Armored Core 6: All Endings Explained (Story and Lore)

[@isaacwade7381]

The fight with Allmind struck me as necessary rather than pointless because of the implication that Allmind's line to Ayre "I'm sure your brothers and sisters will be very welcoming to us." (or something close to that) It implied that Allmind was trying to control all the Coral Voices and dominate them, and through them all of creation. Stopping it from being the one consciousness seemed particularly imperative to me! Moreover, for his complacency in this plan, I feel it made Iguazu all the more spiteful and nihilistic.

[@potatomasherr]

Iguazu was fucked from the start, his lore isn’t the best and he is very jealous of the mc - an independent merc described iguazu as being poor in his being

[@coconutspeed1212]

I thought that was more directed towards Iguazu then to Ayre granted I did listen to it for hours so take that as you will

[@WyaldTalk]

Iguazu was doomed from the very first mission with him. That cocky attitude was so foreshadowing without us realizing.

[@soundcloudpandapandawa2997]

​@@WyaldTalkdoesn't help he was having side effects from the augs. Also with allmind trying to dominate the Coral voices it probably caused the ringing and pain in his head.

[@eskimode2022]

That, and Iguazu somehow took control of ALLMIND anyways just to kill us So even if ALLMIND didn't have ulterior motives, we'd still have that fight

[@April480p]

It is important to note, that ALLMIND most likely didn't kill Walter and Carla, since their cores are shown intact. ALLMIND liked to assimilate competent pilots into itself, and it acknowledged Walter's skills as a "capable pilot" in one of the final missions. When we "pulled the trigger" and spread Coral through the universe, it's safe to assume most of our friends met the same fate as us - teleported onto a random planet, safe and sound.

[@slomnim]

I saw it as Rubicon being replenished and sort of teraformed post release, rather than teleported. But who knows eh

[@Veldazandtea]

How do you know that's not copy and pasting and thus "cloning" a personality? How do you know there aren't three Raven's that are "rehabilitated" considering the ending starts with the beggining? How do you know Walter is even human and not an AI? Metal Gear taught me that nothing is at it seems. We see one thing. Who's really pulling the strings?

[@varnix1006]

@@Veldazandtea Walter literally appars in the story trailer. He walks with a cane and talks with the doctor who's defrosting 621.

[@TeleportRush]

@@Veldazandtea "How do you know that's not copy and pasting and thus "cloning" a personality?" This misses the point of the ending. The die is cast, as V.III warned. No one is human anymore, the world no longer is the way it once was, questions like 'whether it's a copy' are moot when everyone is waves traveling across the universe on living psychic red dust that envelops all of it.

[@Sansacar]

>ALLMIND liked to assimilate competent pilots No. ALLMIND copies them. In previous mission we intercept Walters line about fighting sveral copies of corp aces.

[@beyheter]

I interpreted the 3rd ending as Coral merging with humanity and then living inside of ACs. In ALLMIND's arena and part descriptions, it talks about trying to create an AC that felt like an extension of the pilot's body. I think that Coral Release caused all humans to gain a symbiosis with Coral similar to Ayre and 621, and they would then share a body in the form of an AC. EDIT: To add to this V.III O'Keefe says "Shovel down your bland rations. Slurp down you coffee-flavoured sludge. Sure it sucks - but that's being human." Coral Release combining humans and Coral into AC bodies would allow for Coral to have an actual tangible influence on the world around them by giving them a body, and it would give humans protection from the harshness of life. This is the symbiotic relationship that Ayre and ALLMIND are talking about. The difference is that ALLMIND would use the cerebral Coral control device to control the ACs (Iguazu) where as a free Coral Release would allow Human-Coral ACs to exist as individuals (621 and Ayre).

[@shanewolf38]

Ah, good mention to O'Keefe's dialogue. That makes a lot of sense.

[@MadLuigi]

Yeah O'Keefe's mission did point towards remaining a human vs turning into a big collective thing. Is it still not an odd part of that plan that ACs would need to be made for all of humanity tho? And do you think ALLMIND was controlling Iguazu? It seemed like it couldn't really control him to me, since he was ignoring it and only caring about killing us

[@LoneWolfInsane]

​@@MadLuigi To understand what coral symbiosis is, it is best to use its real life inspiration as an example. In reality coral lives in symbiosis with clownfish and other species like algae, this is done by both species being beneficial to each others survival, and allows them to survive in nutrient poor environments. Compared to that, the in game coral symbiosis, would be humans, corals and machines in general (like AC´s) living in symbiosis Was Allmind trying to control Iguazu? Definitely. A large part of AC6 narrative is that many of the characters are obsessed with control and that there are to be no aberrations(anomalies, deviations) to their plans, even if they cud be inconsequential or even beneficial. As an example, It is explicitly said in game that the primary reason, for Professor Nagi fearing a collapse is, not the corral exponentially reproducing, but the uncontrolled coral mutations that come from maximized coral density. This is also Allminds central character flaw. While Allmind seemed to genuinely wish for symbiosis, we see its incessant need for control and order throughout the game. It tries to eliminate everything that it can not control or is so much as irregular to its plans. As an example, because Ayres/621´s coral symbiosis, like the orphaned coral, is not under its control and an aberration to its plan, it tries to eliminate them. Allmind already considers Iguazu a part of it self and under its control (Allminds version of symbiosis) That's why Allmind is shocked when Iguazu manages to disrupt their link and breaks free from its control for a short period of time. It is just not obvious because Allmind and Iguazu want to do the same thing anyway in that moment.

[@beyheter]

@@MadLuigi By control, it could be more that ALLMIND can put Iguazu into a body to control rather than direct mind control. Honestly I just don't think it is explained very well. One of my big negatives for the story is that I feel they don't give enough hints as to what ALLMIND is trying to do, hence why people think that ALLMIND's plan and Coral Release are the same thing.

[@ASSBOJACK]

Reading this and just started thinking, is coral release just the fucking end of evangelion?

[@albyx]

21:34 I don’t think people got turned into Coral… but I do think the Coral has entered AC units (hence why the engine/device parts glow red). It’s almost as if they’ve adopted physical bodies.

[@slomnim]

Yeah, since it is mentioned that those that died in the fires of ibis became the voices of the coral in some cases.

[@Veldazandtea]

If the matrix points out "Life is electrical impulses in the brain" then why not? That's basically what corel is. It's basically the lifestream from Final Fantasy.

[@TeleportRush]

Coral has been noted to reactivate drones, like in the mission where you explore the abandoned tunnel

[@thegoodwin]

​@@Veldazandtea, yes, that's what I was about to say. The Corral of Rubicon is like the Lifestream in Final Fantasy 7. Also, we both play a merc in both games in the fight against a corporation.

[@elbrachoxddd5883]

@@Veldazandtea Yes, so Coral Voices are like the coral version of the same electric impulses our nervous sistem creates, thus if the Alea Iacta Est ending manages to merge the Coral Voices, Ayre's sisters and brothers, with the ACs and other machinery, then they truly have become a part of human society.

[@BusChaser360]

I always read the true ending as akin to Human Instrumentality from Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's an assimilation between human consciousness and coral consciousness, a major leap in human evolution and the fabled "symbiosis" made several references to throughout the game. As for ALLMIND, Ayre's opening comment during the final boss fight suggests ALLMIND had alternative plans for the Coral. From what I gather, ALLMIND was planning to integrate all consciousness into one swarm entity governed by its own will, a sort of cyber-dictatorship. As the name implies, ALLMIND wishes to create a singular conscious entity devoid of individuality, and therefore antithetical to the game's theme of free will and choice.

[@zakaryrichmond396]

This sort of worded how I perceived the coral release ending in the best way possible

[@theconqueringenigma]

No, Allmind's plan was Human Instrumentality, Raven and Ayre pulled a Shinji and gave everybody (the voices in the Coral) bodies and allowed them to have free will to work alongside humanity.

[@idzidz833]

​@@theconqueringenigmathat's pretty much what they said

[@Jetstreamsamsbiggestglazer]

So it’s a coral AC Thesis situation

[@SPGomes]

@@Jetstreamsamsbiggestglazer haha

[@killerking2346]

Surprised you didn't talk about Iguazu's "You killed me multiple times" line

[@Paradox1012]

Makes me feel like allmind simulated the first 2 routes as possibilities. And the 3rd ending is only what actually happens.

[@treemutwo]

Because he follows up with how it isn’t just him inside ALLMIND but many other “dregs with a grudge” I always saw it as Iguazu now being integrated as the head of ALLMIND experiencing all those other Pilot’s deaths to Raven as well. Hivemind shit and all that.

[@killerking2346]

@@treemutwo While I do think the dregs is referring to multiple mercenaries, not just Iguazus, he specifically says "You killed ME". Not defeated, not destroyed. Killed. Supposing he's a C4-something (he's confirmed to be a Gen 4 augmented like us), and in that ALLMIND briefing with the list of maybe candidates for the project, you have one Gen 1 lit up (maybe Sulla), one Gen 3, and two Gen 4, maybe whatever state of mind he's in is also our state. A disembodied mind. An AI in all but name.

[@shadow78423]

@@killerking2346that singular Gen 1 was definitely Sulla

[@killerking2346]

@@shadow78423 yep, just saw it recently, Walter just straight up calls him the C1-something number that is highlighted on that list. I wonder know who the C3 is, I'm guessing O'Keefe, since he's supposedly an older generation who then got Gen 8 surgery as a condition to join one of the companies. He's also maybe worked for ALLMIND for a bit, pursuing Coral Release, until he gave up on that.

[@RockR277]

I still can't believe the final boss is the guy who can't over how tiny his is.

[@treemutwo]

You got the same enlargement surgeries but you slay infinitely more lol

[@zeehero7280]

He can never be the true Viagrus Maximus, with his AC, Biggus Dickus.

[@DoctoEris]

I like to think that the coral release ALLMIND wanted was something akin to one of the Evangelion endings where everyone basically turns into fanta (since i completely forgot what it was called) but with Ayre and 621 at the helm it kinda turns into the synthesis ending from Mass Effect 3 with Coral basically merging with humanity and allowing humans to benefit from merging with coral while still keeping their individuality

[@terrybuckley2850]

The Fanta was called lcl I believe

[@claws2129]

I was just going to say its like synthesis in Mass Effect. The Coral reaches critical mass and expands throughout space "infecting" humans. Altering them and giving them the ability to link with Coral entities like 621 and Ayer.

[@glowie5811]

​@@claws2129V.III and Dolmayan's dialogue implies it's a little more than just "linking." It seems like coral release also means the death of biological life, turning everyone into something akin to Ayre, but likely different in some ways.

[@nooblangpoo]

>Turning into Fanta >waking up into a shallow pool surrounded by your peers Congratulations.

[@PERSONAfan01]

Collective Coccineous is what it's called. Hive Mind basically.

[@wither5673]

because i did all arena missions the moment they were unlocked i started to piece together that Allmind was not what it seemed, half way through my second playthrough i took notice of the ''mind alpha'' project and knowing armored core in the past, it was not a big surprise when Allmind indeed turned out to be an AI consciousness.

