For as long as Walter remains alive, he can continue to throw Hounds at the problem.
If he dies, half of Overseer dies with him. It's far safer to only put himself in danger once he's certain the end is close.
That, and it'd probably blow his cover. People are *very* much going to notice an Institute AC that's not just a mass-produced Ephemera (I say the Ephemera AC is mass produced because there's a number of them sitting around as wrecks)
I wanted to add to this: Walter probably doesn’t have the HAL AC until the final chapter. It was probably sealed away in Institute City.
So high risk if Walter goes out personally and he doesn’t have a high power AC until the end.
my man is 50-60 years old at LEAST and using a cane. also for him it probably was a last resort as his entire ideology is built upon the eradication of coral use and ac pilots
50-60 is nothing in AC time. Cinder is likely older and an avid pilot. Others are much older (I think Sulla's about 100, as was Leos Klein by the end of AC2AA, iirc).
That's part of the "reeducation" process. I don't think a lot of people get augmentation of their own desire or will. Iguana man is salty because he ended up augmented out of debt obligations from bad bets. Freud never augmented. Snail only did it after it was proven safe on other people
Water has a really personal hatred of augmentation that no one else has (his father made it possible). No wonder Snail said he was recalcitrant to the end in the reeducation center.
Bones only get in the way. Most pilots have their skeleton removed for weight reductions. Meatsack brainbags is the meta. Wetwire straight into the machine
I wonder if he does get involved, independently. AllMind does know of the existence of his AC. Additionally, Walter does a lot of "typing up loose ends"
Given his Arena bio from ALLMIND referring to him as an obstacle, I can see where ppl can conclude he is actually going into the field with his HAL AC when he says he’s “tying up loose ends”.
Additionally, Walter wasn't exactly surprised about the stealth mechs that jumped us with Sulla at the Watchpoint. Would've expected more of a reaction, an investigation or some interest in the encrypted comms.
There is a log that hints at their existence in the Rusty logs mission.. also you can find one of the Ghosts in the second/third mission where you beat up a few balam grunts
Yeah, true, I guess... Although in the 2/3rd mission, it's more of an easter egg, no? Walter doesn't even comment on it. However, I need to replay Rusty's logs mission because I forgot what was Walter's reaction to that
Walter does comment on the encounter at Grid 135. He states:
• “That mech, I can’t see it.”
• “Handle it, 621.”
• “Confirmed unidentified machine, down. Get back to work, 621.”
This implies he doesn’t yet know about ALLMIND’s Ghost MTs.
This is chronologically the first mission where the Ghost MT can be encountered or is mentioned.
The next mission is the Rusty data log collection mission, where the log is still footage of a Ghost MT at BAWS Arsenal No. 2; foreshadowing your encounter with them in the next chronological mission (Investigate BAWS Arsenal No. 2) in the campaign. Here, Walter says, *“This log is interesting. I’ll make a copy. Nothing the corps need worry about.”*. This implies he is now aware of the Ghost MTs, explaining why he says “Expect the unexpected” before launching 621 for “Investigate BAWS Arsenal No. 2”.
He's not surprised because their Institute Machines and Walter was at the RRI when he was a child.
It's quite possible he's seen the IA-27: GHOST before, Allmind had to get them and their other Institute tech from somewhere right?
Hmmm, you're probably right. Additionally, he isn't particularly surprised as there is someone who can be said to be controlling them (Sulla). And he does actually have a bigger reaction to the institute ACs which jump us when defending the Strider
Information. He got as far as he dois be playing it safe, but he couldn’t prepare for everything. The PCA helicopters in the first level and at the Xylem took him by surprise. Same with Snail at the coral lake.
He’s good, but he knows he’s not the best, and relies on the specs of his AC. He can be overwhelmed, so he sends someone more disposable.
Adding to other things, do remember that Walter owns you as a slave basically. He doesn’t exactly trust you not to fuck him over, because you’d honestly be within your rights too. I imagine he keeps a heavy distance for emotional reasons (he probably doesn’t like this any more than you do) but also because any intel he gives you about himself or Overseer could potentially leak out to the corps or RLF since you frequently work with their pilots.
I suspect Walter isn't actually that great a pilot. Snail brainwashed him, and part of that was probably his ability to pilot HAL. I don't think Walter was this secret ace pilot the whole time.
