Greetings, Dan here!

Armored Core is one of the primary inspirations behind Beneath Twisted Earth. I played it back during Gen 1, and would occasionally return to replay it to get that same feeling. When YouTuber, Josh Strife Hayes did a longform video revisiting Armored Core 1 for the PS1 last year, it sparked the inspiration that would become BTE. From the megacorp-ruled, war-torn dystopia, to the mission-downtime story progression for pilots AC is in BTE's DNA. That is not to discount the influences from other properties (Battletech, Front Mission, Gundam, Nausica, etc), just that it provided the initial spark to this project. So when the announcement for AC6 came out over the summer I was very excited. I'll be picking up my copy this Friday to keep the mech juices flowing through the final development steps. To commemorate the occasion, this Mech Construction Showcase will be showing off the main antagonist from Gen 1, (26 year old spoiler warning), Nine-Ball.

For those not familiar, Nine-Ball is a high end AC constructed by the AI that runs all of what remains of the human world. This AI played all factions against each other, and Nine-Ball was its avatar amongst them, using it to pose as the mercenary pilot, Hustler One. When the time came Nine-Ball, directly piloted by the AI as an assault unit against key targets that threatened its primary programming (maintaining human population and advancement through endless war). Because of this, Nine-Ball comes equipped with the same equipment that other pilots might come across, but the build has been optimized for speed and frequency of attacks.

Nine-Ball is designed with a medium amount of armor so as not to sacrifice speed, to reflect this, we will equip it with an Anodyne Frame, giving it 36 AP. The Boosters will likewise come from Anodyne, giving it a Movement Rating of 3. In order to reflect its high end optimization from skill and attacks, we will install a Sakura CPU, giving Nine-Ball four Utilities, and a Sakura Radiator to provide a Heat Rating of 14.

For the four Utilities, we will go with the AI Assistant to give Nine-Ball a one stat/skill reroll per round; an Aerial Frame allowing for flight capabilities; a Sensor Suite to allow it to scan the field in a variety of ways; and a Neural Interface granting a +5 to Mech Piloting. While the names for a couple of these utilities may imply a biological component or another AI involved, we will consider these both expressions of Hustler One's full capabilities as an AI itself.

As for Weapon Systems, Nine-Ball is known for carrying missile launchers, a laser blade, a pulse rifle, and grenade launchers. While we could have used the 14 HR to build four weapons, we will instead create two weapons, and simulate the remaining weapons through mods and disposables allowing for stronger weapons. For this build, Nine-Ball's primary weapon will be it's Pulse Rifle, with a Weapon Skill of 60, and 9 HR. We will set the damage for this weapon at the relatively low d6 dmg for two heat, while we will increase the Rate of Fire to 2 for two heat. We will also give the Rate of Fire an optimization to raise it up to a total of 3 attacks per round. For ammunition, we'll spend four heat to give the rifle 12 Ammo. Then for Range we will make it effective at Medium range. Since Nine-Ball is high end, we will fill all three mod slots. The first, to reflect Nine-Balls usual grenade launcher loadout, we'll attach a grenade launcher mod to the pulse rifle. This will be limited to three shots, but should be enough to approximate. Next we'll install a Targeting AI that will add +5 to the associated Weapon Skill, again accounting for Hustler One's processing capabilities. Finally, we shall install Incendiary Ammo increasing damage dealt by +2.

Next, for targets that are up close, the Laser Blade. Now the version that Nine-Ball uses is equivalent to what starting pilots equip, so we will only spend one heat, giving it d4 in damage. With a Weapons Skill of 49, even if this is a low amount of damage any hit would deal a minimum of 5 dmg. Nine-Ball is known for attacking quickly in melee, so while we will only spend one heat on the Rate of Fire, giving it 1, we will optimize this feature to raise it to 2 attacks in a round. We will spend two heat to have 6 Ammo, and one heat to give the blade Melee range. For mods, we will install the Targeting AI and Incendiary ammo again.

Even though Nine-Ball's RoF is high across both of its weapons, we let the ammo be relatively low, meaning the AC has 3-4 rounds of consecutive attacks depending on the weapon before running out. Fortunately, any consecutive hits will stack damage on targets quickly thanks to high Weapon Skills. Still in order to compensate for any battles that it can't finish quickly, we will equip an Ammo Hopper for a refill on the Pulse Rifle. Then to account for Nine-Ball's normal load out of missiles, we will equip two disposable missile decks which will cover medium through far ranges. 

While Nine-Ball does have some gaps in its effective ranges, Close, Sniping, and Artillery, its MR of 3 will allow it to close any gaps with its opponents quickly. Ultimately, just like the boss of Armored Core Gen 1, this build would present a challenge for most opponents. Of course there were multiple ways this mech could have been built in the system to reflect the desired feel. This is just how I decided to go about it. It was a fun, slightly more in-depth build to help get ready for AC6's release on Friday. Next time though, I'd like to make a "mid tier" mech as well as visit another of BTE's core inspiration franchises. While we could go real robot, I think I'll use this chance to instead, build something more akin to a super robot. Next time, let's build the Shining Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam.

Thank you once again for your interest in Beneath Twisted Earth, and I look forward to seeing you all at the launch of the full version soon!

Dan