstances. It's still possible to fit dual zimmerman shotguns and a songbird on said build. Or even replace the zimmerman shotguns with the heavy handguns and reduce the weight of the remaining shoulder slot, in which case you can attain over 380 boost speed while still being able to break stability and deal high burst damage. But all this is contingent upon putting your limited weight limit towards weapons, generators, and speed.

[tristanm]

Really glad to see you covering Armored Core 6. I've been testing a LOT of stuff myself and finding a toooon of inconsistencies with the stats and how they're presented, so it'll be good to have someone who goes really in-depth.

[lesslighter]

What affect Stagger recovery is your Core piece if it affects "attitude recovery" then that counts typically the lighter you are the faster you get out of stagger so it could be a factor of core and legs

[robocraftman]

For AC6 the most confusing part is that, for some of the weapons, especially single-shot ones, the damage number is shown as a whole without breaking down.
When it comes to the weapons that meant to not land a full hit (Like charged Coral Missile), the actual damage stray much from the paper number. I really hope there to be a spreadsheet to illustrate the damage composition of the weapons.

[DritzDa]

I was under the impression System Recovery was Scan Recharge Speed (although I know the contextual help doesn't say this). If you put on the VE-44B (highest recovery) it has around a 5 sec (ish) scan refresh timer. If you put on the Tian-Qiang (lowest) it is tremendously slower (roughly three times slower maybe, didn't test it much).

I personally think scanning is generally underrated (in PvE even on repeat runs) due to target handling and lock on being possible through walls rather than being broken constantly. I can't argue against raw defensive value being very good though.

The fast recharge time, reasonable Defenses and maximum scan range of the VE 44B are all consistently usable in PvE IMO even if you know where the enemies spawn. Also I like the little articulated head flaps. Lol

[isabellemontbarron]

For the low weight recommendations, the Verrill actually weighs a lot more than you had listed (3830 instead of 3080). This makes it unsuitable if tight on weight. Nachtreiher is great for it's very low weight. But if you're looking a little heavier the Alba, Appetizer, and Shades Eye are all decent options, giving a little better overall def (and notably longer scan range) for a bit more weight.

[paulsaguto]

Dude I discovered you from this breakdown video, and youre an author?!? I really appreciate the depth and effort you put in but also how direct yet concise you display the metrics. Immediately I heard you reading my mind as to all the different categories, it was really impressive. Basically I felt like you personally catered this video just for me lol

[Yuscha]

This video was recommended to me; i hadnt heard of this channel before. But i really like this data-driven approach to part analysis. Ive started doing it on my own for some parts (arms, cores, heads) just because in-game it is very challenging to compare all parts to one another.

[Relf_G]

Scanning can let you lock on with vert missiles from behind walls. So a bit of a niche, but can definitely be useful for combat.

[skeltaldelegate]

I made a chart very much like this for 4A that uses standard deviations instead as a "scoring" system. Will probably tackle it again for AC6.

[irsever]

hot damn brother, excellent work. Showing your math on everything and footage of testing system recovery doing nothing is MIND BLOWING. I'd been treating it as the most important. Can't wait for the other part categories!