How Long is Armored Core VI? – Story Length

Are you wondering how long is Armored Core VI? Here’s the answer:

Armored Core VI Story Length:

On average most players will take around 15-20 hours on the first playthrough. There are no difficulty settings in this game, it’s one and the same difficulty for everyone. However, it is entirely skill-dependent.

• 10 Hours if you are experienced with Armored Core games, play efficiently and skip cutscenes/dialogues. This would be a “rushed” playthrough for the fastest 5% of players.
• 15 Hours Average if you consider yourself to be a well-rounded gamer and played other FromSoftware games before.
• 20 Hours if you take it slow or find the game difficult.

Compared to other FromSoftware games, Armored Core VI is relatively easy to beat (however, S-Ranks are the real challenge). This is because with the right build you can brute force every boss easily. See Armored Core VI Best Builds – Brute Force Any Boss, No Skill Required. With the right build you don’t even need to dodge and can kill bosses in a few seconds by dealing insane damage, basically kill them before they can kill you. This already works in the first chapter.

If you experiment around with different builds, which is what makes the game fun, you will probably fall in the 15-20 hour range. If you are not used to games like this then maybe 25 hours.

As for side content, there’s only the Arena which consists of 29 fights on the first playthrough (a second arena unlocks in New Game+). These fights only last 10-40 seconds so they are super quick to do.

New Game+ Length:

In order to unlock all endings and missions you will need a minimum of 3 full playthroughs (save scumming at the end doesn’t work here, it takes 3 full playthroughs because some missions are exclusive to NG+ & NG++). See Endings Guide.

After finishing the last mission it automatically starts New Game+ without warning. All missions remain available for replay. But to advance the story again you will need to play the regular “Missions”, which don’t award you with S-Ranks. Replaying through Mission Select would not save your choices and wouldn’t advance the main story.

• 4-5 Hours for New Game+ (if you skip cutscenes/dialogues)
• 4-5 Hours for New Game++ (if you skip cutscenes/dialogues)

Most missions stay the same in subsequent playthroughs so you’ll already be familiar with the level layouts and have a good build. This makes NG+ significantly faster.

To sum up: If you want to unlock all Missions you will need around 15-20 hours for the first playthrough, 4-5 hours for the second playthrough, 4-5 hours for the third playthrough. In total that makes it roughly 30 hours for 3 playthroughs to unlock all missions. Up to 40 hours if you take it slow or are new to these types of games.

Lastly, getting all S-Ranks will require replaying all missions again. You don’t get ranks during your 3 main playthroughs, they can only be earned through the “Mission Replay” menu. How many replays you need to get an S-Rank is largely skill-dependent. With the right strategies around 20-30 hours for all S-Ranks. See S-Rank Guide.

100% Completion / Platinum Trophy Length:

• Time to Earn Platinum Trophy = 50 Hours+ (completely skill dependent because of S-Ranks)

The first playthrough should be dedicated to just learning the game and getting any ending, don’t worry about anything at this stage. In the second playthrough pick the opposite choices for the next ending and grab Collectibles. In the third playthrough unlock the New Game++ exclusive missions (this playthrough will have you play for a different faction so the story is different), this also leads to the last ending. Then clean up S-Ranks afterward.

How long did it take you to finish the Armored Core VI story and to gain 100% completion / platinum trophy? Leave your times in the comments below.

For everything else needed to obtain 100% completion refer to Armored Core VI Strategy Guide.