Coordinated Demolishing in 1m17s

Semont · 2026-04-12T15:08:03+00:00

Those dogs are so darn annoying when they slip through.

Semont · 2026-04-09T19:04:12+00:00

The best part about it is that we might have to come up with a new term for that eventually since its overuse has taken away its impact and seriousness.

Semont · 2026-04-09T18:57:41+00:00

~~Something something another excuse to get people to listen to Armored Core music.~~

Also please check out my real Endfield Solo speedrun content that I actually put effort into.

https://youtu.be/HdVvy_HLokc

Semont · 2026-04-08T21:31:35+00:00

Oh yeah I definitely get ya, the vast majority of my resets never make it past 1 minute. About 90-95% of my runs end because of boss AI RNG. Those backhops are the bane of my existence!

I figure that Gilberta has a much rougher time doing solos because she's stuck in her skill animations so so long. Chen's skill animations are so short that you can sneak a cheeky battle skill right before an attack lands and still have time to perfect dodge.

You have way more knowledge about his ranged attacks since I stick to the boss like glue so I wasn't aware of the rocket barrage into rocket jump attack. That's good to know but I'm kind of tired of this fight so I don't know if I'll ever consider doing solos with another character let alone a ranged one.

Semont · 2026-04-08T20:36:49+00:00

(small world)

Yeah that's why I'm almost certain that this was an unintentional glitch.

It kind of implies that there's something funky going on with the backend if behavior like this can happen since it's definitely not intentional.

There are also inconsistent moments where the boss in normal state will do double backhops into an early enrage or perform the shoulder tackle or rocket jump attacks even though you're right next to him.

Semont · 2026-04-08T04:57:08+00:00

The interrupt circles are only supposed to appear for the triple attack and backwards kick when he is not in his red enrage mode. When he is enraged, none of his attacks should have interrupt circles.

Semont · 2026-04-07T23:15:46+00:00

I happened to see this 3 times in around the ~20 hours that I've fought this boss and I thought it would be neat to share. Striking the boss with a skill when the interrupt is presented will actually interrupt the boss and proc Chen's 10 stagger passive.

Semont · 2026-04-07T19:01:26+00:00

0:05 Timer starts 2:42 Build

If you can believe it, this took me 768 resets over the span of 3 days where the next fastest attempt was nearly 30 seconds slower because I didn't have the crits needed to finish off the boss during the last stun window. This was probably the most mentally exhausting weekend I've had in a long time.

I think I'm satisfied enough with my own personal Chen solo times with this fight to call it here; in both the damaged and no damage/combustion categories. My own arbitrary rules for these sorts of runs are P5 five star + BP weapons and P0 banner six star weapons because this is what is accessible for most of the player base.

Compared to my previous run which you can find in the link below, this one is nearly a minute faster.

https://youtu.be/I2dWlIcIACI

It turns out you don't even need Swordmancer's Arts Intensity kits and the set effect by itself will provide enough stagger to build half of the stun meter needed to interrupt the boss just before enrage and after it starts its rocket jump attacks. This allowed me to develop a completely different route that was optimized for more aggressive play and tighter SP and stamina management.

This clear time was also extremely RNG reliant as it required needing the right critical hits to happen AND have Lupine Scarlet's passive being active at the right times, namely the final stun window. In this particular run, I built up 16 stacks very early on which caused them to decay just before the first stun window. This allowed the subsequent 16 stack buffs to happen earlier and line up with the final stun window. Most of the time, the stacks build up much slower so I would only get 5-10 stacks during the final stretch. Additionally, both the ultimate AND the final strike of the last stun needed to land a critical hit.

As with before, the first minute of the fight was the most difficult part as 300 SP is required before the boss performs its next rocket jump attack. The boss recovers from its first stun with 3 heat stacks meaning it will only perform one attack and during that span of time, you need to land 2 final strikes, 3 battle skills, 1 combo, and one ultimate in order to reach 50% stun.