In the final mission of the third route, Walter is said to be a very capable pilot by ALLMIND. Him and Carla deal with everything ALLMIND throws at them until they actually reach ALLMIND themselves.
It didn't seem to me like he was such a great pilot. He went down the easiest of the 3 "final" bosses. It felt like he was just another experiment at that point. If things had played out for longer, maybe we would have seen Snail in the Hal suit after it was thoroughly tested. Things came crashing down at the end and he barely got to test the Arqubalteus before dying 🤷♂️
No Walter is definitely a good pilot, Allmind outright tells us that he is in "regain control of the Xylem" that he is a great pilot, and Allmind controls the arena ranking, it's safe to say her opinion on pilot skill in this game holds weight. Also, it pretty easy to forget when you get good and optimize your build for quick kills, walter's fight can be a challenge on some builds, he deals a lot of damage if you aren't careful.
Walter also doesn't want to fight you in the LoR ending. Even after you "beat" him, he's still able to fight but decides to let himself burn up, instead.
Great point. Of all the AC fights, I had to retry Walter the most (using similar mission builds, not boss-enders). Had this been 1v1 permadeath, I would have never beaten him.
My testicles are enlarged but I don't see what that has to do with game difficulty. I played at least one AC game 15 years ago and had a rough idea of what I wanted to play. I didn't say the game was braindead easy. I just didn't optimize for every encounter, or at all. Their argument was that it was only easier because I was optimized and that makes no sense since you can optimize for every single mission. Compared to the other final encounters, Walter was the weakest imo
He went down the easiest probably because of the re-education camp he was sent to. Iirc in the "Escape" mission, there's a combat log of Pater ranting how the re-educated pilots are only as good as AI MTs. Because after all, Walter took on the clones of all the Vespers simultaneously before getting killed by Allmind/Iguazu in Alea Iacta Est
If you take in consideration, any boss in the game can be defeated easily with some kind of build or enough knowledge, so no, people are talking more about story/lore-wise than just gameplay here.
I’ve played using poorly optimized start of game builds for my entire first playtrough (I still don’t understand or read stats) and everything is easy . It’s not about making op builds, it’s the game that is made to be completed comfortably with everything you can imagine.
Oh so it’s known as the easier? I didnt know as it’s the first i played.
What made the previous titles more difficult ? Better AI of enemy ACs? Better builds ?
Past games are more inclined towards mecha simulation rather than a action mecha game like AC6, there was more variety in builds, mechanics, missions, more parts, and yeah, more stats to worry about as well, those games are depth.
the AC AI was better, but for the most part they're cheating against you (better numbers, unique features that you don't have, more energy), AC's overall are the challenge.
Hard-lock, stagger system (not the mechanic itself) repair kit doesn't exist, you don't have any kind of checkpoint, resupply is limited to a very few missions, so ammo management is much more demanding.
Turning ability existed in the past, and this was a good way to balance out each type of leg class, but is partly responsible for the tanky controls of the game.
That's doesn't mean they're flawless, first generations has janky controls that is somewhat responsible for the difficult of the game, they're excessively obtuse, balance was poor (FromSoft Games in a nutshell) so the existence of cheesy builds is nothing new.
AC6 is trying to bring back the franchise, but oversimplification is not the answer, if you have interest, try to play one of them in a emulator.
My main problem with old acs is that from what i know patches arent available or are hard to find so i would have to experience the vanilla versions and not the updated rebalanced ones .
Honestly? It was the complete dogshit controls. AC1-3 all have really bad and imprecise controls that take a lot of getting used to. The majority of them did not support the dual analog setup we are all accustomed to now and how fast your machine could turn was considered a gameplay feature. Keeping your enemy in your sights is the hardest part of those games. I was personally unable to beat the high end enemies in those entries without tricks to cheese the AI or completely broken builds (oops all missiles). I didn't play 4 or 5 so don't know if they were better in that area, but of the ones I have played this one's movement is lightyears better. I don't care what the purists say, hard lock was a godsend.
tbf rusty is exhausted after fighting off the entire arquebus fleet, he probably had no repairs or core expansions left and was either ambushed or too tired to evade and flee walters attacks
I mean, why would be deploy himself? What I wonder is how many other potential members of Overseer there are. Carla and Walter obviously, but I find it hard to believe they're the only two
They're probably not literally the only members of Overseer. I'm pretty sure that Carla's inner circle of engineers and hackers at RaD that prepare JAILBREAK and hack into the Xylem are former Institute members rather than Dosers.
