AC: VD - Online Shutdown Guide

[CelestialRequiem]

Hello, everyone. I'm making a small guide to help those who are looking to get the online done as soon as possible, as well as breaking down how the online functionality of Armored Core: Verdict Day operates. This is ancillary guide to go with the trophy guide that was published on PSNP, so this forum post will inherently have less information than the official PSNP guide. In order to play online, you need to download the Armored Core: Verdict Day Compatibility Pack 1 (it's free to download). Just make sure that the DLC from the store matches your region of the game.

 

Let's first start with some FAQs for some pertinent information.

 

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FAQs:

 

Q: Is there an easy way to find people who are also looking to complete either stack of Armored Core: Verdict Day?
A: Yes. PM me for a Discord link to join a server to get aid in either stack, as well as additional tips and guidance. I personally have assisted over fifty people with the game's online, so it is very active. There are also plenty of people looking to do the JPN stack of AC:VD. Alternatively, you could go through the boosting sessions section of the site in hopes to find members.

 

 

Q: Is it too late to start the game?

A: At the time of editing this (March 2nd, 2024), no. However, the longer you wait, the more difficult it will become. In short, even a lot of the PvE trophies revolve around PvP matchmaking. Because of this, you'll be running into other trophy hunters. You do NOT want this to happen. This will be further elucidated in the "Special Sortie" section of the guide. If you wait until the last week, I would say you are putting yourself in a bad position with the game and would encourage you to not pursue the platinum.

 

Q: How long does it take to tackle all of the online trophies?
A: This is largely skill dependent, but if you never lose against a world boss, do not have any issues with finding the WB that you're pursuing, then expect to put in at least 25 hours, though expect much more due to the need to grind for Au (AC:VD's in-game currency), as many online trophies require you purchasing various things that interact with AC:VD's servers.

 

Q: There are two stacks for AC:VD. Do they share the same servers?

A: No. The two stacks are INT (International) and JPN (Japanese). If your copy came from anywhere that isn't Japan, you can play with anyone and everyone who is not on that stack. There are no region-locked servers within the INT stack. If you play the JPN version, then you'll only be playing with people who own that copy. There is no shared progress.

 

Q: Does the Japanese stack have English as a language option?

A: No. It only supports Japanese. Even Chinese and Korean are only on the INT version of the game.

 

Q: Will all trophies 100% be available to obtain before the server shutdown?

A: NO. AC:VD will be shutting down during an active war. A real possibility is that if one of the continents (or territories, as they are referred to in this game) happens to be destroyed/overtaken, the World Boss related to that trophy will become impossible to earn. Because the game will NOT have a chance for a reset, it's possible that a trophy (or even multiple) will become permanently locked out of being attainable, even if the servers are still active. This is the game functioning normally. You should set yourself a deadline of completing the WBs in the penultimate war prior to closure (time and date TBD).

 

Q: How long is a war? How often does it happen? What do they do? What is a reset?

A: On the INT version, it happens about every eight days. On the JPN version, it occurs about every six days. A war is basically AC:VD's online "season". It's a real-time event that operates on the functionality of warring factions. A reset is when everything regarding the war is restored, and the controlled territories are changed between the Three Forces. The reset lasts one hour, and essentially all PvP is turned off during this period. All WBs are available to be attempted without the need to complete Normal Sorties. Once the reset is over, PvP is restored, and you'll select which faction you want to align yourself with for the new war. If you are able to have a team ready to play during a reset, you won't need to grind out Normal Sorties or even be able to PvP.

 

Q: How many people can participate in a fighting a WBs?

A: Technically five, though one player has to be an Operator and within the same team as the team leader. The other three pilots can be mercenaries.