[@voidgivenfocus]

I assumed allmind was an ai from the start, and ofc it's standard to be wary of ai's when it comes to scifi

[@TeleportRush]

@@voidgivenfocus Yeah, especially armored core. I'm pretty sure Chatty is probably the first full AI (rather than cyborg) who wasn't nefarious. Then again, chatty's also a suicide bomber, so maybe he doesn't count

[@dreasdwolfox3435]

From the way it kept saying "ALLMIND is for ALL Mercenaries" I got bad vybes from it

[@YaboitheCadian]

There is also the fact ALLMIND notices you're second playthrough. No one else has a recording of it but ALLMIND say something different on the second play through. PT1: Welcome back, Raven PT2: Oh, you're Back Raven PT3: Welcom back, Raven its important to note that Playthrough 2 is when they new Arena gets unlocked if you beat the Arena first go through. Allmind is also in the second mission Grid something Cleanup

[@Veldazandtea]

I caught on the moment I saw Allmind at the start. The logo. I've played Metal Gear 2. I saw where it was going.

[@Snoike]

Never realized just how symbolic the name Raven really was. Birds symbolize freedom (Liberator of Rubicon) but ravens can also be seen as omens of death and misfortune (Fires of Raven). Ravens can also become best buddies with wolves such as Rusty.

[@MEGASTRIX]

Holy sht that last one is such a nice detail. Rusty being a wolf and is your friend is a nice touch.

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

Wolves evolved to love chasing thrown sticks because it caused them to bond with Ravens, very smart perceptive animals that could solve problems. Think on this, when you next play fetch.

[@gazzster]

Thank you for pointing this detail out

[@armourdillo1236]

Maybe. Raven is the name of the player character in (almost) all the AC games, so either the story was written around that, which it probably was to a certain extent, or just a happy coincidence.

[@johngo3715]

​@@dashiellgillingham4579wolves are also known to cooperate with ravens when hunting for food. The ravens point out prey to the wolves. Wolves get to eat and the ravens get the carcass

[@cyrusboon2842]

On the true ending at the end the corals managed to pilot ACs not that humans turned into coral pilots. Corals are able to pilot ACs like Ayre did.

[@Iserior]

Iirc, during the last arena battle, ayre states that the reason she is able to pilot the AC is because it is based on Coral tech. If that is the condition for a Coral entity to pilot an AC, than it's more likely that Coral Entities established a connection to pilots like 621 and Ayre did. On the other hand, Ayre takes the COMs tasks at the end by saying "main system: activating Combat mode", so maybe Coral entities were able to function like a computer and take over the ACs. Ah, From soft, even your most straight forward plots still leave room for debate.

[@Dunkopf]

Coral is a biological goo that can interact with machine's and transfer information. It's like a living computer virus. I think it is more like we spread enough coral to allow them to integrate with non coral machines

[@coconutspeed1212]

@@Iserior All the acs would be based off coral tech

[@SH1NK1R01]

@@coconutspeed1212 this is not actually true as almost none actually use coral engines. in fact only the institute ever managed to make functioning ones. The only coral tech that survived the fires of ibis was the human augmentation surgery as it didnt need as much coral and could be completed with the trace amounts we still had access to.

[@RockR277]

@@Iserior It's said earlier in the game that coral can interact with data, and Ayre can even sell data for you by herself in one mission. I'm not sure where c-waves' limits on their ability to manipulate tech end, but I took the glowy red bits on the ACs in alea iacta est to mean they were all being controlled by c-waves.

[@diegeticfridge9167]

I like to think that everyone who died along the way was swept up in the coral release. So that final shot of all the Acs standing together on the beach was 621 and all his friends alive together as coral ac hybrids. Maybe it’s an optimistic take, but it makes me happy…..

[@KePzez]

considering Iguazu came back from the dead out of pure spite, seems believable.

[@slomnim]

Ayre did say that the people that died in the fires of ibis "became" / "joined" the voices of the coral. So perhaps they got new bodies upon the release, that being the only bodies we ever see in the game, mechanations

[@omegaheartless]

But why does your AC enter combat mode? If that were true, then that wouldn't necessary.

[@KePzez]

@@omegaheartless we spred the coral across the universe, meaning we just initiated contact with the rest of human civilization, so I'm guessing if there's a direct sequel to AC6 it will about Human/Human-Coral Hybrid Conflict. Not everyone turned into Coral Hybrids regular humans still exists, and humanity have a history of conflict when it came to anything different from us. So probably if there's a sequel us Raven will be fighting for Coral Rights or sumshit

[@Headhunter-di9ol]

@@omegaheartless my personal take is its setting you free. Since it seems like 621 doesn't always have control of the AC in standard mode, or at least sounds like they are restricted in some aspects. The switch to combat mode is simply given them the freedom to choose how they want to act.

[@STARSBarry]

one thing to note I think is when Iguazu mentions the ringing in his ears, after a mission whenever Ayre talks to you in the hanger, in the background audio there is a constant ringing which is not present whenever anyone else is talking. This suggests that while Iguazu is not hearing voices the coral is constantly attempting to make contact. Walter mentions hearing voices as a quirk of gen 4's which you both share, perhaps that generation specifically through some sort of unintended consequence are able to make contact with the coral, which is why Allmind specifically take's an interest in both of you.

[@thundergunner4284]

OMG I think you’re right! Allmind also says that we were only one of many potential candidates, and shows a list of other pilot destinations, and on that list is C-617, C-618, C-619, and C-620, Walters other pilots who died in the trailer. And guess what! They were all Gen 4s too!

[@jaidenkoch3487]

@@thundergunner4284it shows different generations

[@erichdegurechaff9515]

Its not a gen 4 quirk, its a coral augmentation quirk, gen 1 to 4 has the same potential

[@onesilverleaf6781]

"Alea Iacta Est" - I was wondering about this phrase and, I knew the meaning of it but didn't have enough time to look into Caesar and him crossing the "Rubicon River." The kind of references FromSoft pulls of in their lore is just mind blowing to me.

[@CallofDutyBlackOps28]

“Roll the dice” “die is cast” luck be the guide, stuff like that.

[@claws2129]

One thing to keep in mind is that Fromsoft is a Japanese developer. Some things don't translate well between languages. Sort of how Elden Ring's translation made the Ranni ending out to be really dark and depressing.

[@animatoraoi3672]

So what Ranni said exactly in both version

[@gustavonomegrande]

The coral is pretty much souls taken form, an organic matter capable of being the medium for conciousness to keep on living, like Ayre and her brothers and sisters, rubiconians who probably died on the fires of ibis.

[@zakaryrichmond396]

I haven't looked too hard yet but I'm waiting to see speculation on this exact concept. The voices in the coral and coral waves having sentience didn't feel like data given life to me it felt like consciousness lost to the flow of that data and like social creatures they like to congregate together

[@eusouonumero232]

Now, this makes a lot of sense, coral probably some sort of bridge to those lost souls to remain in the phisical world some how, becoming a new entity made of coral, and on the true ending, coral entity (memories of dead Rubiconians in symbiotic relationship with coral) can pilot dead AC's (they new body's).

[@belldrop7365]

Ayre was called a coral mutation. And one of the logs specifically mentions coral mutations as products of coral density. Ayre also mentioned that she was born without a body. The symbiosis of human and coral is probably a new mutation caused by having coral so dense it literally created a black hole. A magic black hole, but hey, it is what it looks like.

[@kapitankapital6580]

The problem with this theory is that the coral existed before the Fires of Ibis, it is after all what burned in the first place.

[@garadje2623]

My impression on the Fires of Ibis was that Dr Nagasi wanted to clear out the mutated coral but NOT burn all of the coral, and that the cache of coral in Institute City was intentionally safeguarded from the fires so humanity could have another go. Walter takes the fires further than Nagasi ever intended, and in the Fires of Raven ending you do in fact burn all of the (remaining) coral.

[@SH1NK1R01]

They explicitly state that the fires were meant to burn it all. It was a pure fluke that it survived the first time. He didn’t want another go. He was convinced of a disaster that was dubbed a coral collapse. So he chose to burn it all in the hopes of avoiding this disaster. Overseer was formed to continue that hope. Sadly the research was incomplete and nagai jumped to conclusions. The collapse isn’t the end of the universe. And in fact it won’t ever happen the way he feared.

[@sunparasite]

when you fight walter, he even says he sees the voice next to you, so yeah its much more than likely he notices ayre

[@dreasdwolfox3435]

The reason why All Mind wanted to kill us was because with coral release we'd be far beyond it's reach in terms of power. Look how Iguazu was able to push All Mind aside when he began to resonate and he would likely have had a weak resonation compared to what Raven and Ayre would have, so the best bet for AllMind would have been to assimilate Raven and Ayre and trigger the coral with Raven's ghost and the assimilated/absorbed Ayre. Although that still may not have worked because Iguazu did somehow regain his free will.

[@dasji2]

Through the power of pure PETINESS and Jealousy lmao Iguana man makes me laugh and sad for him

[@MadLuigi]

As in we would just be stronger than it? Or it wanted to somehow control the release and we would get in the way of that?

[@dreasdwolfox3435]

@@MadLuigi those kinda go hand in hand I'd think. AM wanted to control the release definitely, but figured Raven/Ayre would stand in the way of that or be too powerful to reign in realistically anymore once they obtained Coral Release themselves.

[@MyUniqueHandle.]

​@@dreasdwolfox3435 huh, when you used the initials for All mind it makes me wonder if its a little reference to ' I have no mouth, and i must scream'. A popular novel from 1967 about a super computer (AM) that gains awareness and brings about genocide of humanity. Pretty cool if it is

[@Veldazandtea]

To be fair Allmind was stupid enough to think they could trick the player into thinking they were safe. "You are safe. You are safe." As if this is not a trap. Allmind is stupid is what I'm saying.

[@f0b618]

I genuinely didn’t think the Fires of Raven would be the bad ending when I first completed the game. Walter and Carla both seem to want a good result, it’s just a shame that it has to burn the planet. If anything, I thought that burning the Coral would stop the corps from exploiting the planet in the future, and clearly the planet could recover, since it’s still here after the Fires of Ibis.

[@MadLuigi]

Yeah but if it can recover like before, then that might mean the Coral can recover too

[@dualindigo9672]

The planet is there, but if all the people died it's functionally not much different from any other blank slate plane with suitable conditions for colonization.

[@clideb60]

After the Fires of Raven, the corps and PCA made a joint announcement: no one will be returning to Rubicon 3. All factions consider it a dead planet and have abandoned any hopes of colonizing it or using Coral. Without anyone there to exploit/harvest Coral, it may not grow or mutate like it did before.

[@SympatheticStrawmanVA]

I fell into the same pit. Didn't realize that I was the villain in the story until the hero, Rusty, showed up to stop me. By the time I'd killed him and faced off against Ayre, I think even she understood that there was no stopping us, maybe just a means of taking 621 with her.

[@diegeticfridge9167]

I still think the fires of raven is the good ending. The coral is a danger to the entire universe. It must be burned. If that means rubicon and everyone on it must burn as well that’s a price Walter was willing to pay.