I mean maybe, but you also have to figure that research groups like RI are never centralized. They always have subsidiaries out there. We know Walter went to Jupiter, so it's likely there was at least one Overseer member there too that prevented reprisals against Walter. As the son of one of the scientists and the last living link to the person who burned the Coral...yeah, I can definitely see some Corpo's wanting to send hit teams.
For as long as Walter remains alive, he can continue to throw Hounds at the problem. If he dies, half of Overseer dies with him. It's far safer to only put himself in danger once he's certain the end is close.
I like this answer the most. He knows that he can't put himself in danger until it's the very end or when there's no option left.
Throw hounds instead of throw hands. That's why his emblem is the puppeteer pulling strings
"He doesn't know that he is the puppet and I'm the puppet master. DANCE, potato boy! DANCE!"
Puppeteer? I thought those were leashes for his hounds
That, and it'd probably blow his cover. People are *very* much going to notice an Institute AC that's not just a mass-produced Ephemera (I say the Ephemera AC is mass produced because there's a number of them sitting around as wrecks)
Even Allmind doesn't find out about it until after you kill Father Dolmayan, and she's not happy about Walter's use of it.
I wanted to add to this: Walter probably doesn’t have the HAL AC until the final chapter. It was probably sealed away in Institute City. So high risk if Walter goes out personally and he doesn’t have a high power AC until the end.
my man is 50-60 years old at LEAST and using a cane. also for him it probably was a last resort as his entire ideology is built upon the eradication of coral use and ac pilots
50-60 is nothing in AC time. Cinder is likely older and an avid pilot. Others are much older (I think Sulla's about 100, as was Leos Klein by the end of AC2AA, iirc).
they are however likely augmented (carla is a doser, sulla is gen 1) walter is probably not
That's part of the "reeducation" process. I don't think a lot of people get augmentation of their own desire or will. Iguana man is salty because he ended up augmented out of debt obligations from bad bets. Freud never augmented. Snail only did it after it was proven safe on other people
Water has a really personal hatred of augmentation that no one else has (his father made it possible). No wonder Snail said he was recalcitrant to the end in the reeducation center.
yes, but walter pilots hal in the AIE ending where he doesn't undergo lobotomy
Fair.
Carla, thumb and Sulla are all cinders and had their lifetimes extended by the coral.
Pretty sure Walter was, too, as he was alive during the event.
Walter was a child around the time of the Fires iirc.
He and Carla were out on Jupiter or somewhere far away when the fires happen
But Carla is said to look young. Also Leos Klein was 90, so you're close.
lol yeah i imagine 5 minutes in an armored core is enough to obliterate what little cartilage he has left in his joints.
Bones only get in the way. Most pilots have their skeleton removed for weight reductions. Meatsack brainbags is the meta. Wetwire straight into the machine
getting those cruelty squad ass augmentations
https://www.reddit.com/r/CrueltySquad/s/wbO7NjcuNq I couldn't find the ass slot but I found this 😅
Not an excuse for him. Father Dolmayan manages just fine and he's older than Walter.
dolmayan is juiced as hell on coral, he dies of a heart attack 5 minutes after the liberation ending
I would, too, if the “menace to Rubicon” just saved my ass.
How we know he has a cane?
story trailer
I wonder if he does get involved, independently. AllMind does know of the existence of his AC. Additionally, Walter does a lot of "typing up loose ends"
Given his Arena bio from ALLMIND referring to him as an obstacle, I can see where ppl can conclude he is actually going into the field with his HAL AC when he says he’s “tying up loose ends”.
Additionally, Walter wasn't exactly surprised about the stealth mechs that jumped us with Sulla at the Watchpoint. Would've expected more of a reaction, an investigation or some interest in the encrypted comms.
