Third Generation Armored Core

Third Generation Armored Cores

The Early Third Generation Armored Core was a huge leap in terms offensive ability, though mobility was not improved greatly in the transition from Second to Third Generation.

The following items were added to the Third Generation Armored Core:

   -Exceed Orbit: A new type of core (as opposed to over boost cores) which possessed one to two small, hovering drones, each of which fired some form of projectile at any enemy within range. The type of shot (energy or solid) depended on the core, and the power corresponded to the core weight-classification (light had machine gun/energy machine gun EO, medium had rifle/laser rifle EO, and heavy had hi-laser/linear gun EO). Solid round EO became useless after the ammunition was depleted, the core simply becoming the same as a core from the First Generation, while energy EO regenerated its ammunition over time, a significant advantage in its favor.

   -Inside Weapons: Inside weapons were moved to the inner shoulder, instead of the core. New types of weapons included napalm rockets, which set enemies on fire, ECM rockets, which jammed enemy electronics, and anti-generator rockets, which adversely affected enemy generator's upon impact.

   -Left-Arm Weapons: One of the biggest improvements made to the Third Generation Armored Core was the ability to dual-wield weapons. A variety of weapons existed for the left arm, usually weaker (relatively) versions of weapons available to the right arm. This is not to say that shields and laser blades weren't still available, however, and the choice was purely academic and could vary from player to player.

The Early Third Generation was very important, because it was the first generation to include left-arm projectile weapons. However, other than an increase in weapon types and the addition of the left-arm gun, the Third Generation was not the cosmic leap the Second Generation was. In addition, the howitzer, an important (at least in the case of the left-arm versions) weapon would only last for this portion of the generation, being removed in the later era of the Third Generation