[@harozuken]

My running theory is that the coral basically contains the consciousness of anybody that has died within its depths hence Ayre's line of "wake up before your consciousness is swept up in the coral tide." and why Father Thumb Dolmayan was trying to "go beyond the veil"; he was trying to reunite with (my guess) his wife or lover Seria; who's name he calls out before dying at 621's hand. However seeing what humanity was doing to the coral, Dolmayan decided he would rather bottle up and keep the coral safe rather than risk these Coral Ghosts being burned (which is ironic giving that he uses a coral generator in his AC), this is also supported by the name of his AC ASTGHIK, which is the name of a goddess of fertility and love. The release allowed the coral to interact with the world at large and show themselves a sentient beings by possessing and reactivating armored core wreaks. It was shown that in small amounts coral can passively reactivate dormant systems, but for it to do any of the things that Ayre was able to do as a coral wave mutation, it needed a hand. Allmind basically saw 621 as the method to get those consciousnesses out and into usable formats. however Allmind's plan was to; like the AC pilots before: assimilate the coral consciousnesseses and act like their shepard. Iguasu was a gen 4 coral augment survivor, just like 621, so Allmind proved that they could assimilate 621.

[@SanOcelotl]

Its a nice theory, i was surprised he didn't even mention Dolmayan in this video

[@thegoodwin]

This Allmind for some odd reason reminds me of the AI antagonist from Macross Plus anime.

[@richardrussel4567]

I disagree and here's why. Father Dulmyan has a log on one of the underground missions back when he was still a dozer. Seria encouraged him to injest coral so they can keep communicating, but father viewed it as the equivalent of human sacrifice, even though seria didn't seem to have a problem with it. That's why father dulmyan betrayed her and rejected coral release because he realized that he too would sacrifice human lives to talk to seria and it disgusted him. On top of Ayre saying that the coral is made up of her brothers and sisters. How would all the coral be brothers and sisters if they weren't directly related? Even non conscious coral like the ice worm was considered family by ayre. Unless they lost all their memories after becoming coral, but then how do they remember their names if that's the case?

[@xianfa1708]

i thought seria is another disembodied coral consciousness like ayre?

[@harozuken]

@@richardrussel4567 Good point, however I think that when Ayre speaks of her bothers and sisters its less of a direct familial sense and more of "these are my people." and as for dulmyan's decision to go clean it makes sense either way, he decided to stop using coral because he didn't want to cost someone their life, and instead want to keep it on Rubicon to keep it protected. On the topic of Non-conscious coral it brings up a good question, Ayre showed disgust when coral was used to power the C-Spider and ICE WORM, however chose to use Coral as a fuel source in both her craft ECHO and SOL, The IBIS series is stated to be both powered and controlled by coral, and even the ICE WORM diverted from using whatever AI that the P.C.A used to control it to the will of the Coral. So this brings up the question of where the line is drawn, what coral is good to use as fuel, and what coral is controlling everything. So unless the coral uses superficial parts of itself as fuel (human equivalent of hair or nail clippings) my guess is that Coral itself is not conscious, but rather can contain consciousness (often used as a data conduit in lore). This is supported in the secret ending when Ayre is glad that Raven had awoken while showing on the screen an AC (not the players) was standing up. And in those moments where Ayre was disgusted by the use of coral fuel, she was refereing to the potential of that coral having somebody in it. (you would be shocked if you saw a car burning if you though someone was inside of it.)

[@chaoticdragonianziros7654]

The vibe I got in the 3rd ending was All minds plan was to merge with the coral and take it over thus we had to stop that

[@midnightlumina7]

It's in it's name "ALLMIND". Similar to how GN Particles in Gundam 00 brought about a higher Understanding, Coral probably serves the same purpose.

[@varnix1006]

Funny that the green particle effect during the boss fight is similar to GN Particles as well.

[@Jassu323]

For real. I saw ALLMIND as similar to Ribbons Almark and Veda from Gundam 00-we are the ones who must guide humanity through the dialogues to come, and we will use any means necessary to achieve this.

[@Blanket420]

I honestly loved the fires of raven ending. I just wish we had some of the badass parts from the ng++ into it. Also I really love how the NG basically understands how you've grown compared to when you first started. Since some encounters are made to make you sweat and new instead of being a cakewalk.

[@skal-tel8077]

Its also possible that Allmind was afraid of us, and that she possibly didnt think that she /could/ absorb us w/o first breaking (killing) us because of our shared connection with Ayre. Divide and Conquer, or divide and Absorb in this case, was likely her goal. We were likely the last thing that she needed to become complete considering that we defeated every AC that she threw at us. Another possibility is that we were too much of a variable for Allmind to want to keep around, since a common trope for AI is that they also fear humanity because of our unpredictability. Its an interesting catch22, because more often than not AI berates mankind for being predictable, but in the same breath will curse and fear us for not being able to predict us when our backs are against the wall. Perhaps it was this uncertainty, this variable that Almind couldnt 100% account for, that lead her to believe that the best course of action was to remove our variable from the equation. Absorbing us and Ayre would provide her with what she needed to release the coral and her plan would be complete.

[@lorenzosepe9956]

😊 se

[@williamhanna9718]

I think it’s his hatred of 621 that allowed Iguazu to push back on ALLMIND for control of the body they inhabited

[@sdsdfdu4437]

Allmind didn't gain sentience, it was acting behind the scenes in the previous playthroughs too. I have good reason to believe the stealth drones you occasionally encounter are controlled by Allmind

[@ghoxty1675]

They are 100% imo. I realised when I saw that the plasma thrower they use is developed by all mind

[@thundergunner4284]

It’s directly stated by Allmind in the Retake the Xylem mission that Carla had taken control of some of Allminds “Ghost” units - referring to the cloaking machines. Also their parts are made by Allmind.

[@DatAsianGuy]

there is a theory that ALLMIND is also coral. her signature green/blue color that we see, is the same color as the giant mealworms that have been infused with coral...

[@OperationRedFlag]

Ayre did say when passing through the ruined city that it was her home before. I think the fires of ibis didn’t actually kill anyone but all who were burned were basically digitized into the coral data cluster, meaning there is a possibility of interaction or even symbiosis between humanity and coral (as assuming this theory is correct ayre and all other “conscious” coral mutations are just peoples consciousness being converted to exist within the coral flow). Which also is supported by the secret ending where everyone has been digitalized and transferred into an AC body

[@OperationRedFlag]

Also side note rusty is just solo wing pixy in a different universe

[@rodneynoble6046]

I don't think they were digitalized. I think they died in the fires of Ibis but the curse of the undead prevented true death and their spirits were absorbed by the coral.

[@OperationRedFlag]

@@rodneynoble6046 care to explain a little more? Any other references or ways that explanation connects with different parts of the story ?

[@jaidenkoch3487]

She said that she was born without a body and it is possible for sentient coral to control coral based machines

[@albyx]

1:25 Without getting much into the details as you have on your video, I always thought that “Coral” was kind of like the Mako/Lifestream from FF7. It could be a similar idea, though different in the sense that the “Coral flow” is where Rubiconians go when they die but aren’t reachable (Rubiconians can in fact communicate with the souls of dead Rubiconians that live in the Coral flow). Anyway, that’s just what I think!

[@b.e.wooten]

Me too. Huge mako vibes from coral. It was the only way I could reconcile Ayre calling herself a Rubiconian as a member of VERY exotic alien species, or using the term “brothers and sisters” as something that didn’t seem to have any human characteristics at all.

[@ukbleedbluex9340]

In the ALLMIND ending I see a lot of similarities with Eureka Seven. In the story there are intelligent life forms that came to earth called Scub Coral. They wanted to coexist with humans but humans feared them. Scub Coral are basically a hive mind, their physical manifestations are called Coralians. They have a designated Coralian that serves as the “Command Center” that acts as a brain for the rest of the “body”. It stores the collective memories of the Scub Coral. I believe ALLMIND was looking for that physical body to serve as the “command center” for all of the newly released Coral. But it needed a suitable candidate, one that already had a connection to the Coral. Like you, or Iguazu. In a mission briefing you see a brief glimpse of all of ALLMIND’s candidates. I think all of those candidates also made “contact” with the coral like we did. In a log from Dolmayan that Ayre remarks is very personal, he’s clearly referring to a “voice” in the Coral that guides him. And when you kill him he apologizes to someone named Seria. I think he was hearing another “link” in the coral much like we were hearing Ayre. Ayre regards the coral as her “family” because she’s simply one link in the hive mind, a hive mind that during the story has no central “brain”. Just congregating almost instinctually like Walter says. Also, In the show most of the Scub Coral is kept dormant by the command center to avoid something called “the limit of questions”. Basically a theory that too many sentient life forms in a given space would cause a collapse, that coincidentally takes the form of a black hole. Well, the dormant Scub Coral radiate their “thoughts”. Their thoughts manifest physically as energy. The Scub coral themselves can manipulate and generate this energy. Coral in AC6 behaves much the same. In the show Scub Coral have the ability to distort time and space, they can also effect the laws of physics by thought alone. Which is why coexistence with the Coralians would ultimately lead to the next step in human evolution. However humans are too shortsighted and afraid of the unknown that they end up trying to destroy the Scrub Coral. Again, much like we see in AC6. Scub Coral also have “Antibody Coralians”, they’re creatures created by the Scub coral to protect itself from harm. We see the Coral in AC6 do a similar thing as it uses the Ice Worm to protect the entrance to Watch Point Alpha. Or the Ibis series model to try and stop you.

[@starhammer5247]

I think the guy who designed the ACs also worked on Eureka Seven.

[@vladivanovich]

Just finished the Alea Iacta Est ending. And ngl, from my first playthrough when ayre said something along the lines of my “brothers and sisters are the coral” it just gave me strong evangelion vibes. Mechs, freedom, people breathing down our necks, cyclical nature of it all, and coral is just the new Fanta

[@keroro407]

I think Allmind wanted to release the coral and controlled it, becoming like a hive mind throughout the universe. While Ayre and Raven just want to release the coral giving the coral freedom, and the possibility of symbiosis/coexistence with humanity.

[@aeonise]

While that's great and all, Ayre also warned us that being freely exposed to coral will disintegrate our mind, so... 🤷‍♂ Seems like maybe we should have figured out the "coexistence without brain death" part before unleashing it on the galaxy. Not to mention the ethical ramifications of forcing it on everyone. Long story short, neither the "good" nor "true" endings seem all that good to me.

[@arwah9681]

And that's how the pvp were born. Which also means... are we player the coral?

[@SH1NK1R01]

@@aeonise people have been hilariously conflating a coral explosion with the coral release. Being caught up in a point blank coral explosion is not even remotely the same scenario as the ending of the game. She warned us of the dangers because of the specific scenario we’re caught in. You’ll notice that this warning is never given again despite multiple other encounters with coral infused machinery. We weren’t at risk near the ice worm. We weren’t at risk when fighting the ibis. And Walter was sitting in an ibis series in two of the 3 endings. It’s not lethal to humans in normal circumstances. Also keep in mind that coral was used for human augmentation which includes our character. So it’s never been naturally poisonous or harmful and in fact enhances the brain. Also the dosers use it as a drug. Not sure why or how that affects them. But it’s outright stated they do that. There is a lot of misinformation in the community about very specific details in the game and it’s leading to weird conclusions.

