Armored Core 6 will feature a stagger bar for enemies like Sekiro

While it may not be a Soulslike game, Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon will feature a stagger bar and mechanic that’s similar to Sekiro. This was revealed in a recent hands-off demo by FromSoftware shown to members of the gaming press.

As mentioned multiple times before by the studio, Fires of Rubicon will be a true Armored Core game and will not be a Souls game. For instance, customizing mechs is the key mechanic that FromSoftware is focusing on for this game, not to mention that Rubicon will not have the bonfire system used in Souls titles.

Of course, there are elements from FromSoftware’s previous games here that should be familiar to fans of the studio’s works. One of these is the stagger bar that enemies will have.

How it works is that, aside from a health bar, enemies will also have a yellow colored stagger bar that players can fill by attacking them. Each attack has a different effect on the stagger bar, meaning certain builds will have an easier time staggering opponents. Plus, some enemies are also more resistant to staggers, while others require staggering to deal a significant amount of damage.

In a way, this is quite similar to the stagger mechanic in Sekiro. After all, while Souls games also have a similar mechanic, the stagger system was put front and center in Sekiro, to the point that it’s even more effective to stagger bosses to go for an instant kill instead of taking them down to zero health.

Of course, the Sekiro stagger system is different from the mechanic in Armored Core 6. While staggering an enemy in Sekiro will give players an instant-kill prompt, Fires of Rubicon will only allow players to deal big damage to staggered enemies. In that way, it’s more reminiscent of Elden Ring.

Though the Armored Core series itself has had a stagger system in some games. Specifically, titles like Armored Core 5 has a mechanic where players can be stunned (or staggered) when they take too much damage. Though Fires of Rubicon’s system is way different compared to this one given the focus of the stagger system is on enemeis.

Based on the preview demo, the stagger bar won’t be a huge deal for weaker foes as they build up stagger quickly. Though boss fights are a different story as one of the mini-bosses shown in the preview required players to stagger them successfully.

In the demo, one mini-boss was shown to be highly resistant to damage, and the current set build didn’t do much to stagger it. Though after dying, the devs showed the customization system and changed the weapon to a slower yet more powerful ranged weapon.

Thanks to this, the mini-boss was finally beaten. Though not much info has been revealed yet on the type of weapons that deal more stagger damage.

That was just for a mini-boss, and it’ll be interesting to see how important the mechanic is in bigger boss fights. That’s because the demo ended with a short teaser of a huge boss, though a proper battle breakdown wasn’t shown.

Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon will launch on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on August 25, 2023.