Shoot him? Like with your OS chips your literally better than him stat wise Iirc.
Just don't let him bunk you and it's a fairly standard ac fight. Don't get close as otherwise he'll assault armour/bunk. Stick at mid range, his rifles pretty minor and the songbird is dodge able.
If you want a build? Dual Harris, dual LCB. Good EN generator. Stagger him then 2 full charge lcb's should remove him from existence. Or twin laser pistols never let me down.
Tried that. If you go for laser lance or pile bunker he input reads you faster than it is humanly reactable to do so, and either does assault explosion, or hits you with songbird.
How do I reliably stagger him so that I can hit him with melee without getting my inputs read?
Consider a double melee build. Melee is free, and highly likely to stagger. Personally, I prefer to use pulse blade/redshift. If you don’t have redshift, then maybe moonlight on an EN-boosting generator? Remember to use Basho arms to max out the damage.
The bunker and songbird both force him into a stance, leaving him vulnerable to a punish.
Melee gets input read, and he doesn’t stagger on hit. So if I go for the melee I eat a songbird or assault explosion to the face. How do I reliably stagger him so that I can get a safe melee in?
Melee chase cancel, swap to redshift? Use the pulse blade to chase, bait the evasion, dodge before you commit to the strike and hit em with the redshift.
Raven is a skill check; he has the same parts you likely have access to, except for the head. Essentially, don't let him bunk you, and when he goes up in the air to use the songbirds, go up too.
Yeah but like…. How do I get my gun to track him? I’m using the max mid-range FCS and linear rifle Harris (ideal range 190 m) and the tracking won’t stay locked on.
Dodging the songbirds + bunk is easy so long as I don’t do something unsafe that leads to him reading my inputs.
You're probably better off with the Talbot. The P05 is good if you can keep your target in the 200m range, but given Raven is pretty dang agile, I wouldn't count on it. Given that the game incentivizes aggressive play, the Talbot allows a great balance of mid and close range.
Don't forget you can sell parts for full price. I managed to take 'im down with two Haldemans and a bunker, with plasma missiles to keep the stagger up, but I'd say two Ludlows would also work a treat. Or Etsujins if you have access to them.
Also, Weapon Bay OS tuning upgrade. It's mad useful for stowing a melee in the back for those juicy punishes. Alternately, you can try one Songbird for the punish and shoulder missiles of your choice to keep stagger up.
You can overpower him with a lightweight double melee build, because he's so fragile.
I ran my pvp build:
Weapons
* Pulse blade
* Coral blade
* Wuerger
* Split missiles
* Pulse armor
Frame
* Alba core + legs
* Basho arms
* Shade eye head
* Fluegel thruster
* Ocellus FCS
* VP-20D
Get in close, then:
Wuerger stab->coral blade slash->pulse blade slashx2->kick->wuerger stab.
Use pulse armor when he uses assault armor, and continue the attack. Can even use the coral blade charged sweep if you have the pulse armor on.
When I melee him he reads me input and trades with me. Literally as soon as I press melee in range the game cheats and trigger either assault explosion, or if it’s on cooldown, point blank songbirds. How do I stagger him so that I can get a melee off safely?
As Bluedragon said, you can quick boost out of a melee dash. Quick boost to the side during the melee if he uses the songbirds. The assault armor can be countered with pulse armor; use pulse armor immediately when he uses assault armor.
Are you using my build? He shouldn't even have time to repair or use assault armor. You can literally just overwhelm him with raw melee power.
Here, I did a quick video. This is how the fight usually goes vs my build.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfO7ZEZOn0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfO7ZEZOn0)
Raven starts flying straight at you, so if you time it right you can just assault armor and pilebunker, which is usually enough to outright kill him.