 

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Online Prioritization Roadmap

 

1. TEAM RANK TROPHIES: On the INT version of AC:VD, join the team "Coronach" for the team rank trophies. This allows you to get two online trophies out of the way without the need to PvP. The trophies are "Team Rank E" and "Team Rank A". Once you have gotten these two trophies, please leave Coronach so that other players may get these trophies. You'll be forcibly removed if the team gets full, preventing other players from earning these trophies. There are plenty of A Rank teams, however, this will be an easily accessible one for you.
2. STORY MODE/DEVELOPING PROFICIENCY: Make your own team, and select a faction to align with. Immediately start working on the campaign to develop proficiency with AC:VD. Once you have beaten MISSION: 06 "Blue Magnolia", start getting all of the trophies related to Normal Sorties, as well being an Operator with a team of UNACs. UNACs are AI-piloted Armored Cores. It's possible to get some of the Normal Sorties out of the way at the start, but you run into the chance of encountering other players, and these missions were not designed for default gear and. You need to have better equipment as well as some tenure with AC:VD.
3. S RANKS/SUBQUESTS: Find a partner to alternate getting S Ranks and Subquests for each other. Check the "Story Master" trophy in the PSNP guide for how to expedite the attainment of this trophy. Once you're at least Player Rank C, you'll have some decent options for World Bosses. You don't need to do all of the S Ranks/Subquests, but you should get to a decent player rank, and then return to this step once you've finished all of the online. Because S Ranks/Subquests are comically easy with the online functionality still available, you should capitalize on this method to reduce your general playtime.
4. WORLD BOSSES: If you feel that you're ready to tackle WBs, or if a team is nice enough for you join as an Operator, get the WBs out of the way ASAP. Check the "Special Sortie" section for more information on how to efficiently handle the WBs.
5. ONLINE GRIND TROPHIES - THEN RETURN TO STEP 3: Farm Au by beating the final boss ten times in a row, then selling the UWs (Ultimate Weapons) that are awarded to you upon completion. You can only hold ten of any AC part, so sell them once you're done to get fifteen-million Au. It's also recommended to obtain 49/51 trophies during this stage, and saving Hardcore mode for last.
6. HARDCORE MODE: Hardcore Mode is offline only and you cannot even use a UNAC. Because of this, you should not do Hardcore until after you have every other trophy. However, this doesn't mean it's recommended to come back to Hardcore at a later date, as it can be very difficult. You should attempt this mode while you're still familiar with the game.

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S Ranks/Subquests:

 

It is highly recommended to get the S Ranks and Subquests done while the online is still intact. This will make your journey much easier, and expedite the process of increasing your Player Rank. How to trivialize these trophies with online co-op will be covered. First thing's first, there is a much easier way to access all sixty missions in AC:VD rather than navigating the different continents from the Story Sorties.

 

1. From the World Menu, select "Team/Player Data".
2. From here, select "Player Data".
3. Finally, select "Mission Information."

 

You'll be brought to the following screen:

 

 

From here, you can select any mission that you had previous completed, as well as see what S Ranks/Subquests that you are missing. By pressing on a mission, you can launch a Story Sortie much faster and easier. To get the S Ranks/Subquests much easier to get, have a friend/partner be a mercenary and hire them to complete the mission for you. Have them save the last enemy before mission completion, and then self-destruct. This allows the host to not pay anything for the mercenary as they failed; and the host takes minimal damage as well as expelling little ammunition.

 

 

 Normal Sorties:

 

Normal Sorties are PvP matches that allow you to fill your sortie meter. They are also a way to increase your Team Rank if you end up in PvP matches. However, if the game cannot place you against other players (which is what you want anyway), the game will generate a mission where you're invading enemy territory. Some of these game modes include destroying artillery installations, dealing a set amount of damage to an enemy faction, or hacking data posts. Regardless, Normal Sorties can only be done online. Once the game shuts down, you will not be able to play these anymore. You must be aligned to one of the Three Forces in order to perform Normal Sorties.

 

1. Evergreen Family
2. Sirius Corporation
3. Venide

 

There aren't any reasons to pick one faction in particular. Really, when choosing your faction, just be aware of what WBs you'll be locking your team out of for the war.

 

 

 

Underneath the "A-" section on the top right of the image, is the sortie meter. Because my team, Coronach, has completed five normal sorties, we only need one more to gain the opportunity to attempt a Special Sortie. Once you've attempted your WB, win or lose, you will need to fill the sortie meter again. Be careful online, as it is easy to run into other players who are attempting to fill their sortie meter.