[@aeonise]

​@@SH1NK1R01 _"Being caught up in a point blank coral explosion is not even remotely the same scenario as the ending of the game."_ The watchpoint wasn't an explosion, it was a surge. While it's never made clear exactly what a surge is, it sounds like just a lot of Coral washing over our AC. The explosion was at the BAWS well for unexplained reasons and turned the whole area into a crater, while the watchpoint is obviously intact (but damaged) after the surge there since we fight on top of it. _"You’ll notice that this warning is never given again despite multiple other encounters with coral infused machinery."_ Incorrect. It is again given the next time we are exposed to a surge in the Engebret Tunnel, with Walter and Ayre both very concerned about our exposure and Walter making a comment about even an augmented human not being able to take it (presumably referring to exposure). Further, this was obviously not an explosion once again since we return to that tunnel later to find it mostly intact. _"We weren’t at risk near the ice worm."_ Completely wrong. Walter says we need to get out of there after the fight and that the Coral will "contaminate the area". _"We weren’t at risk when fighting the ibis."_ Or nobody brought up the obvious because Walter was distracted by the finish line of his mission and Ayre was distracted by her family. Or we just weren't being covered in it. Or take your pick of various other possibilities. Absence of comment is not proof of absence of risk. _"And Walter was sitting in an ibis series in two of the 3 endings."_ Oh, the AC he very conspicuously never pilots any of the times an ally on the field would have been a huge help? The AC he only brings out after being brainwashed or in a moment of extreme crisis after losing us? There couldn't possibly be a reason why he only pilots it when losing his life in the process is no longer a concern, right? _"It’s not lethal to humans in normal circumstances."_ Literally nothing in the game shows or suggests that. _"Also keep in mind that coral was used for human augmentation which includes our character."_ Yes, the Gens 1-4 augmentation surgery using Coral that is extremely dangerous and screws up your brain in various ways. The augmentation surgery Walter mentions we will be able to afford undoing after this, implying the surgery is fundamentally harmful in exchange for improved reflexes and being able to interface with ACs directly. Further, given Coral's innate growth abilities, it is clearly controlled in some way, possibly even partially/fully "dead" since dead Coral is stated to still have conductive properties, albeit not the same as live. _"Also the dosers use it as a drug."_ You do realize many drugs operate by by being toxins, right? It's literally in the word "intoxicated" for a reason. It's also why ODing on them is easy. We use toxic substances for tons of things, trusting in tightly controlled amounts to protect ourselves. Meanwhile, the release is obviously not controlled. It's... kind of in the name. Coral is clearly destructive to normal machinery in some way. Coral weapons even explicitly ignore defense. Since Coral conducts (and seemingly stores, releases, and/or amplifies) energy, it's likely the damage it inflicts on both ACs and humans is related to uncontrolled electrical discharge into electronics and nerves, respectively. This can be mitigated by hardening electronics and limiting exposure, but the third (and likely second) ending just made constant exposure a fact of life.

[@SH1NK1R01]

@@aeonise while I’ll admit to a misuse of the word as you are correct that it was a surge and not an explosion. All you have done is reinforce my point. The only times we were at risk was specifically the two surges we were directly exposed to. Walter warning us at the ice worm is irrelevant because we literally don’t move. We stand there and observe. And the result? Nothing. Because we weren’t at risk. And I am aware of drugs almost always being toxins. The pony was that if coral was so inherently dangerous that mere exposure was somehow damaging then there wouldn’t be rampant willful consumption of it for it’s likely hallucinogenic effects. And augmentation surgery was shown to be universally damaging. The only side affects specific to early gens was the voices. Which of course we now know was the coral life itself rather then what was likely diagnosed as dementia or schizophrenia. But later gens still experience shattered psyche and behavioral deviations once augmented. They even make it a point that v2 snail was once believed to have become the way he is now due to his augments. Because it’s common knowledge that it changes you (although it also states that for him specifically he was always an ass). It’s just a terribly short sighted mind set to claim that because a substance has only ever been used by humans for bad reasons that the substance itself is irredeemable or dangerous. The atom bomb remains the most destructive weapon ever made by man. But it would be utterly ridiculous to claim “atoms are too dangerous to be allowed to exist” Your comment about its capabilities of ignoring defenses and destroying machinery is explained the descriptions of the coral weapons. The institute found out how to manipulate the coral intelligence to cause it to behave in specific ways. So even in its capability as a weapon isn’t naturally occurring.

[@conwaysquest6961]

Allmind wanted to use the coral release project to essentially assimilate all of humanity and all of the coral. Under Allmind, there would be no free will. When we pulled the trigger on coral release we basically enabled Contact on a galactic scale. Humanity and Coral, merged in symbiosis.

[@albyx]

23:10 I thought it was great that they used the term “New Age” in this ending… kind of what AC2’s title seemed to indicate about the game’s world!

[@CafeDeAurora]

Awesome vid. Here’s my interpretation of why the third ending matters: Indeed, it was Allmind controlling everything, including us, until the moment it decides our time is up. It expected us to die easily, but underestimated our force of will, and we broke through her final stands. On top of that, Ayre and I decided to go with symbiosis anyway, but of our own volition and on our own terms. Not through whatever evil version AM had planned, not assimilated into its protocols, but by straight up fusing at the core of the Coral mass. We never learn what AM’s version of Coral Release symbiosis would have looked like, but the way AM is portrayed, leads us to believe it could have been the same, but “bad”. In character, I imagine it’d be best to say: “that’s an outcome that you better not imagine”. For all we know they could have also been the exact same thing. In which case the only reason the choice matters, is the fact that it is, in fact, a choice we’re making. It’s the act of rebelling that matters. And well, AM was going to kill us, so obviously if the end result is the same, except we get to keep living, that conclusion is better.

[@maltemuller4062]

I feel like the third ending is mostly on a meta level our choice. In the beginning for the first ending, we barely have any chocies available, we can just follow. In the later ng cycles we get more options and variations, based on what missions we choose to work on. And for example handler walter lets us choose what we want to do. So the third eding is more of a result of our choices we made and wouldnt be possible if we didnt choose those missions. You choose to look into allmind, do the arena, etc. And those choices lead you to be able to do the ending.

[@BRSxIgnition]

The final fight in Alea Iacta Est isn't pointless because All Mind's plan was never to release the Coral but to release her own sentience into all Armored Cores across the universe. Ayre tries to tell you this at the start of the fight with Iguazu.exe but she gets cut off. It's important to remember that Coral is also a data conduit as well as an energy source - much like Ayre and her brethren seem to inhabit the AC's at the end of the game, All Mind was probably planning for that to be her, had you been assimilated.

[@amorphousavocet1210]

Its worse. Not all armored cores, ALL MINDS. It ain’t subtle. Toghy before that fight they make clear ALLMIND has been assimilating others like Iguazu. The only way ALLMIND can understand to improve the human condition is to forcefully unify everyone under its direct control using coral symbiosis, with itself as the key by killing and assimilating Ayre/Raven.

[@BRSxIgnition]

@@amorphousavocet1210 it only does that by defeating and subjugating opponents directly. By going against all mind and working with Ayre, you instead place her coral siblings within the minds of machines connected to the network. This is foreshadowed by Ayre being able to assist you in the final fight despite not having a body, instead piloting the AC directly. Essentially, in this ending you give her family bodies.

[@jarellwhite1311]

As for the Liberator of Rubicon ending. I personally think that Walter lowers his weapon because he realizes the hypocrisy of his plans. Exploitation of the Coral leading to devastation, only to destroy the Coral despite it being exploited in the first place. I think he mentions that he’s able to sense Ayre in some way and realizes how wrong it was to kill a whole species for humanity’s faults. He realizes that when 621 is fighting for the Rubiconions.

[@SentientPulse]

Great video, after beating all 3 endings I was curious if there was anything I overlooked or missed and this helped out a ton. This is just speculation but I feel like the difference between ALLMIND’s plan and Raven releasing the coral could have one more distinction. I interpreted ALLMIND essentially being a hive mind controlling the coral or only benefiting the coral. I think to some extent our choice allowed more of a symbiosis rather than just enacting ALLMIND’s plan. Could be copium but I feel like it makes a distinction that changes the outlook on the ending. Might just be reading into something that isn’t supported but it would make for a “better” explanation for releasing the coral instead of just self defense and choosing to do it/allowing it to happen. If you agree or not, it would be cool to have another video delve into this theory if there is any evidence or support! Anyway you earned a subscribe from me!

[@OtepRalloma]

20:24 That line is honestly one that I absolutely love as someone who has played previous Armored Core games. The COM in the older games was almost always a female voice, but in this game the COM is male. Until Ayre becomes the COM, and the line hits HARD. Also I will say it's very common in AC games for you to fight the AI simply due to it wanting to get rid of you because you're too dangerous, so ALLMIND deciding you're too stinky as a human and need to be under her control like the other humans she's wiped out is kinda on brand

[@xianfa1708]

in acv you can change the systems voice owO but the default do sound like ayre Owo

[@Xardion55]

A thought. Perhaps the reason ALLMIND decided to kill Raven (and Ayre) was because she may have been corrupted. Early in the fight, Iguazu mentioned that there was others within who also carried a grudge against Raven. Plus, it is mentioned repeatedly that many who are augmented in the early days suffer from mental issues. ALLMIND may not have noticed the corruption until Iguazu fully asserted his will over her.

[@johnbastion747]

The ai mercenary system trying to take over the world by manipulating the other factions sounds familiar. I can't put my finger on it.

[@thegoodwin]

Uh, maybe, "Guns of the Patriots" system from Metal Gear Solid (MGS) IV?

[@albondogus9342]

Some of the old gen AC games?

[@Veldazandtea]

Metal Gear.

[@rueceless7580]

Basically been a plot thing across alot of the AC storylines in some form or another.

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

22:00 I think this is a good thing; Coral being everywhere across the stars means free energy and "data conduit" for all humanity, the age it was poised to bring about is nigh as it ever will be, with free access to space-growing coral EVERYWHERE.

[@johnboy1851]

SPOILERS There is a mission around chapter two or three or so that has you going on a historical survey for Ayre, during which, you find automated drones attacking you and Ayre notes that, "residual coral from the explosion in the cave must have kept these machines alive for this long, be careful Raven" or some such. It's also during the final Analysis mission where you fight a copy of Ayres' AC that she finds that not only can she move and control an AC without issue, but that CORAL wave forms can do it with the Ibis series as well, as we saw with CEL240. What's most surprising that we SHOULD talk about, is that Allmind not only figured out coral resonance, but figured out a counter measure for it in their final form AC that completely nullified any Coral presence in the general area around it. Feels weird that this was never touched on. Also, during the ending, Ayre states' "We're scattered", given the information so far. I believe in part that you were right, only partially. Yes, perhaps everyone on Rubicon was given a sort of 'Ayre' companion to keep the Rubiconians as a family, but they also took all of the destroyed/deactivated machines from the rubiconians and corporations fighting and inhabited them, effectively giving the C-Wave rubiconians new bodies, thus. A New Age of life.

[@gluelake]

In the ending scene of Alea lacta est, only our(?) starter mech doesnt glow red. Others have red light just like the Ibis series. At lease, this to me seems like the scatter of Coral has make them more individual like Ayre, as opposed to their original flocking tendency. This may allow them to inhabit machines like ACs (thus the red lights) or make contact with people like Ayre and Seria, while also preventing rapid multiplication. At the very least, I dont think humanity fuses with ACs at all, since Coral Release only scatter Coral throughout the universe, and there's no way there's enough AC or MT for the whole population. Still dont know why we're in the starter mech though, maybe a symbolism for a literal restart?