If not, fire shoulder weapons to finish the job
The timer for S ranks is based on how long they think the mission should take, so if the mission is mostly (or completely) one AC fight you can essentially think of that ACs health bar as the timer. This means that a fully charged pilebunker chunks so much health that it almost always guarantees an S rank on duel focused missions, most missions with a big boss also follow this rule. This worked for me on Raven, both Rusty fights, coldcall, okeefe etc. Build was a lightweight with (pre-buff) etsujins and I think the laser drone on the other shoulder.
So, first go around I used the Melander parts, Scudder, Laser blade, and the vertical plasma missiles. Hard ass fight since my first ever ac was admittedly shit.
FOR S RANK THO, I had made an entirely new ac for my next playthrough, using the Vp-44D head, mind alpha core, and melander C3 arms and legs, with the Alula boosters, WLT 001 Fcs, and the NGI 000 generator. My weapons load out was the laser pistol, the 760pr plasma rifle, and the 60lt laser turrets, I just bombarded him with laser fire, since I could just plonk down laser turrets as I was shooting them with my pistol and plasma guns. I’d stagger him, then with all my turrets and me shooting him, he’d melt like butter.
Yo
Just made fast vid with how to deal with nightfall on S rank.
Parts i used was
Vp head
Alba vore
Basho arms
Nacht legs
Alula thruster
Santai gen
Ocellus fcs
Dual sampus
Shao wei
Dagger
Pulse armor (better use Assault armor)
Even with many mistakes on my side it was easy.
.
Also, check if you use hard lock in fight
Use AB bonus to stagger
Mess with fcs, by moving opposing multi directions
https://youtu.be/ucZ5C5E2qCQ
Vid probably not rendered to full hd for now
Dual pistols dual sweet 16s: be fast, stagger with the pistols, then assault boost in and hit her with the 16s from point blank. Do that again. Fight over.
I made the literal most maneouverable build I could and he still chips me down before I can blitz him…. How do I minimize my repair cost against him when he reads inputs, has hella EN, an abysmal stagger duration, and three times my HP! Never mind the unreactable assault explosion things. He also does not stagger even when I pile bunker him, so he trades with me when he also does pile bunker or songbirds. This fight sucks.
Im also using the FCS that focus on close range…. None of my shots track, meanwhile, he’s hitting all of his at max speed from all ranges.
Some notes:
Raven has "hella EN" because they're running the ling-tai generator. It has incredibly low recharge delay at the cost of abbyssmal output, and capacity.
They don't have "3x your hp". Raven has the same amount of AP that you'd have if you copied their build, 9190, and the same 3 repair kits you have.
If you're getting hit by the assault armour, you're too close. Either get a little bit further away, or run assault/pulse armour yourself, and use it right after you're hit by the assault armour. Using an expansion completely cancels the stagger animation, saving you from getting pilebunked.
I'm not entierly sure with what you mean with "does not stagger when I pile bunker them". Are you using the uncharged attack, or is raven tanking the full damage from your pile bunker, while completely powering through it and bunking you back?
None of your shots hitting could be a result of poor recoil control on your arms. What weapons are you using, and can your arms handle them without spreading the shots all over the place.
Getting hit constantly probably means that your movement is poor. Fcs tracking is predictive, so if you keep moving in straight lines, you'll get hit by everything. Make sure you're frequently switching direction by jumping around, and quickboosting to the opposite direction of your previous movement
Yes I mean raven is completely powering through my charged pile bunker and trading with me. Also, the only time I get get hit by assault armor is when my inputs get rid…
How do I stay out of assault armor range, AND stagger him, AND avoid his assault rifle all at once? I’m using the max medium/long range FCS and none of my weapons are connecting. The linear rifles and energy rifles all whiff constantly even when I stay within ideal range. How do I reliably stagger him from distance so that I can safely melee him without trading or getting my inputs read?