 

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Special Sorties:
 

Special Sorties are how you attempt the World Bosses, though like Normal Sorties, are another form of PvP matchmaking. Because you have to align yourself with one of the Three Forces within AC:VD, you cannot do all WBs within one team. As mentioned, you need to fill the sortie bar by doing Normal Sorties. Once you fill the sortie bar, doing extra Normal Sorties is pointless. However, upon winning a Special Sortie, you'll be given one bar back, meaning you only have to do five Normal Sorties instead of six. Whenever a war resets, the controller territory potentially changes. However, the location of the WBs never changes -- so feel free to use the image below to see what WB you need and what territory you need to invade. This means that you can only invade territories that are not controlled by the faction you had chosen to align with during the war. The only way to play against World Bosses that are a part of your faction is if you fight them as a mercenary from a team leader who is a part of an opposing faction. When searching for the WB that you want to fight, go to Sortie Conditions once you're in the Special Sortie lobby, and change the Enemy Faction to the territory that you want to invade, and then the "Attack on Priority Target" setting, change that to "No". Everything else can remain the same.

 

Once you have filled the six bars for your sortie meter, you can attempt a World Boss with you and your team. Here are the seven WBs within AC:VD:

 

 

 

 

1. North Frontier: Ruins King (Scavenger, Hunter, and Predator)

 

 

 

2. South Islands: Wasteland King (To-605A, To-605S, and To-605D)

 

 

3. Middle East: Contamination King (Grey Lotus)

 

 

 

4. South Frontier: Marsh King (Spirit Class Moving Fortress)

 

 

 

5. Far East: Frost King (Exusia)

 

 

 

6. Mid-Continent: Polar King (LiV)

 

 

 

7. New Frontier: Desert King (N-WGIX/v)

 

 

Unfortunately, while you can filter what faction you choose to attack, you cannot specifically choose which WB to go against. Let's say for example that you're aligned to Sirius, and want to invade the North Frontier and South Frontier, which are controlled by Venide. More specifically, let's also say you wanted to fight the Spirit Class Moving Fortress. You can choose to invade Venide through the Special Sortie conditions, but it would be a coin flip if you the World Boss that you were looking for. Annoyingly, one faction always controls at least three territories per war, as opposed to the other two factions controlling two territories. So, instead of 1/2 chance, it would be 1/3. Check the image given in the briefing to confirm if it's the World Boss that you're after. If it isn't, simply back out, and search again.

 

It's recommended to look at the PSNP guide and decide which WB you would pursue first with you and your team. Ideally, making your builds before searching for the WB. There's a common trend amongst new players where they don't save their builds in AC Data. Only mentioning it here, but always save your builds -- even if you plan on changing it later to make it better. You will save yourself so much time, which is scarce at the moment with this game coming to its sunset.

 

However, what is even more annoying than not getting the WB that you're after, is running into another team. This is becoming even more common as players are rushing to do the game's online trophies. If you make it into a briefing with another team, your sortie bar is forfeited. Winning or losing doesn't matter -- there is no recovering your full sortie bar again beyond you doing six Normal Sorties again. This is bad for both teams, as both teams lose their sortie bars. Luckily, there is some strategy that you can employ to avoid running into each other during Special Sorties. If you pay attention to the loading bar, there is a sort of "sweet spot" of when it jumps up to completion, it means that you have likely found a WB and not a team. If the bar fills up before this point, or well after, it is likely a team. In the picture below, you want the sortie meter to fill up within where the red box is:

 

 

 

If the bar has filled up from an unfavorable location, cancel the sortie, and then wait two to three minutes to allow the opposing team find their WB. If that isn't working, you can try searching again right after if they're the ones who are choosing to wait before searching again. While not convenient, you can also try playing during more abnormal hours.

 

Or, if you know a war reset is going to be happening soon, coordinate with your team to play during that one hour window -- as PvP won't even be possible during that period. Coloquially, this is known as a "Ceasefire".

 

 

During this period, you cannot do Normal Sorties, so you're able to freely choose which WB you'd like to tackle, so there is no need to try and fill the Sortie Bar, as it's disabled during this period.  You have unlimited retries for an hour. The notification in the image above informs you of when a Ceasefire will take place. The notification shows up 12 hours before it starts.