[@richardrussel4567]

How do you know theirs not enough ACs? Seems like they've got plenty of those suckers and some

[@gluelake]

@@richardrussel4567 im not talking about Rubicon alone, Im talking about the entire universe. Also, if there's ghat much AC, why most even bother using MTs lol

[@alphalightning00frost67]

@@gluelake a million ACs per billion MTs ratio probably

[@DatAsianGuy]

because being an AC pilot is a lot harder than being an MT pilot. Also nothing implies that Coral can't take over other tech, they probably just used ACs in the final cutscenes, because they look cooler. @@gluelake

[@Jacksontruman92]

I think I heard somewhere that Allmind wanted the Coral Release to be more about joining all indiviailty, all minds, to one being while we want to allow indivialtiy to still exist in the joining

[@NemesisUmbral]

This was a good video in addressing the endings. I find the “true” ending to be very interesting in the regard that, “will coral be a consistent element within the AC universe now?” I only thought of this because of how coral is spreading across the universe, but who knows how far it could potentially spread.

[@rueceless7580]

Depends if FROM decides to keep the franchise going however in the past AC Timelines will sometimes continue over multiple entries then be rebooted with some gameplay mechanics remaining but the story and universe being a new one with no relation to other entries. If FROM reboots the story again after AC6 the Coral will likely not matter.

[@amorphousavocet1210]

AC games often have independent timelines, if Rubicon shares one with some of them, it’d be a fitting far future ending, with the Release route representing complete freedom for all from the corporations. Given that freedom in the face of corporate dystopia is a long standing theme of armored core

[@thelord9993]

16:00 you’re not gonna talk about the mission in between ? I think it’s kinda important especially since Allmind tries to show the ineffectiveness of humanity (or something like that) to raven and (more importantly) Ayr

[@thelord9993]

Also she able to hack the pca weapons

[@kristopherortiz6079]

Honestly the way i portrayed allmind betraying you and trying to kill you despite going along its plan, was that aside of its kind of implied hatred for humans, iguazu's conciousness was so hellbent on killing raven that it influenced allmind enough to see raven's death as a necessary step for their plan.

[@peacefultyranny8981]

For the liberation ending, although Walter was in the re-education, I don't think he is fighting for the corps. It is demonstrated more like the only thing he has left is his dedication to right the wrongs his father and friends have made. Thus it was what keeps him fighting in a half-conscious state. And when realized that coral can actually achieve the symbiosis with human, his sins that he inherited from his father and friends are gone, thus no more wrongs that needed to be right, which is why he gave up in the end.

[@weberman173]

he is at least struggeling between his "mission" and "his friends" the mission probably whatever Arqebues orderd him to do afte rthe reeducation.

[@SH1NK1R01]

While I’d agree with the final conclusion there. He opens the fight explicitly stating that he was sent here on orders from arquebus.

[@Veldazandtea]

@@SH1NK1R01 He didn't say he was sent by anyone. What Walter says is "I must dispose of you".

[@SH1NK1R01]

@@Veldazandtea no he says "the corporations orders....no my friends" this comes right after he opens the cutscene syaing "They.....621....i have to dispose of you". And he was piloting the hal which is a mech that arquebus literally just dug up when they took control of the vacular plant. Only they would know we were there since carla was dead and he wasn't in contact with anyone outside.

[@sungazercyan]

Just to note; I don't think Ayre used the PCA satellite laser on the Xylem in the LoR ending because she was still attached to Raven. At the beginning of the FoR route she basically leaves your head to find a way to stop you, leading to her taking over the satellite and piloting the C-weapon AC. The only thing that makes me not super sure about this is her piloting the AC during the fight against Iguazu, but it could be because that AC might've been pretty close to where you were fighting (since it IS Allmind property after all).

[@tonysack-a-titanite7497]

“He couldn’t handle that we are so dope with the dual Zimmermans” rofl

[@ColtonGamingTV]

22:55 The true ending name translated is throw the dice which I take to mean it is better to make a choice than to let things stagnate. Also, it may not be the best choice but at least it to a new future unlike the other two endings.

[@niccolomiglio6996]

I hate being "that guy" but it actually means "the dice is cast" , which means a choice has been made already and consequences must be faced

[@weberman173]

not to be that guy, but its "the die is cast", its a singular die, not multiple dice Still love howthey where beating us over the head with that theme since the start given its called fires of fucking RUBICON!!(ya know "crossing the rubicon" another saying, also coming back to julius caesar just like alea iacta est, relating to "something that cant be undone" specificaly passing the point of no return) and most people didnt notice till the final ending

[@henriknobinder7395]

Note that during the boss fight with Allmind, Ayre begins saying something like, "Raven, Allmind's real plan, it's-" before being cut off, heavily implying that Allmind isn't simply planning on releasing the Coral. Also note that when we kill V.III, he tells us that we have no idea what we're fighting for and heavily implying that Allmind's plan involves the eradication of humanity as we know it. Personally, I got the feeling that Allmind's plan was something similar to SEELE in NGE and meld all of humanity into one consciousness through the coral.

[@nafereuskortex9055]

Here's a theory, we died in the Coral explosion when we met Ayre, a Coral Rubiconian attaches to a dead human and is how it was able to link to so many broken ACs after the Coral release, they had dead pilots in them.

[@fletcherw32]

I don’t think we died, but I wouldn’t be surprised if our consciousness was scattered into the coral flow. The way that cutscene ends, certainly implies it. Rather than us waking up in the nick of time. The Coral’s clearly based on the spice melange from Dune. I perceive it as a narrative justification for NG+, Checkpoints; and respawns in general. Having your consciousness scattered in the Coral Flow while still alive could mean exploring every possibility within your waveform. It’s hard to explain what that means without getting into the double slit experiment, but essentially every particle is a wave until measured. It’s just that we’re limited by our own and other’s perceptions. Within the Coral Flow this may not apply. Allowing a consciousness to freely explore its potentialities.

[@topcat59]

I personally believe that the ending you get with siding with Walter does not mean your free, you simply become a slave just like Walter to one day come back to this planet to start the cycle all over again we’re you will most likely be the handler to someone else.🤔🐱

[@MadLuigi]

I touch on that forsure. Idk if you're a slave to Walter, he does seem to genuinely want your freedom, I just think he's wrong that this is now over

[@Andoriol]

The reason ALLMIND is trying to kill Raven is because she wants to absorb *Ayre*, not Raven. Raven was just the vehicle getting Ayre to the spot. That's what's getting you tripped up.

[@PhantomOc3lot]

my theory for the release is that anyone near the blast must've lost any physical form, becoming a sentience "lost in the coral flow" being picked up by a metal body to inhabit. a lot of the allmind related chassis parts had a focus on bluring the line between human body and machine, so perhaps those nearby became more, with the potential of humanity being to meld with armored cores

[@SunPraiser1988]

I genuinely hope they make a title sequel for this with the same idea as AC4, where IIRC you could transfer your save file, the story continues, and more parts are added to compliment the old ones so players with an old save file have new stuff to find.

[@SH1NK1R01]

More likely to be a dlc then a sequel given that those type of releases have largely fallen out of favor.

[@traegiggers50]

Crazy theory time: the Galaga connection. So many if not all of us know one of Namco’s oldest IP’s. A space arcade shooter focused on taking on a seemingly never ending ‘swarm’ like enemy from space. On top of that it’s been said the Ace Combat series is a prequel to Galaga, the pilot’s and forces from those games most likely being the backbone lore to the player characters of the arcade shooter. But what of the enemy you fight. The swarm or bugs that you fight are not entirely organic, as they can take your ship and alter its capabilities based on the Galaga arrangement effects that change the attacks after reclaiming your ship based on which ship absorbed it. And though it’s assumed they are alien, but what if their origins hit closer that that. The ‘point of no return’ ending of fires of rubicon introduces the idea of a swarm bio mechanical like enemy to space with the capacity to grow infinitely, and already show signs of being able to assimilate other technology into its self to grow in knowledge. The theory is what if the coral release event is the beginning of the Galaxia’s forces, the point of no return, that gives birth to the conflict that we know as Galaga. With both games made by the same company. Ace combat X Armored core = Galaga

[@The_Big_Jay]

Speaking of the ALLMIND fight, you know you can just ignore the 2 Sea Spiders, especially if you have a light AC? They barely attack, and are automatically killed when you get Iguazu down to half health. You'll take more damage trying to kill the Sea Spiders from Iguazu booty blasting you when you aren't paying attention, than you will from the Sea Spiders while fighting Iguazu.

[@FujinFoxTK]

The same is true for the ACs that are present with him in Phase 1. You can just hard-lock onto Iguazu during all stages of the fight.

[@jaidenkoch3487]

@@FujinFoxTKyeah that was my tactic because I ran out of ammo the first time

[@wasdwazd]

They're still extremely annoying though. I've been killed by their lasers multiple times or gotten smacked and lost so much AP that I couldn't finish the fight.

[@jaidenkoch3487]

@@wasdwazd I guess it’s rng based because most of the time they would go after ayre

[@phoenixkarma204]

@@FujinFoxTK Oddly enough I've found those to be a lot more troublesome than the two Sea Spiders, since they are much more mobile

[@Madao_Aniki]

Now we wait for a DLC/expansion pack that tells us about the OG Raven (Nightwave) since the combi have not much story to go on atm except they belong to a group of independent mercs that swap around members to keep their group under radar

[@coffeebreak7978]

I think really important context is finding out who 621 was before,they became a addhuman, i feel like from how walter treats us that we are the other scientist in walter story but its hard to say.

[@SH1NK1R01]

It’s not hard to say. We were a nobody who fell in to debt and sold ourselves off to pay it back. Early gen augmentation was mostly done to people for this reason. A corporation would agree to pay off your debt and in exchange you become a product to be sold later. Walter bought us for comparatively cheap as we would be considered obsolete by the time he purchased us. It’s not possible for us to be the other researcher due to the timeline. We are gen 4 augmented human number 621. Human augmentation would have had 3 prior generations before us. It would make no sense for us to have survived or escaped the fires of ibis and then silently wait until 4th gen to get augmented the. Wait for decades until Walter buys us. The game confirms it’s been 50 years since the fires.

[@coffeebreak7978]

@@SH1NK1R01 your right, but you gotta think this mission to Walter is worth dying for so why would he buy a gen four when it's a outdated model gen seven where out and gen 8 was out to the corps, he has a reputation as a handler he wouldn't be hard on money, carla would have helped with funds as well, and he even knew Michigan who he could have setup a loan if he was really hard out. Another weird bit is a coral explosion caused us to link with a coral entity, why isn't this more common besides dolman there isn't anyone on record hearing the voices of the coral unless there something different about are augmentation maybe we're not gen 4 or maybe gen 4 has something unique about them related to coral, being a specific person is definitely a stretch but not only is is strange he would use a outdated model for his lifes work we also outperform everyone naritively except the gen8 pilot rusty who naritively keeps up with us till the end, if we are a gen 4 we probably were heavily modified by Walter being more of a prototype.