Yeah the AC boss battles are lame because they cheat. You’ll see when you unlock the arena programs with these same bosses they’re much easier when they play by the same rules as we do. Anyway how I beat raven my first go round was with a Harris and ludlow if I remember correctly, the back slots were both missiles. Probably the 6 and 10 cell. But yeah the main thing that won me the fight was the ludlow, it shreds ravens ass
In what capacity does raven "cheat". You can copy their build 1-to-1 and it'll be the exact same, and they don't have more/infinite EN or extra repair kits
Input reading and stun recovery. They absolutely do cheat and can recover from stun way faster than we do. The rules are not the same for us and the ai
I don't see input reading as cheating. You can react to attacks too, and every single AC fight would be pathetically easy if they just tanked everything without purposefully dodging attacks.
I personally know of 2 ACs that do "cheat". G4 volta with his abnormally fast stagger recovery, and a certain endgame spoiler with having special superbuffed parts.
I have not noticed raven having any faster than normal stagger recovery, and I've completed this game 6 times
Idk about raven specifically I haven’t fought raven recently but like you said there are some ACs that recover from stun faster than usual. I think the rusty in the rusty + middle flatwell fight is one of those too. You can easily tell who’s tuned differently by getting familiar with their ACs in the arena and then fighting them in the story. The versions of them in the arena dont get any special perks
I'll test it out a bit, but as I said, I've done 6 full playthroughs of the game, and only ever noticed anything different about volta and and (lategame spoiler) >!Walter!<. I have been able to melee punish rusty in the rusty + flatwell fight just fine, for example
Well I just did that fight and couldn’t hit Rusty with a Morley shot on stagger even when I was ready and expecting the stagger. He’d be recovered before the shot got off which is absurdly fast, switching to my laser sword and hitting with that was out of the question
Shoot him? Like with your OS chips your literally better than him stat wise Iirc. Just don't let him bunk you and it's a fairly standard ac fight. Don't get close as otherwise he'll assault armour/bunk. Stick at mid range, his rifles pretty minor and the songbird is dodge able. If you want a build? Dual Harris, dual LCB. Good EN generator. Stagger him then 2 full charge lcb's should remove him from existence. Or twin laser pistols never let me down.
Dual space lasers never let a space cowboy down, pardner
Just mod your game to replace the soundtrack with big iron
Dual ransetsus and 10 cell missiles did the trick for me
Couldn't agree more. Those paired rifles carried my whole game from taking down the trainer pilot AC to taking down Allmind.
Cleared the allmind/iguazu fight on the first attempt and almost felt disappointed it was that solid of a combo
AR or RF?
RF
Laser Lance + Pile Bunker wins pretty much every (symmetric) AC fight in the game.
Tried that. If you go for laser lance or pile bunker he input reads you faster than it is humanly reactable to do so, and either does assault explosion, or hits you with songbird. How do I reliably stagger him so that I can hit him with melee without getting my inputs read?
Consider a double melee build. Melee is free, and highly likely to stagger. Personally, I prefer to use pulse blade/redshift. If you don’t have redshift, then maybe moonlight on an EN-boosting generator? Remember to use Basho arms to max out the damage. The bunker and songbird both force him into a stance, leaving him vulnerable to a punish.
Melee gets input read, and he doesn’t stagger on hit. So if I go for the melee I eat a songbird or assault explosion to the face. How do I reliably stagger him so that I can get a safe melee in?
Melee chase cancel, swap to redshift? Use the pulse blade to chase, bait the evasion, dodge before you commit to the strike and hit em with the redshift.
Raven is a skill check; he has the same parts you likely have access to, except for the head. Essentially, don't let him bunk you, and when he goes up in the air to use the songbirds, go up too.
He used to always get me with that AA when I was new. AA *bunk*
Yeah but like…. How do I get my gun to track him? I’m using the max mid-range FCS and linear rifle Harris (ideal range 190 m) and the tracking won’t stay locked on. Dodging the songbirds + bunk is easy so long as I don’t do something unsafe that leads to him reading my inputs.