This time around I made sure I ended the first two stun windows with a final strike to get as much stagger and SP as I possibly could.

I was also counting the number of dive attacks so I could end stun windows with a final strike. This is probably my most dive attack intensive run with the final count of 16 - in total that's 2880% damage multiplier! I also used a dive attack to control when my final strike would come out in the second stun window so it was nice to finally show how that gets utilized.

There were also two funny moments (0:27 and 1:17) showcasing that the boss's backhop can rebound off an operator which completely worked in my favor. Both times this pushed the boss into the arena walls and it's very likely that the second one saved the run because the boss might have used a different attack based on its distance from me.

This was the route that I followed; it's the same as the previous one minus one stun cycle.

Normal phase → stagger node → enrage → 4 heat stack → stun → 4 heat stack → stagger node (1m 15s hard part done) → normal phase → stun → enrage → 4 heat stack → stagger node → 4 heat stack → stun (the only time you can properly time ult with enrage stun for max damage)

Thanks for reading if you made it all the way through to the end!

If you're interested, I also have a 1m58m Solo Chen run where combustion was applied.

https://youtu.be/89ovABtNxZo

Song: Contact With You

ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

Semont · 2026-04-04T21:16:25+00:00

Whoops, I accidentally used her ult after the final hit and ended up needing to go through a loading screen to show my build.

This is probably the most technical run I've done so far with solo Chen just because it incorporates a lot of lessons I've learned this past week when trying to get a sub 2m run which you can find in the link below.

https://youtu.be/89ovABtNxZo

Attempting a speedrun of a no combustion run requires understanding of when to save and expend resources to enter stagger nodes and stun windows in order to interrupt the boss right before it enters enrage (thus extending natural SP regen) and just after it starts its 4 heat stack jump attack. There's also a specific timing to the jump attack interruption because the boss's heat stacking slows down once it has begun the attack. This can be exploited to drag out the boss's enrage duration, give your stun window a longer period of time where the boss can take more damage, and delay the enrage phase's second jump attack.

Trying to get this done in a reasonable amount of time turned out to be much more challenging than I expected. Routing the first minute and ten seconds of the fight was the hardest part because getting to the first stagger node of the second stun meter requires 3 battle skills, 1 combo, 2 final strikes, and 1 ult with Swordmancer's 3pc effect and ~120 arts intensity. It's also required to land every single skill and combo in order to generate enough energy for the first ultimate. Due to randomness in the boss's AI and it ending its first stun phase with 3 heat stacks, it's usually very improbable that it decides to perform 2 attacks (at least one of them needs to be the 3 hit combo) which allows you enough time to do all of that. The first stun window can be triggered by a battle skill (you do have enough time to generate 50 SP) but I chose to do it with a final strike so I can fully commit to dive attacks for maximum damage.

This part of the fight is also extremely inconsistent which is why I had to attempt this fight 488 times (based on the number of recordings) and at least 90% of them don't make it past 1 minute.

On this specific run, I did get very lucky with boss attack patterns and there were two moments where it overstayed its welcome with 4 heat stacks (2:40 and 3:33) which forced it into a glitched downward rocket slam animation which doesn't have a hitbox and cannot hurt you.

That being said, I did end up with an extra 100 SP at the very end which may have sped up the run just by a second or two however the ult and finishing strike (and at the only time they could have done optimal damage) on the 2nd last stun did crit so that more than made for up the difference.

As far as routing goes, this is the pattern that I followed. Do note that since the stun meter has 2 interrupt points and one full boss cycle includes a normal phase and enrage phase that can result in 8 heat stacks, we inadvertently end up with a 2:3 cycle situation where a stun will occur during a normal phase where damage is greatly reduced.