[@SH1NK1R01]

@@coffeebreak7978 as far as Walter, he was desperate. We aren’t the first hound. Remember that Walter is called “infamous” and when fighting Sulla he mentions that at the very least there were two others before us. In ng++ Sulla gets more specific and actually says that he was the one who killed 620 our direct predecessor. In regards to augmentation, it confirmed that after gen 4 the surgery was altered to remove the need for coral. Mainly due to the lack of it as rubicon still showed no signs of coral at the time. There are other mercs in the game who hear the voices but only a few. Father dolmayan used to be a dozer which is a faction that uses coral as a drug. Hence why he hear the voices. The liberation front also had 2 spies. Both became vespers in arquebus. With rusty being one and the other I forget his call sign but he was higher rank and was confirmed to have at one point sided with Allmind. He could hear the voices and says as much as you fight him.

[@SH1NK1R01]

@@coffeebreak7978 iguazu was also a gen4 and it’s the reason he hated us so much. There wasn’t anything specifically special about us that could be replicated. He was just like us, likely similar background, same generation. But we were better in every way. And he threw his literal body away and sacrificed himself to Allmind just for shot, one chance to catch up. But we were always better. In the other endings he undergoes additional augmentations as well. Nothing ever worked. Nothing was implied to be unique about us other then being early gen and thus having coral in our brain. Some main character ism isn’t entirely wrong though.

[@coffeebreak7978]

@@SH1NK1R01 thank you for helping explain it in detail

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

11:54 He also says in the fight, "that voice... I see her, beside you..." Which says to me that being put im this ibis series and possibly augmented by Arquebus made him able to see coral.

[@cristianberardi8093]

Regarding the 3rd playthrough, I felt like taking Allmind's requests was not about following their plan, but about seeing things through. And I mean it both as the player and as Raven/Ayre. At one point, early in the game, Ayre says about Carla "if we turn her down, we're turning down her knowledge as well", and that stuck with me. The whole playthrough I had this feeling of "this allmind fellow seems shady, I need to see what they're about". Based on the conversations we have with Ayre, it doesn't seem like we're blindly following along, it feels like we had our reserves but we needed to know what their plan was about. This, of course, only works cause we've already seen 2 endings with somewhat lackluster results. Ultimately, the fight with Allmind seems necessary. We're both after Coral release, but there's a difference between doing it ourselves or handing things over to this control freak (lol) PS: my only gripe with the 3rd playthrough is that we don't get to fight Malenia at the end of chapter 4.

[@Shatugi]

I feel as though the fires of raven ending is more of a bittersweet ending rather than a bad or good one. To preface this, I see the ending message from Walter about choosing your freedom as a message from beyond the grave. The whole ending is a sacrifice from 621 to prevent the fires of ibis from happening again. In reality, 621 just took the safest option. Rather than risk another calamity, they decided that the cons of using coral outweighed the pros and decided to eliminate it entirely. It’s a good ending for humanity, but a bad ending for the coral.

[@KoongYe]

I am genuinely horrified that people in the comments think Fires of Raven ending was a good ending. Even if you think coral is a dangerous substance, the ending wipes out every human in the planet and surrounding area as well. Just because oil caused some wars, would you burn the whole earth down? Are you crazy?

[@khangkhang3192]

It's funny to see how much of America is this comment. For god sake use your brain more often please. Coral is some hive-mind living kind. It blooms strongest in space, strong enough to cross stars. Which means when you let it grow long enough it can burn down the whole fuckin galaxy even multi galaxies and everything it needs is one small fire. It's a nuclear boom which we can control how strong it can be. "We can control it if we try!" No, we can't because there are too many of your short brains that can make a LITTLE mistake.

[@diazthebarber]

Fires of Raven is the best ending? Why the coral got to exist anyways 🫢

[@Blandy8521]

I mean given that the coral release did seem to cause a black hole & then a massive explosion I'd say it's right to be concerned

[@Sloster]

Glory to Walter's hounds. Ayre's simps will fall.

[@FredFake]

My interpretation of ALLMINDs goal is that ALLMIND wanted to harness the coral in order to create its own personal army. ALLMIND has shown that it is gathering the data of top AC pilots, and has uploaded them onto autonomous ACs (in the NG++ branch of take control of the Xylem). Controlling the coral is likely an extension of this, as it is shown that autonomous Coral controlled weapons and ACs are to be very potent weapons. With the release of the coral (and with the assistance of ALLMINDs AI hivemind) ALLMIND would essentially have an army of autonomous ACs under its thumb, as we see in the ending cutscene of Alea Iacta Est. Without ALLMIND the collective coral is allowed to run free to its own collective ends. It's also worth noting that however sympathetic Ayre may seem, at the end of the day Coral is technically a semi-sentient biomass collective and Ayre is a parasite in your brain with her goal being the propagation of her species. Releasing the coral/coral symbiosis is on the same level of letting a sentient virus loose on the universe. Viewed in this context, I don't think the Fires ending is all that much of a bad thing.

[@-.-.---.--...--.-.......-.....]

That is correct. An easy way to say it is Allmind was crossing Rubicon to wage war against the universe like Ceaser.

[@garygallimore4620]

There is some room for debate as to whether coral entities like Ayre would be considered parasites or symbiotes. Granted on a technical level a virus or something similar that took away our thoughts and free will but improved our survival chances as a species would still be considered beneficial on a biological level. As for whether coral can or would forcible take control away from humans or seek to negotiate with us is up in the air. The fact it is ayre saying to enter combat mode is ominous in my mind but not an outright declaration of hostility to humans.

[@jtomtl]

no parasite sounds as good as her. Besides, 621 is only being treated like a dog/ weapon, only Ayre cared for him. 621 needs some love too

[@azeria1]

​@@garygallimore4620I mean even in the fires of raven ending she doesn't try and control you and entering combat mode is both ominous and good since the only time we can move is in combat mode we can't do anything in standard mode is pretty depressing the only way to move is to be in combat mode

[@ixiahj]

The liberator ending isn't just the good one. Its a "hopeful" open ended one. Not a cliff hanger either. I could see sequels or dlcs coming from the liberator ending.

[@giantslug6969]

Walter, Rusty and Michigan are all great characters.

[@Chinesetakeout382]

Idk, whatever arguments could be made about what should be canon, my intuition just kinda lead me to side with Ayre and the liberation front, and I’d love to hear everyone else’s reasoning for why they took the path they went. Even With the liberation fronts flaws, they’re probably still the best faction with the best ideas (and Rusty’s on their side so that’s a huge plus), I respect their anti corporate ideals. I also just didn’t trust Walter and Carla since they kinda lied by omission and ayre didn’t lie to us (to my knowledge) so I trusted her a little more. I didn’t see how burning the coral again would work this time, so I figured this can kicking, the one that doesn’t result in planetary genocide was probably better. It’s probably still my favorite ending just because of my personal ideals. But I adore all of them.

[@alan133]

Think about it. The Ayre ending is counter intuitive to the RLF cause. You basically just handed the corals to the corporations and the war continues. Others will take over Snail and Balam will send over a new army to the planet. It sounds like a hopeful ending, but you basically did nothing or change nothing and hope things will change for the better. More corps will show up which means war, coral being the sentient jet fuel will still be used as weapons, and the coral collapse threat that we know from ending 3, will rewrite the laws of the universe as we know it still looms over the entire thing. Its basically "fk it imma be happy with my waifu in my head" ending that achieve nothing but push the problem to a later date.

[@azeria1]

Also the release can't happen in that ending since allmind says the rlf are to similar to the corps and with okeef probably still alive in that ending he probably made changes to the plant to stop allmind from doing anything since all the other assassins failed at least he implies they failed

[@psf_dioufmaulana3040]

I'm guessing it's like a Titanfall situation where the AC can move independence but need a pilot to utilize it full potential

[@atonumondal8545]

621 vs Ayre really made me depressed , I really hoped that they would stay together , but the 1st ending really hurts deeply 💔

[@Kronos0999]

It's the real ending though.

[@venom0825]

It's the maximum freedom ending. Your free from the coral, from the corporation, from Ayre, and even stopped an endless war. Safeguarding humanity from a substance that's to dangerous to exist.

[@whyamistillhere3258]

@@venom0825but at what cost

[@venom0825]

@@whyamistillhere3258 an already dead world that was going to be bleed dry anyway.

[@kazuyakenzaki1320]

​@venom0825 Just like every other planet we've decimated

[@fabianlmorel-ramos6324]

Just like in a previous comment, ALLMIND wanted to control the coral and with that control society but in her own way thinking it be the next face for humanity as ALLMIND throughout the game is collecting data to make better pilots, a better iguazu. As for the coral control device, remember that coral is both an energy source and a data conduit, meaning that pilots are augmented with devices that let them use coral for faster reactions therefore better piloting. The thing about the true ending is that a coral symbiosis with mankind as been mentioned throughout the game. Symbiosis as in everyone having they're own "ayre" to assist them but this is only possible for AC pilots as their augments make it possible for symbiosis. That's why everyone on the beach are in AC's

[@matcha3833]

Why do most fromsoft games always have a connection to fires?

[@cipher32]

Fires of Raven is probably more thorough than the Fires of Ibis because of the vascular plant. It had condensed all of the coral in one place. So its not a stretch to assume all of it burned.

[@yukinehellscythe8915]

also is it just me or is kate markson allmind? they have the same ac and nothing ever came up when walter tried looking her up and if you listen carefully kate markson sounds just like allmind but more human im guessing allmind went up as kate markson to check us out to make we're able to be a candidate for the coral release thats also why we kill one of the vespers on depth 2/3

[@wowomah6194]

I think that's sorta implied yeah. Ayre says "there's no records of a Kate Markson ever existing" and because Allmind has a record of every merc, it could probably create an AI pilot that SOUNDED like they were a real person

[@yukinehellscythe8915]

yeah i suppose i never really caught on and only recently did i realize that when i was trying to s rank some missions. lowkey was hoping we'd have someone else side with us in the Alea Iacta Est ending who doesnt try to kill us or lie/manipulate but ayre is enough and even after all we've done for allmind she still chose a resident redgun mental patient who cant take the L. allmind belongs in the highway the streets wont be enough to accomodate her lmao

[@CG-_-]

Was gunna comment after finishing the video that you where saying ayre's name wrong but then you started saying it correctly and it made me happy to see someone can properly say it... Then You go back to saying it wrong sigh

[@velocityraptor7188]

I can see the expansion for this game opening up a 4th quest line where we actually decide what we want to do with a 4th and final ending. The previous 3 endings were all ALLMIND simulations. Barring that, a 4th and 5th ending where we dominate everyone, or get the ultimate good ending and maybe another team up like against the Ice Worm. Raven, Ayre, Walter, Rusty, G1. Or how about a 6th quest line where we play from the perspective of the PCA.

[@anacreon212]

the coral release ending think is more the coral got assimilated into all the acs and replaced COM. So all the ac pilots have a coral partner that reside within the ACs that can communicate with their pilots. In a sense this is a more definite answer to the coral symbiosis that Ayre wanted.

[@FadeRunna]

Hearing Ayre say "Activating Combat Mode" at the end made me feel like all the Coral controlled machines are going to attempt to take over the galaxy

[@treemutwo]

The conclusion I came to was it means she is replacing COM to effectively be our co-pilot. COM was already established to be subservient if not a part of ALLMIND already. So with ALLMIND gone COM is also probably gone. As well as coral augmentation making it so pilots can better connect with their ACs. Meaning to me the whole Coral Human symbiosis makes it so Raven and Ayre can even better interface with their AC. Also the ending already says they are everywhere and anywhere. So I don't really find a reason to think Ayre would randomly want coral to conquer a vague "other" cause they are already all over the galaxy. Presumably bonded with other humans.