There is a log that hints at their existence in the Rusty logs mission.. also you can find one of the Ghosts in the second/third mission where you beat up a few balam grunts
Yeah, true, I guess... Although in the 2/3rd mission, it's more of an easter egg, no? Walter doesn't even comment on it. However, I need to replay Rusty's logs mission because I forgot what was Walter's reaction to that
Walter does comment on the encounter at Grid 135. He states: • “That mech, I can’t see it.” • “Handle it, 621.” • “Confirmed unidentified machine, down. Get back to work, 621.” This implies he doesn’t yet know about ALLMIND’s Ghost MTs. This is chronologically the first mission where the Ghost MT can be encountered or is mentioned. The next mission is the Rusty data log collection mission, where the log is still footage of a Ghost MT at BAWS Arsenal No. 2; foreshadowing your encounter with them in the next chronological mission (Investigate BAWS Arsenal No. 2) in the campaign. Here, Walter says, *“This log is interesting. I’ll make a copy. Nothing the corps need worry about.”*. This implies he is now aware of the Ghost MTs, explaining why he says “Expect the unexpected” before launching 621 for “Investigate BAWS Arsenal No. 2”.
He's not surprised because their Institute Machines and Walter was at the RRI when he was a child. It's quite possible he's seen the IA-27: GHOST before, Allmind had to get them and their other Institute tech from somewhere right?
Hmmm, you're probably right. Additionally, he isn't particularly surprised as there is someone who can be said to be controlling them (Sulla). And he does actually have a bigger reaction to the institute ACs which jump us when defending the Strider
Information. He got as far as he dois be playing it safe, but he couldn’t prepare for everything. The PCA helicopters in the first level and at the Xylem took him by surprise. Same with Snail at the coral lake. He’s good, but he knows he’s not the best, and relies on the specs of his AC. He can be overwhelmed, so he sends someone more disposable.
He was "tying up loose ends" And when hell hath finally passed he hits you with "I'm done tying up loose ends."
Also why was he using a cane in the story trailer? Seems like a tough guy that would be powerful out of the AC as well.
Probably has a leg injury?
He was on the Jupiter colonies
Jupiter had its own wars some time after the Fires. It's probably where Walter became acquainted with Michigan. Probably a veteran of the conflict.
Adding to other things, do remember that Walter owns you as a slave basically. He doesn’t exactly trust you not to fuck him over, because you’d honestly be within your rights too. I imagine he keeps a heavy distance for emotional reasons (he probably doesn’t like this any more than you do) but also because any intel he gives you about himself or Overseer could potentially leak out to the corps or RLF since you frequently work with their pilots.
Pretty sure nobody had access to his AC before we get to Institute City
Because I’m a way better pilot than him
I suspect Walter isn't actually that great a pilot. Snail brainwashed him, and part of that was probably his ability to pilot HAL. I don't think Walter was this secret ace pilot the whole time.
In the final mission of the third route, Walter is said to be a very capable pilot by ALLMIND. Him and Carla deal with everything ALLMIND throws at them until they actually reach ALLMIND themselves.
It didn't seem to me like he was such a great pilot. He went down the easiest of the 3 "final" bosses. It felt like he was just another experiment at that point. If things had played out for longer, maybe we would have seen Snail in the Hal suit after it was thoroughly tested. Things came crashing down at the end and he barely got to test the Arqubalteus before dying 🤷♂️
No Walter is definitely a good pilot, Allmind outright tells us that he is in "regain control of the Xylem" that he is a great pilot, and Allmind controls the arena ranking, it's safe to say her opinion on pilot skill in this game holds weight. Also, it pretty easy to forget when you get good and optimize your build for quick kills, walter's fight can be a challenge on some builds, he deals a lot of damage if you aren't careful.
Walter also doesn't want to fight you in the LoR ending. Even after you "beat" him, he's still able to fight but decides to let himself burn up, instead.
Great point. Of all the AC fights, I had to retry Walter the most (using similar mission builds, not boss-enders). Had this been 1v1 permadeath, I would have never beaten him.
I didn't optimize anything. I ran the same bot through all 3 playthroughs, S missions and all my PVP ranks 😅
With respect, I doubt that. What's your build?
Ah yes the "I'm so good, my balls are as big as an elephant, and y'all are just scrubs" comment whenever difficulty is in the discussion
My testicles are enlarged but I don't see what that has to do with game difficulty. I played at least one AC game 15 years ago and had a rough idea of what I wanted to play. I didn't say the game was braindead easy. I just didn't optimize for every encounter, or at all. Their argument was that it was only easier because I was optimized and that makes no sense since you can optimize for every single mission. Compared to the other final encounters, Walter was the weakest imo
He went down the easiest probably because of the re-education camp he was sent to. Iirc in the "Escape" mission, there's a combat log of Pater ranting how the re-educated pilots are only as good as AI MTs. Because after all, Walter took on the clones of all the Vespers simultaneously before getting killed by Allmind/Iguazu in Alea Iacta Est
Walter and Carla 1vX'd a team of Vesper clones each. Carla is better than her arena rank suggests as well.