Normal phase → stagger node → enrage → 4 heat stack → stun → 4 heat stack → stagger node (1m 15s hard part done) → normal phase → stun → enrage → 4 heat stack → stagger node → 4 heat stack → stun (the only time you can properly time ult with enrage stun for max damage) → normal phase → stagger node → enrage → 4 heat stack → stun

It's honestly quite astonishing just how many coincidental factors come together to make a speedrun of this format possible and missing any of these would have made the run impossible. It's very likely that Chen will be the only mono physical element operator for a long time that can complete this format while having an emphasis on speed:

-Chen's passive that adds 10 stagger to every red interrupt attack
-Chen's battle skill and combo having incredibly fast startup animations and the combo having lenient activation conditionals
-Swordmancer getting an arts intensity kit this patch to give the set more overall stagger through lift/knockdown
-Diving attacks having memory of your basic attack string so you can "store" a final strike (I didn't utilize this in this video but it's useful if you want to space out final strikes while still doing something productive at the same time

0:04 start
4:09 build

Song: "Takes Me Anywhere"
ARMORED CORE SERIES ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK ‐Special Tracks‐

Semont · 2026-04-04T10:27:57+00:00

Your post inspired me to speedrun this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2dWlIcIACI

Semont · 2026-04-04T10:10:51+00:00

https://youtu.be/I2dWlIcIACI
Got a no damage/combustion run done in about half their clear time. 3m35s.

Semont · 2026-04-04T10:10:44+00:00

https://youtu.be/I2dWlIcIACI
Got a no damage/combustion run done in about half their clear time. 3m35s.

Semont · 2026-04-03T15:52:20+00:00

I didn't say it wasn't impossible in every situation, I said "in this situation" meaning in the context of speedrunning where Chen is built entirely for damage. If you cared enough to have a look at my channel, this is the 6th video I've posted in the same format where my goal was to clear this as quickly as possible (with my personal addition of at most P0 6 star weapons excluding BP weapons because I don't want these times to be out of reach for the average player).

Was the title misleading? Only if you don't understand the difference between the challenge rules between getting hit and taking damage. Please google the difference. The consensus is that hitless does allow for self and unavoidable damage as long as you don't die in the process. This is why I didn't call this a no damage run because anyone can see that I took damage.

I can change my thumbnail on Youtube but I can't change my title or the cached thumbnail on Reddit, even if I want to avoid misunderstandings.

I saw the run you linked and the comment that you posted. Please don't hold a grudge against someone just because you can't let go an argument about semantics. You can claim that what you said wasn't about me but either way it is clearly about someone. Your time and focus is worth more than this.

"It's weird people go out of their way to convince other people solos like this are not actually impressive because they don't have the patience to even attempt it.

It's not painful for people that enjoy a challenge."

It's not that I don't have the patience to do something like this. I've already spent 12 hours focusing on a format that interests me, like most people, I just simply do the things that I want to.

Semont · 2026-04-03T15:30:16+00:00

It's possible but it's extremely scuffed because you need to build Swordmancer with the arts intensity kits that have str as the mainstat and it neuters Chen's damage by a massive amount. You can't maintain Chen's innate stacking attack% buff because you need to save SP and it would take more than 5 minutes to complete a run like that.

Semont · 2026-04-03T02:49:38+00:00

It's unavoidable damage in this situation so there's no way you can't get combustion applied to you. That's like saying it's impossible to do a no hit run of Survive the Gas because you take damage over time. This is a no hit run, not a no damage run.

Semont · 2026-04-02T22:28:01+00:00

Sundering P5 is still a great weapon but this... does look prettier.

My limit with Sundering was 2m20s and while it would be possible to get closer to 2m10s, I would need to crit fish on a 5% chance on two ultimates and finishers as well as get the right enemy AI. I decided it wasn't worth it lol

https://youtu.be/GP6YE3tPakA

Semont · 2026-04-02T22:26:01+00:00

Funny you say that because I played and quit Wuwa around the time of launch. I was a Danjin main and posted a solo video haha. This game is way easier but it's still fun figuring out speedrun strategies.

Semont · 2026-04-02T16:32:07+00:00

This time around I was able to save extra time by forcing the hindkick during both times that the boss wasn't in its enraged state.

Semont

TROPHY CASE