[@FadeRunna]

@@treemutwo question is, can Coral bond with other humans that aren't Augmented Humans? G4 Iguazu was able to hear the voices because he was also a Gen 4 augmented human. Handle Walter wasn't able to comprehend the voices until he merged with that Hal machine during the "good ending" That being said, I don't think these Coral beings can bond with ordinary humans. It looks like they just took control of whatever Coral powered tech was out there to give themselves a physical form

[@treemutwo]

@@FadeRunnawell most AC’s shown in the ending afaik aren’t coral powered. So it seems to me Coral has just evolved to access tech to a greater extent. Shown with how Ayre could already interface with most access points. And for Coral and human symbiosis it was already implied normal unaugmented humans can make contact by Thumb Dolmayan’s boss fight. Where he is talking to presumably his Coral contact. His contact seemingly just awoken by prolonged and extreme contact with Coral by both formerly being a Doser and then also surviving the Fires of Ibis itself.

[@SH1NK1R01]

@@FadeRunna father dolmayan wasn’t an augmented human and clearly could see and hear coral voices. Also the human augmentation surgery itself was a medical process of injecting coral in to the brain to enhance it. So coral spreading everywhere doesn’t exclude normal humans since were already clearly receptive to being dosed with coral to begin with. Lastly ayre very specifically states they are everywhere and anywhere. So there is clearly no limitation imposed on their current form or location. The specifics are obviously vague. But we’re obviously meant to interpret this as an unshackling of sorts. Neither coral or humanity are as they were before.

[@waterteafan9264]

​@@treemutwomake sense, i like it

[@raveneggz3337]

You forgot to mention the most tense moment in the game. I nearly had a heart attack when Allmind did its final dash at you when you beat it thinking it was over for my AC with around 150 health left.

[@cherno8336]

chatty wasn't made by Carla but by Chatter

[@zedzedzzzzzz3d]

First beaten the game within 1 week. Beaten the game for the second time in just 2 days. Finally beaten the game for the third time in a day.

[@kingdavid8178]

Feel free to correct me, from the looks of it, all of these endings come down to whos perspective you adopt. Unless there is a lot of evidence that supports one side being the "good" or "bad" side, in terms of knowing what the outcome was in the futue, our choices are based on our assumptions of what will happen. I am on my 3rd play through right now. I choose to finish Walters plan on the first ending, the reason being is that I thought Walter was a "bad" guy, but from his perspective he is trying to save humanity. Although he doesn't treat you the best at first, he does seem to become fond of you Whenever he passes down the duty to you, you can adopt his perspective easily and feel like now you took on the burden to save humanity. Its like you are basically the "bad" guy, but have to be because humanity is being ignorant of the possible danger they are in. This is a bad ending when looking at it from the people you kill, the planet you destroyed and if you care about the coral being wiped out. Also if the coral isn't wiped out then most definitely this is the bad ending, but we don't know what would happen after, just assume. This could be a good ending, if we would have choosen other wise and coral wiped out humanity, then this ending is actually the better ending. I think the reason this is the "bad" ending, is because you basically have to wipe out a planet to achieve this. Are you a person who thinks one planet should be wiped out if it means saving humanity? Thats why people are mixed on if this is good or bad, its both and depends on your perspective. On my second play through I did the liberator of rubicon ending and choose to go against walter. Whenever you defeat walter you can see he chooses NOT to kill you, which shows he only wanted to save humanity and believed in the danger of coral. People say this is the good ending, but you still have to betray and kill people in either ending, except you don't wipe an entire planet out which seems a bit better to most people. Also what if we was being tricked by the voices of the coral? What if they sinisterly tricked us to make this choice, then humanity became doomed and walter was right? Would this still be the "good" ending then? Probably not. It depends on what happens next is my point. Based on what we seen in the cut scenes, Ayre seems to genuinely think coral and humanity can co-exist or that we can find away to save Rubicon, humanity and coral. Whenever you fight her in the other ending, she seems to actually just care about coral, Rubicon and humanity but by co-existing, and you are seen as the bad guy in this perspective This is my opinion, at first I thought Walter was correct, and that humanity is niave, and that maybe his mission IS a nessisary evil that has to be done. I changed my mind after fighting Ayre, thinking about how there is nothing guarantee the coral can be wiped out, how we basically destroyed the home planet of people, and how we basically are a loner doing our thing after the fires of raven. I think this is how most people feel Even if the fires of raven ending was the nessisary evil for a better good, most people are thinking, is it worth it though when you yourself are lonely with no friends or purposely left, other than what you make for yourself? In the liberator of Rubicon ending, you can feel like you saved a planet, the people/homes left, that you brought hope to those innocent on it even through you technically did kill and betray a few people who helped you. However this is a lesser evil compared to wiping the entire planet out. Also you have Ayre, and have friends in this ending, and are working towards hope for a future in which you feel like you have more of a purpose, almost as if Rubicon is your family/friends and your planet/people now, and now you can try to do a better good by figuring out how coral/humanity can exist and also recognizing Walters fear. Walter also respects your choice that you fought for a friend. Either ending sucks in some way But my opinion now is that the liberator of Rubicon is the ending I like better. I like this ending because I have a purpose to exist, not flying around meaninlessly, I would have kept the planet safe, and even if coral did wipe out humanity, I can feel as if I didn't wipe out all the innocent people on Rubicon whos home is that planet. I think I realize I sympathize with the people of rubicon who live there, who just want to live free and not have cooperations and governments try using their planet for their own gain So I like knowing I am basically the hero and savior of rubicon and feel like I have a purpose as its protector in that ending. The fires of raven ending left me not feeling certain that coral is definitely wiped out, and I have no friends or purpose left it seems, other than what I make it. This is how I see it. What good is having a billion dollars if you are the only human left. Like wise, what good is it that I wiped a planet out, maybe stopped the coral but I am left empty inside with no friends and my purpose is finished, there is nothing left for me other than to fight for whatever else I want for. Liberator ending seems more fitting for someone who wants to feel like they have a purpose of existing. My point is, its about perspective as well, everyone had a point in their perspective and thats what I like about the story. I didn't unlock the true ending, I am confused on how they made thay black hole though, and I don't know what to make of this ending yet because I didn't get time to look into the lore or think if its a better ending then the liberator of rubicon. Wait???? Wouldnt all mind still have this motive in the liberator of rubicon??? We would have to stop all mind technically still, wouldn't we? Why would all mind be any different in liberator of Rubicon ending? Thoughts?

[@omegaheartless]

I get what you're talking about, but I believe that the fires of raven ending is the better outcome, Outside of some Corporation goons, the Dosers and any remaining soldiers on the ground, it prevents Arquebus from obtaining coral and becoming the dominating force in the galaxy, the same with Allmind. By burning the coral, you prevent the scales of power from tipping in one particular direction. Coral has only ever been used for war, augmenting humans to better pilot their mechs, creating weapons that can annihilate bases with little thought, among the myriad other war crimes that has been done to humans in the pursuit of understanding this new resource. Of everything seen throughout the game, whenever the coral is involved, there is always something terrible that follows. Walter wants to burn the coral because he and his comrades understood the danger it presented, pragmatically speaking, this is a power no one should have control over, not the PCA, not the corporations, not even the Rubiconians themselves. The liberator ending doesn't solve anything, even without V.2 Snail, Arquebus is still a prominent enemy about to send a mass of coral to their HQ, there will inevitably be more mercs to come for the head of the "Liberator of Rubicon", and this doesn't even speak of what Allmind will end up doing as well. The liberator ending continues your story as a mercenary, with one handler being traded out with another, a dog with a new master, one that guilt trips you into doing what she wants, instead of being freed from this nightmare. Walter wanted you to survive, get the surgery reversed so you can live a life of freedom, and sometimes that freedom doesn't come with directions but the ones we give ourselves, and while that is hard to do in this instance, we're clearly capable of making those choices. finally, remember, Walter, despite everything he may have said to the others, demanding respect for you from the other leaders and clearly wanting you to escape the life of a mercenary kept telling you one thing, "It's a job."

[@SPONGCHAO]

Yeah, it's all perspective. I don't like calling any ending 'good' or 'bad' as they're all morally gray depending on your values. I value humanity above coral so I'm willing to not take that risk and burn it. I also grew very fond of walter/carla over the course of the story, moreso than Ayre (I like Ayre but I got a lot more attached to the other two, everyone has different perspectives and I never thought Walter was 'bad'). So to me its a matter of I agree with the fire solution, while also wanting to respect the final wishes of Walter as to me, on an emotional level I wanted to fulfill that duty to someone I respected. He may have been tough but at many points in the story he subtly shows he cares. I also can't bring myself to betray Carla either. The other two endings making me to turn on them actually pained me lol

[@kingdavid8178]

After reading both comments, that is why I choose to go with Walter the first time around, basically because although some can say he used you for his mission, after realizing what his mission was and him passing it down to you, I also did not want to betray him, killing carla was pretty messed up which is why, I think either ending has you doing something dirty with your choices by someone having to die in either scenario. I also think some people believe people are trapped in the coral, and therefore if they kill them/wipe coral out that it is the same as ending their life, is how I think some people feel. Not sure if the people swept up in the coral/fire are really themselves inside of it or not. One could argue you are doing them a favor by wiping them out, others could argue you shouldn't. I think the fact that Walter refuses to kill you, shows that he did have some respect for you. That's why betraying him feels more messed up, because he didn't betray you if you think about it, he could have killed you or at least shot the gun, but he refused, at least I think it's implying he purposely refuses to shoot you. Ayre on the other hand was willing to kill you. What I like about the fires of raven ending is Walter feels like my boy near the end, and because I understand their mission, it allows me to see that although they "used" me, you eventually become part of their clique, to the point they entrust you to finish it and free yourself from all burdens. You have to accept the fact of killing all the rubiconions though So I think what this comes down to us this for players Can you kill all the rubiconions, wipe the planet out, possibly the coral, and feel like you did the right thing Or Do you stop the rubiconions, coral and planet from being killed off and betray your handlers wishes, and betray Carla who helped you after the prison break. Can you feel good doing that? Some people like myself, don't feel "good" doing either, because like you said, it's a gray area depending on what you think is for the better. I'll probably keep flip flopping between which ending I like because I could easily flip flop, need to do the final play through though, maybe I'll change my mind on which I like best It also comes down to, do you believe Walter is right or wrong with his fear, if he is right then yeah, bye bye Rubicon, if he is wrong about it, then maybe you set the planet ablaze and the coral comes back, and you killed all those people for nothing People say this story is trash but I got invested in it Also us being a mercenary that chooses what we fight for, makes these endings more impactful, because what your choice is and what you are fighting for isn't the same as another's, so it's interesting to see why people like one ending over another and what type of pilot they would be

[@SH1NK1R01]

@@omegaheartless I like how you only compared the first two ending and completely avoid how the third ending blows a gaping hole in your entire point about the 1st ending. We may not know the specifics of what it means to be fully joined, but symbiosis was achieved in the third ending. No corporation can specifically target all creation itself. In that ending coral expands to everything and everywhere and is united with humanity in this way. But yeah go on about how genocide is ok because the ends justify the means.