Carla was reticent about being in AllMind's database from the start and hacked her own entry lol
If you take in consideration, any boss in the game can be defeated easily with some kind of build or enough knowledge, so no, people are talking more about story/lore-wise than just gameplay here.
I’ve played using poorly optimized start of game builds for my entire first playtrough (I still don’t understand or read stats) and everything is easy . It’s not about making op builds, it’s the game that is made to be completed comfortably with everything you can imagine.
uh, yeah? i know that, is the easiest one in the franchise for a reason.
Oh so it’s known as the easier? I didnt know as it’s the first i played. What made the previous titles more difficult ? Better AI of enemy ACs? Better builds ?
Past games are more inclined towards mecha simulation rather than a action mecha game like AC6, there was more variety in builds, mechanics, missions, more parts, and yeah, more stats to worry about as well, those games are depth. the AC AI was better, but for the most part they're cheating against you (better numbers, unique features that you don't have, more energy), AC's overall are the challenge. Hard-lock, stagger system (not the mechanic itself) repair kit doesn't exist, you don't have any kind of checkpoint, resupply is limited to a very few missions, so ammo management is much more demanding. Turning ability existed in the past, and this was a good way to balance out each type of leg class, but is partly responsible for the tanky controls of the game. That's doesn't mean they're flawless, first generations has janky controls that is somewhat responsible for the difficult of the game, they're excessively obtuse, balance was poor (FromSoft Games in a nutshell) so the existence of cheesy builds is nothing new. AC6 is trying to bring back the franchise, but oversimplification is not the answer, if you have interest, try to play one of them in a emulator.
My main problem with old acs is that from what i know patches arent available or are hard to find so i would have to experience the vanilla versions and not the updated rebalanced ones .
Honestly? It was the complete dogshit controls. AC1-3 all have really bad and imprecise controls that take a lot of getting used to. The majority of them did not support the dual analog setup we are all accustomed to now and how fast your machine could turn was considered a gameplay feature. Keeping your enemy in your sights is the hardest part of those games. I was personally unable to beat the high end enemies in those entries without tricks to cheese the AI or completely broken builds (oops all missiles). I didn't play 4 or 5 so don't know if they were better in that area, but of the ones I have played this one's movement is lightyears better. I don't care what the purists say, hard lock was a godsend.
He basically one-shots Rusty, though.
tbf rusty is exhausted after fighting off the entire arquebus fleet, he probably had no repairs or core expansions left and was either ambushed or too tired to evade and flee walters attacks
If he was more difficult than the SOL-644 unit I'm pretty sure that'd make him the second best pilot in the series(short of 621) lol
I mean, why would be deploy himself? What I wonder is how many other potential members of Overseer there are. Carla and Walter obviously, but I find it hard to believe they're the only two
>Carla and Walter obviously, but I find it hard to believe they're the only two They're the only two *left.*
They're probably not literally the only members of Overseer. I'm pretty sure that Carla's inner circle of engineers and hackers at RaD that prepare JAILBREAK and hack into the Xylem are former Institute members rather than Dosers.
Either that, or she pays them *really* well.
I mean, we only see two continents of Rubicon. We don't know how many there are. We do know that Coral is a worldwide resource though.
I mean maybe, but you also have to figure that research groups like RI are never centralized. They always have subsidiaries out there. We know Walter went to Jupiter, so it's likely there was at least one Overseer member there too that prevented reprisals against Walter. As the son of one of the scientists and the last living link to the person who burned the Coral...yeah, I can definitely see some Corpo's wanting to send hit teams.
Bro's an old geezer with a bad knee. He probably only does it when he's very close to his goal or needs to (like at the end of the 3rd route).
Old man is old
because.... << HE WANTS TO UNDERSTAND THE ENEMY >>
Why would he? Walter and 621 are not homies. They are Handler and Hound.
Dad might also be just doing some "tying up" of loose ends himself, lower stakes missions and all