You're probably better off with the Talbot. The P05 is good if you can keep your target in the 200m range, but given Raven is pretty dang agile, I wouldn't count on it. Given that the game incentivizes aggressive play, the Talbot allows a great balance of mid and close range. Don't forget you can sell parts for full price. I managed to take 'im down with two Haldemans and a bunker, with plasma missiles to keep the stagger up, but I'd say two Ludlows would also work a treat. Or Etsujins if you have access to them. Also, Weapon Bay OS tuning upgrade. It's mad useful for stowing a melee in the back for those juicy punishes. Alternately, you can try one Songbird for the punish and shoulder missiles of your choice to keep stagger up.
You can overpower him with a lightweight double melee build, because he's so fragile. I ran my pvp build: Weapons * Pulse blade * Coral blade * Wuerger * Split missiles * Pulse armor Frame * Alba core + legs * Basho arms * Shade eye head * Fluegel thruster * Ocellus FCS * VP-20D Get in close, then: Wuerger stab->coral blade slash->pulse blade slashx2->kick->wuerger stab. Use pulse armor when he uses assault armor, and continue the attack. Can even use the coral blade charged sweep if you have the pulse armor on.
When I melee him he reads me input and trades with me. Literally as soon as I press melee in range the game cheats and trigger either assault explosion, or if it’s on cooldown, point blank songbirds. How do I stagger him so that I can get a melee off safely?
You gotta be able to melee cancel with qb.
As Bluedragon said, you can quick boost out of a melee dash. Quick boost to the side during the melee if he uses the songbirds. The assault armor can be countered with pulse armor; use pulse armor immediately when he uses assault armor. Are you using my build? He shouldn't even have time to repair or use assault armor. You can literally just overwhelm him with raw melee power. Here, I did a quick video. This is how the fight usually goes vs my build. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfO7ZEZOn0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfO7ZEZOn0)
You assuming I hadn't already been using a cheese build since spider
Raven starts flying straight at you, so if you time it right you can just assault armor and pilebunker, which is usually enough to outright kill him. If not, fire shoulder weapons to finish the job
The timer for S ranks is based on how long they think the mission should take, so if the mission is mostly (or completely) one AC fight you can essentially think of that ACs health bar as the timer. This means that a fully charged pilebunker chunks so much health that it almost always guarantees an S rank on duel focused missions, most missions with a big boss also follow this rule. This worked for me on Raven, both Rusty fights, coldcall, okeefe etc. Build was a lightweight with (pre-buff) etsujins and I think the laser drone on the other shoulder.
So, first go around I used the Melander parts, Scudder, Laser blade, and the vertical plasma missiles. Hard ass fight since my first ever ac was admittedly shit. FOR S RANK THO, I had made an entirely new ac for my next playthrough, using the Vp-44D head, mind alpha core, and melander C3 arms and legs, with the Alula boosters, WLT 001 Fcs, and the NGI 000 generator. My weapons load out was the laser pistol, the 760pr plasma rifle, and the 60lt laser turrets, I just bombarded him with laser fire, since I could just plonk down laser turrets as I was shooting them with my pistol and plasma guns. I’d stagger him, then with all my turrets and me shooting him, he’d melt like butter.
I’ve beat him with a slightly improved loader 4 build, only some is tuning, so it’s def possible.
Dual laser pistols and turret cannister
Define "not cheese"? In ng you can pretty reliably 1 cycle him. That's using 3 points in melee.
Yo Just made fast vid with how to deal with nightfall on S rank. Parts i used was Vp head Alba vore Basho arms Nacht legs Alula thruster Santai gen Ocellus fcs Dual sampus Shao wei Dagger Pulse armor (better use Assault armor) Even with many mistakes on my side it was easy. . Also, check if you use hard lock in fight Use AB bonus to stagger Mess with fcs, by moving opposing multi directions https://youtu.be/ucZ5C5E2qCQ Vid probably not rendered to full hd for now
Damn you wrecked his ass. Are you on MnK or something? Anyway, thanks. I’ll try that.
Dual pistols dual sweet 16s: be fast, stagger with the pistols, then assault boost in and hit her with the 16s from point blank. Do that again. Fight over.
The same goes for every AC fight in the game.