[@omegaheartless]

@@SH1NK1R01 okay, but there is no indication that symbiosis was achieved in the third ending, the release does not equate to symbiosis, the second ending implies that we don't know how it would even be achieved. Keep in mind that 621 is kind of a unique case in that we were able to integrate into the coral so well, but what about the other augmented humans? What about non-augmented humans? Certainly in such a rush there would be absolute chaos for humanity as people are either swept up in the coral, their consciousness dissipating in the wave or panicking because they're now inside of an unknown machine without a body. Yes, emotionally, glassing a planet is pretty horrible, but like Ayre herself, Rubicon 3 is a drop in the bucket in terms of the stars beyond. This isn't a comparison to world war 2, where innocent people were being tortured and killed because of some false ideals, the coral is a legitimate threat to humanity.

[@marcellhegyi1363]

one thing about the second ending. In Rusty's new AC part descriptions we learn that the smaller companies were planning to overthrow the 2 big dogs for quite a while and help rubicon be independent. This to some extent implies that it IS a much better alternative to burning it all down

[@zakaryrichmond396]

if you look at Walters graph on coral growth before and after the fires his predicted model of the fires of raven showed a drop to the same levels as after ibis implying another growth and burn cycle would have to follow

[@weberman173]

i dont think he ever showed us a graph AFTER the second burning we trigger but just after a regular second burning, the fire if raven is a far more intense, and more concentrated burning of coral then the fire of ibis was. The point of the graph was "if we dont burn ALL the coral at once, it will jsut grow again, and can be ignited again" but we burned all the coral so there is nothing to grow again

[@zakaryrichmond396]

@@weberman173 he specifically says "the fires of ibis were meant to wipe the coral out but it survived somehow and grew...." While he says this you see the graph rise then "the coral must be burned 621. Even if that means reigniting the fire that scorched the stars" as he says this the line on the graph drops back down to the level after ibis (THE SAME EXAT LEVEL ON THE GRAPGH)he ends it saying "feed the fire, let the last cinders burn" no explanation on how this time you would get it all just says burn it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m3u6oKVqqcRrg8ksi=rJ7fvc72oEdfCm4m

[@Admiralkirk95]

I'll be hinest I early on called that Iguazu would be one of the final bosses to a story. He reminded me alot of Evangel from last raven. It's not exactly the same, but both wanted to prove themselves and become better than the player. While Evangel is shown to be more of a infiriority complex, Iquazu shows himself to be much more unstable, envious and hating the idea that everyone is laughing at him and not being able to handle that disrespect. Plus he's a fourth gen like the player. That clicked in my head really early on that he likely resents us cause he sees us as superior despite our shared inferior technology compared to everyone else. He could always lean on the excuse that his fourth gen augmentations held him back, until you proved to be the best of the best. And his ego couldn't handle that. Plus his fourth gen parts seem to impact negatively. At first I thought it was a rise in stress level when you are around. Kinda like 'seeing red' when you look at someone who you hate more than anything. Seemed to time up when he took damage and was pushed. But his acknowledgement of Ayre being the source of the ringing in his final fight makes sense too. He does not experience this in the dam mission whether you betray him or not. And any time after you meet him after this mission is after Ayre has joined you. So his fourth gen augmentation was slightly picking up Ayre, just not as well as Raven who has a perfect connection. He may have been picking up the equivelent of static. So when he was defeated in my first playthrough and said "This isn't over" I had a good feeling he'd be back..... and then he wasn't, and then second playthrough Iguazu sicks an assassin on me.... and I never saw him again in the other ending. Then third ending had me Kill him and Snail at the same time and my thoughts of me calling it felt dashed. maybe Iguazu wasn't meant to be an endgame boss, he was just some vindicitive loser, every story he is cut short and shown to be of no real threat. Just an angry dude who can't amount to anything..... and then suddenly he is the final boss, you've kicked him down many times across three playthroughs and he makes a deal to give him one last shot, a small amount of time to get his revenge one last time. His win quote is "This ghost of me won't last long, leave a space in hell for me" he knows he's sunk too deep to be redeemed, but his petty spite was more powerful than acceptance. I honestly got a chill hearing his voice because I had actually written him off for good by that point.... and suddenly he was back as the final boss. So all in all.... I called it, and I definetly liked seeing him as an opponent. Good character that the game sort of makes you feel isn't important and suddenly he reveals just how far he'll go just for spite and anger.

[@potatomasherr]

I wonder what would happen if someone chose the same ending all 3 playthroughs but they went through with the altered earlier missions

[@Zomboy123456789]

You'd get the same ending and only the mission selection would change. Though I might be wrong I'm fairly certain you need to do both endings to even unlock the third path.

[@thesenatetm1258]

@@Zomboy123456789 You just need to select the correct mission order on NG++ to get the third ending

[@TeleportRush]

@@Zomboy123456789 I'm not sure you need to do both endings to get the third, or just two playthroughs while doing the arena stuff along the way. I'm assuming the latter, but I did the former personally.

[@TheRyderShotgunn]

here is how i see a few things: It's not strange to me that Ayre didn't take over the closure satellite in any other ending besides the Fires of Raven. In the mission, Ayre is silent the entire time, likely because she's busy hacking into the satellite, a feat which Carla remarks Arquebus shouldn't have been able to achieve, and one which Ayre, who mentioned at the very start she was very adept at hacking, took an entire mission to achieve. She only managed it in the Fires of Raven ending because she was no longer supporting us, like she does in the Liberator of Rubicon and the Alea lacta Est ending. The next question, then, is why is it that Ayre doesn't join us in battle in an AC of her own during the Liberator of Rubicon ending? I'd say that she isn't yet aware this is an option, really. In Fires of Raven, she probably had help from Allmind, since it's the same AC used in the second phase of the Alea lacta Est final battle, whereas in the Alea lacta Est ending, she only knew it was an option from the last arena mission that only unlocks towards the end of NG++, and had early experience piloting such an AC during the simulation. There is, however, one massive missed opportunity with the game, and that is, during the Reach the Coral Convergence mission, the sewer tunnel leading to V.II Snail is blocked off by an invisible wall. You cannot try to kill him off before fighting CEL 240 to skip his ambush. And, yeah, Snail needs to fight you on the Xylem in the Arquebus Balteus, but before finding him you come across 2 Arquebus MTs guarding the entrance, who can't warn Snail because Allmind interfered with their comms. Just say that without that, they'll be able to warm him off, and he'll escape before 621 reaches him, and then ambush 621 afterwards as planned, with possibly a bit of unique dialogue, but no, the entire tunnel is just blocked off.

[@SH1NK1R01]

it seemed pretty clear that in ending 3 allmind wanted to release the coral because it mathematically calculated that effectively, ayre was right and overseer was wrong. But it also believed that humans could never be trusted to be in charge of this future. So we choose to help until we realize this second part. On a side note i find it pretty funny how many people weigh the deaths of a handful of sympathetic characters like Carla, Walter, and Rusty as more impactful then the literal entire planets population. Like people are unironically swayed by their deaths in to thinking that somehow the third ending could be evil in comparison to the literal genocide ending.

[@glomorailey106]

There's a few things i thought to in regards to Coral, Rubicon, and the whole collective consciousness that Coral is. First, the Coral. Prey (2017) has a similar thing, Typon Coral a result of the collective, active development of the Typhon as an organism. The first contact you make with Coral plays flashing, memory-adjacent cutscene with Morgan's voice, or a snippent of the real-time vision of what the game actuslly is. The Typhon is incredibly relentless, and lack any form of empathy, a point major in the game. Would you destroy the evolutionary potential of the Typhon because it the dangers it posed? Would you do the same with Rubicon's? Now for the other connection, Rubicon, the Coral's intelligence, and No Man's Sky's Korvax. The Korvax are machine-lifeforms which only temporarily possess their physical bodies and have a 'convergence' which is their collection of minds. Entities are downloaded from their convergence as they need, and their bodies are only conduits for their minds, not attached. Would something similar happen with a Coral symbiosis be similar? Is it my turn with the body? Additionally, a Korvax homeworld existed. At one point. Then, it just... died. The Korvaxsay many voices rang out. Does the Coral have a similar situation? Is it native?

[@julestyart]

The coral put humanity into a state of constant combat where humanity functions on its edge. Similarities to the first armoured core game, when you destroy the Ai that happened to be controlling all armoured cores. It was keeping everything in a state of war and balance,you just out competed it. Huge robots in constant combat is the life and blood of the game. Anything to fuel that is my head canon.

[@tofucasio9038]

from my understanding, allmind plan to use coral release to absorb everything include raven and ayre. that' s why in NG++, there's a guy betrayed allmind. During the fight with the betrayer, he did said he want to be human, not other species.

[@evotemplar]

The 3rd ending is to pave way for AC7 where we fight all the coral AC army

[@StegoAqua]

Ok so I just realized the reason we wake up in water is because Coral Release caused all the ice to melt

[@coatguy2990]

*SPOILERS* Honestly, the bad ending is probably my favorite one although I have to accept the "true ending" as the canon one...sadly. I can't get over the fact how dirty they did my man Walter so I like the "bad ending" the most because they left his fate ambiguous so I interpreted it like "he lived" because I can't mentally handle my guy getting killed off in every ending - he seemed like he only used us in the beginning which - fair point - don't forget we are a mercenary after all. We dunno why. But we know that we are, so Walter isn't even technically doing anything wrong if we're being honest. And him not being nice in the beginning also makes sense. In this environment (military-esque) you aren't easily mentally attached to anyone. In the end, they could die the next day and you'd still have to keep moving on. And this even happened to Walter just prior to us coming around. It's fair for the guy to be cold and reclusive in the beginning, we could just be another 617 in the end. But then he warms up to you, demands respect for you from even goddamn V.II Snail and plays downright with open cards towards the end. My personal canon ending has to be the bad ending again...damn FromSoft, you really don't like making happy true endings, do you? 😔

[@treemutwo]

Hate to rain on the parade but enacting the Fires of Raven ending basically means we burn all of Rubicon down to prevent the coral from potentially propagating beyond rubicon and burning much more. So considering Walter was likely being “re-educated” by Snail and Arquebus on Rubicon. Given his appearance in the LoR ending and the circumstances of their capture being the same regardless. I would think the odds are higher that Walter also meets a terrible end in FoR as well. Being burned in the fire with everyone else on Rubicon. Even if we cope and say maybe he survived he is still likely had been subjected to coral augmentation and arquebus torture. So unfortunately there is no good end for our legacy driven handler.

[@SH1NK1R01]

we do know why we are a merc. early gen augmentation is confirmed by logs in game to share the same lore as the human + program from old ac games. Where people in massive dept sell their bodies to the big corps who augment them and then sell them as product. Walter just bought us. That's why we are called a hound. And why others on rubicon who know walter mention the others before us 619 and 620 get mentioned a few times. He only warms up to us because we succeed without fail, and he likely no longer had the time or resources to buy another slave. asking for us to be respected and being a little nicer doesn't really change the master servant dynamic. And in the end he saddles us with his ambition in the same way he was shackled by his own predecessor.

[@FainDAFT]

Idk if someone mentioned it, but Walter actually says straight forward during your fight with him that he can “see” Ayre right next to you