Armored Core 6: How to Destroy the PCA Heavy Combat Helicopter in AC6

During the opening moments of Armored Core 6, you’ll be shown the basics of combat and how to maneuver your large mecha vehicle. After dealing with a few handfuls of fodder enemies, the first ‘boss’ encounter will trigger and you’ll be tasked with whittling away at the health bar of a PCA Heavy Combat Helicopter that is trying to take you down.

Destroying the helicopter will put you to the test, and if you’re not using the right strategy this fight could be a bit of a daunting experience. Here is what you need to know about how to destroy the PCA Heavy Combat Helicopter in Armored Core 6. 

Related: Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon: Release Date, Preorder Bonuses & Trailers

How to Beat the First Boss in Armored Core 6

The PCA Heavy Combat Helicopter is the first named boss encounter you’ll find in Armored Core 6 that has a substantial health bar you need to chip away at. There are a few tips you can follow that will help make this fight a little easier. 

• Don’t just rely on your right-handed weapon – While your right-handed weapon has probably done a decent job so far on the smaller-scale enemies you’ve faced, the assault rifle just isn’t going to cut it for this fight. It took me a few deaths to realize that while I was doing a small amount of stagger damage, the stagger bar (top of the HUD) was also slowly receding when I wasn’t doing any damage. Your right-hand weapon is fine to use while you’ve got some distance between you and the helicopter, but it shouldn’t be your main focus of doing damage.
• Watch your position, keep off the ground – You’ll be told to try and avoid the missile attacks from the PCA Heavy Combat Helicopter by using your boosters to get in the air. This is a great tip to listen to. When you hear the alarm go off or can see that the helicopter is beginning to fire its missiles, make sure that you’re ascending and boosting around in the air. If you’re on the ground these missiles can do a huge amount of slash damage and will cause you all sorts of headaches. You can try to position yourself under the helicopter to avoid some of its attacks.
• Melee is your key to success – The left-handed weapon – your melee attack – will be your best friend in this fight. The pulse blade does a great deal of damage, while also building up a lot of stagger damage. I found that if you used the Assault Boost to close the distance on the PCA Heavy Combat Helicopter, and then triggered a melee attack, I could get in a few hits that would do a significant amount of stagger damage to it. Once the helicopter is staggered, you can then follow it up with more melee attacks. Using this technique will make this fight a lot easier as chunks of health will fall off of the health bar.
• Don’t forget to use your repair kits – If you find yourself low on health, pop a repair kit to get you back in the fight. You’ve got three that you can use, so don’t feel like you need to be saving these.

Using these tips should make the PCA Heavy Combat Helicopter fight in Armored Core 6 an effortless experience. Remember to keep moving and close the distance to initiate melee attacks, and this fight should be over in no time at all.