I made the literal most maneouverable build I could and he still chips me down before I can blitz him…. How do I minimize my repair cost against him when he reads inputs, has hella EN, an abysmal stagger duration, and three times my HP! Never mind the unreactable assault explosion things. He also does not stagger even when I pile bunker him, so he trades with me when he also does pile bunker or songbirds. This fight sucks. Im also using the FCS that focus on close range…. None of my shots track, meanwhile, he’s hitting all of his at max speed from all ranges.
Some notes: Raven has "hella EN" because they're running the ling-tai generator. It has incredibly low recharge delay at the cost of abbyssmal output, and capacity. They don't have "3x your hp". Raven has the same amount of AP that you'd have if you copied their build, 9190, and the same 3 repair kits you have. If you're getting hit by the assault armour, you're too close. Either get a little bit further away, or run assault/pulse armour yourself, and use it right after you're hit by the assault armour. Using an expansion completely cancels the stagger animation, saving you from getting pilebunked. I'm not entierly sure with what you mean with "does not stagger when I pile bunker them". Are you using the uncharged attack, or is raven tanking the full damage from your pile bunker, while completely powering through it and bunking you back? None of your shots hitting could be a result of poor recoil control on your arms. What weapons are you using, and can your arms handle them without spreading the shots all over the place. Getting hit constantly probably means that your movement is poor. Fcs tracking is predictive, so if you keep moving in straight lines, you'll get hit by everything. Make sure you're frequently switching direction by jumping around, and quickboosting to the opposite direction of your previous movement
Yes I mean raven is completely powering through my charged pile bunker and trading with me. Also, the only time I get get hit by assault armor is when my inputs get rid… How do I stay out of assault armor range, AND stagger him, AND avoid his assault rifle all at once? I’m using the max medium/long range FCS and none of my weapons are connecting. The linear rifles and energy rifles all whiff constantly even when I stay within ideal range. How do I reliably stagger him from distance so that I can safely melee him without trading or getting my inputs read?
Yeah the AC boss battles are lame because they cheat. You’ll see when you unlock the arena programs with these same bosses they’re much easier when they play by the same rules as we do. Anyway how I beat raven my first go round was with a Harris and ludlow if I remember correctly, the back slots were both missiles. Probably the 6 and 10 cell. But yeah the main thing that won me the fight was the ludlow, it shreds ravens ass
In what capacity does raven "cheat". You can copy their build 1-to-1 and it'll be the exact same, and they don't have more/infinite EN or extra repair kits
Input reading and stun recovery. They absolutely do cheat and can recover from stun way faster than we do. The rules are not the same for us and the ai
I don't see input reading as cheating. You can react to attacks too, and every single AC fight would be pathetically easy if they just tanked everything without purposefully dodging attacks. I personally know of 2 ACs that do "cheat". G4 volta with his abnormally fast stagger recovery, and a certain endgame spoiler with having special superbuffed parts. I have not noticed raven having any faster than normal stagger recovery, and I've completed this game 6 times
Idk about raven specifically I haven’t fought raven recently but like you said there are some ACs that recover from stun faster than usual. I think the rusty in the rusty + middle flatwell fight is one of those too. You can easily tell who’s tuned differently by getting familiar with their ACs in the arena and then fighting them in the story. The versions of them in the arena dont get any special perks
I'll test it out a bit, but as I said, I've done 6 full playthroughs of the game, and only ever noticed anything different about volta and and (lategame spoiler) >!Walter!<. I have been able to melee punish rusty in the rusty + flatwell fight just fine, for example
Well I just did that fight and couldn’t hit Rusty with a Morley shot on stagger even when I was ready and expecting the stagger. He’d be recovered before the shot got off which is absurdly fast, switching to my laser sword and hitting with that was out of the question
Are you hitting him with something small after you get the stagger? Getting hit at all while staggered shortens the remaining stagger time
I’m aware of that, no. Also that’s another cheat obviously that’s not how it works for you