If you thought the Entangle Sulla boss fight was difficult, boy, you are in for a severe skill check. Once you’ve defeated Sulla at the entrance of the Watchpoint, you’ll go in, trigger a cutscene and start your fight against Balteus, which is one of the most difficult early bosses in Armored Core 6.
Balteus is a tough and aggressive boss players will have to fight at the end of Chapter 1 in Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon. He has an insane amount of moves and requires a lot of patience to deal with. This is where our detailed guide will come in handy.
Best AC Build For Defeating Balteus
The most important factor to consider while building an AC for your fight against Baltius in AC6 is to prioritize single point AP damage. You need to hit Balteus’s pulse armor with your most heavy-hitting weapons to disable and stagger it. That’s why your build should have VP-60LCS cannons on your shoulders.
You fight this boss pretty early in the game so you might only have enough EN and weight capacity to install one cannon.
Your build needs at least medium-weight armor to deal with missile salvo chip damage. Balteus has an absurd amount of attacks, and you will get hit by them eventually. So, beef up!
The Plasma Sword you have from the start will be helpful, too, when the boss is staggered.
Balteus Boss Fight in Armored Core 6
You’ll be fighting Balteus in a massive arena with plenty of space to move horizontally and vertically. This boss prefers to engage over medium or long range. You’ll understand why once we tell about Balteus’s moveset in detail.
You’ll be greeted by the boss with his signature tr-directional missile salvo attack, and that will set the tone for the whole fight. At first, it might seem almost impossible to outrun soo many missiles, but…there is a trick to it.
Moveset
This fight has three phases and the boss keeps adding dangerous attacks with each phase. Let’s take a detailed look at all of them along with tips on how to evade each attack.
Missile Salvo Variations
- Tri-Directional Missile Salvo: The very first attack Balteus will launch at you. He launches a barrage of horizontal and vertical missiles from all rings that deal a lot of AP and Stagger damage. To avoid taking damage from this attack, fly diagonally upwards in the direction of Balteus.
- Side-Facing Missile Salvo: Fires a small barrage of missiles at you from the side that is facing you. This move is meant to stop you from flanking around Balteus. Can be avoided by nailing the dash charge.
- Fanning Missile Salvo: Balteus moves away to launch eight high damaging, and fsat moving missiles. You need to fly about their effective range to dodge them.
- Vertical Missile Salvo: Balteus launches a volley of vertical missiles at you and flying above them would be risky. Instead, you have to wait for them to get close and then dodge to either side with perfect timing.
[There is a variation to this attack in the latter parts of the fight where the missiles come at you from an even higher angle] - Horizontal Missile Salvo: Just like the previous attack, but this time from the horizontal missile ring. To avoid taking damage from this attack, 621 will have to jump over the incoming missiles.
- Spread Missile Salvo: The boss opens up all of its vertical rings in a spherical pattern and hurls a volley at you, making dodging to the side almost impossible. Instead, you need to let the missiles converge at you and then using Assault Boost to fly diagonally upwards.
As you can guess after reading these moves, Balteus adjusts his missile rings according to the situation he is in and pushes you back with relentless horizontal and vertical attacks.
Other Moves
- Bazooka: Balteus shoots a high velocity cannon round at you. Can be easily dodged by dashing to either side.
- Gatling Gun: The boss tries to get in your blind spot and shoot you down with a gatling gun. To avbid taking damage, you need to strafe in the opposite direction.
- Shotgun: Can shoot three shotgun rounds at you. The first two in succession and the last one with a delay. Players usually get caught off-guard by the last one.
- Pulse Explosion [Phase 2]: Balteus charges up and releases an explosion that covers a large AOE. You can dodge this by moving away from it when it is about to explode.
- Slashes: The boss can come at you with five different slashing attack variations once phase two starts. The single, double, cross, uppercut and spinning slash. The rule for dodging all of them is the same; you have to wait for Balteus to start the attack and then read & dodge it accordingly. It does require some getting used to.
- Area Blast: Burns a large area of the ground. Stay in the air to dodge this attack.
- Flamethrower [Phase 3]: Balteus uses this attack in the final phase of the fight. He also has flamethrowers in both hands that can aim high and low. Stay in the air and move away from the boss to avoid getting damaged.
With the moveset out of the way, lets work on a feasible strategy to defeat Balteus in AC6.
Strategy for Defeating Balteus in AC6
Balteus in AC6 prefers taking you on at medium to long range since his main kit consists of every kind of missiles salvo known to man. Those missiles are not as effective at close range.
So, that’s exactly what we are going to do. We have to stick to him as much as possible. It wont be that easy since he has shotgun and slash attacks to push us back but we will do it nevertheless.
You have to wait for him to stand still, which he does while launching missile attacks and then hit him with your cannon to damage the shield. When the shield depletes, Balteus will also get staggered.
That is when you go on the offensive. A well-times and angled strike will allow you to deal a lot of damage to him before the shield regenerates.
You’ll get chipped by the salvo attacks in the beginning as you get used to their timings. Thats why we suggested equipping a slightly tanky armor.
When the second phase starts, Balteus will explode. Avoid taking damage from that explosion and get ready to dodge the slashing attacks we mentioned above. You might get intimidated by these attacks and back off. But don’t!
Your primary strategy is to stay close to Balteus, bring down his shield, and then deal as much DPS as possible. This entire fight is a DPS battle.
Conclusion
That takes care of our guide on how to beat Balteus in Armored Core 6. This fight is much more complex than your fight against the Juggernaut.
Be patient, study his moves, and focus on removing his shield as quickly as possible. Keep calm, and you will emerge victorious. Keep visiting WIG for more updates on what 621 is doing on Rubicon 3.
