Should You Spare Swinburne in Armored Core 6? (AC6 Swinburne Choice)

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In Armored Core 6 Chapter 3 Mission 17, “Eliminate V.VII,” you will face off against the V.VII Armored Core, Swinburne. The battle itself isn’t particularly hard. But interestingly, in the middle of the fight, Swinburne will ask you to let him walk away and run. Armored Core 6 has more than one ending, so does sparing him affect which ending you will get? Whether you spare the Armored Core pilot or not, this AC6 guide will tell you the result of the Swinburne dialogue choices.

Armored Core 6: What Happens if You Accept the Choice To Spare Swinburne?

Image source: FromSoftware via FP Good Game screenshot

While Armored Core 6 does feature multiple endings, some of the decisions you make will not affect the story in any way. Sparing or killing Swinburne in Armored Core 6 is one of the decisions that does not matter to the game’s story. You can either kill him as the objective asked or let him run away, then do the opposite in Replay Mission. However, Mission 17, “Eliminate V.VII,” can actually end in three different ways:

Kill Swinburne:
- Swinburne’s Armored Core’s health will be replenished, and you have to destroy him.
- You’ll obtain a Gold Battle Log from defeating Swinburne and completing the mission.
Spare Swinburne:
- Another Armored Core, called Rokumonsen, will show up instead and fight you. Generally, this Liberation Front AC is considered to be harder than Swinburne.
- Defeating Rokumonsen will also give you a Gold Battle Log.
- However, you also lose the 200,000 COAM mission reward since it is counted as failing to finish the main objective.
Accept Swinburne’s deal and kill him fast before he flies away:
- Doing this will prompt Ayre to ask you if Walter has taught you to be this cunning. If you pay attention to the story, this secret dialogue might indicate a foreshadowing of future events!

There you have it. If it is your first Armored Core 6 playthrough, you might not want to spare Swinburne and finish the mission normally instead. But if you are replaying AC6 missions or already in New Game+, you will want to accept Swinburne’s dialogue choice. Doing so will spawn the alternate Rokumonsen boss and give you an additional Battle Log to raise your Loghunt Rank. Stay tuned at The Nerd Stash for more guides on Armored Core 6 and other popular mech-based action titles.