 

In order to be efficient with doing multiple WBs within one session, coordinate with your partners to have them be on different teams (and of course, different factions) and have them each fill up the sortie meter for their team. Then, you guys hire each other as mercenaries and do them back-to-back. If you happen to have five people in your group, you could potentially knock out five of the WBs within a couple of hours (factoring all of the loading and RNG).

 

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Offline Mode/Hardcore Mode:

 

Once the servers go down in AC: VD, a great deal of the list will be impacted, and trophies will become unobtainable. However, if you were able to get all of the other online trophies before the server shutdown, the world menu will look like this:

 

 

As you can probably tell, this is much more limited than how the menu looks whilst you're connected to the AC:VD servers. Here, you can only enter Story Sorties, customize your AC/UNAC, and that's pretty much it. Basically, any trophy that is not related to AC/UNAC customization or the Story/Hardcore modes will become impossible.

 

When you select "Sortie", you'll see an option (assuming that you've beaten the game) titled "Hardcore Mode". Clicking on that will then bring you to this menu:

 

 

It's recommended that you select "Type F: Gambler" but any of these Hardcore Mode types are available for you to earn the trophy in. Something vital to keep in mind regarding Hardcore Mode, is if you are playing the game online, you run the risk of disconnecting from the AC: VD servers whilst in a mission. If this happens, you will lose a life. If you selected a mode where you only had one life to begin with, then your run would be over. Essentially, the way that AC: VD works with lives on the back-end is that once you've started a mission, the game counts as you surrendering your life UNTIL you have successfully completed the mission. If you've successfully completed the mission, then you will not have lost any lives. This also means that if you die, lose connection, or turn your console off whilst you are in a mission, you've forfeited a life. There is no getting around this.

 

If you're wanting to back up your save so that you make Hardcore Mode a little bit easier, you will need PS+ to upload it to the cloud. You cannot back up your save to a USB, as the save is encrypted. Finally, AC: VD is one of the PS3 games where you're locked out of your cloud save for 24 hours once you have uploaded a save, or downloaded a save. You can back up your save as much as you want -- even as frequently as every completed mission, though you won't be able to download it for 24 hours after that period.

Edited March 12 by CelestialRequiem

[CelestialRequiem]

I still have a lot to add, but I've gotten some of the more important stuff out of the way so that people can use this guide right now.

If you have any questions or feedback, I'll be happy to answer them and potentially incorporate any feedback I receive.

[GastNDorf]

Man, starting this game was a mistake, I should have read better about world bosses and what not...

[CelestialRequiem]

2 minutes ago, GastNDorf said:

Man, starting this game was a mistake, I should have read better about world bosses and what not...

Maybe it was a mistake for you, but it's not too late to course-correct. You have time to get the online done, as well as make the platinum even easier by capitalizing the online features.

 

I'm sorry you feel that way -- but if you make this game a priority, you'll get it done. You also aren't alone. This is a co-op game.

[MATTKBAN]

On 2/17/2024 at 12:00 PM, CelestialRequiem said:

I still have a lot to add, but I've gotten some of the more important stuff out of the way so that people can use this guide right now.

If you have any questions or feedback, I'll be happy to answer them and potentially incorporate any feedback I receive.

Lookin goood so far. My only thought is players may not understand to cross reference the full game guide and this to know which map names give which boss. I mention this because an accidental PvP fight will say a different map name.

[CelestialRequiem]

18 minutes ago, MATTKBAN said:

Lookin goood so far. My only thought is players may not understand to cross reference the full game guide and this to know which map names give which boss. I mention this because an accidental PvP fight will say a different map name.

Noted. Will fix when I can.

 

;-;7

[CelestialRequiem]

The guide has now been completed.

 

PSNP broke the image links last time, so if it happens again, I won't be fixing it. Good luck, Ravens.

Edited March 2 by CelestialRequiem

[CelestialRequiem]

PSNP broke my images once again, and I'm going to fix it one more time since enough people have complained about it.