Armored Core 6 fans are naming the game's most tragic character

Armored Core 6 players are flocking together in an attempt to name one of the game's most tragic characters - the nameless pilot you have to kill early on in Chapter 1.

This pilot, unexperienced and unnamed, is your first AC fight in the game. While tankier than unmanned AC's you fight in the game's tutorial levels, it's not much of a challenge and clearly intended to be an early indicator of the moral ambiguity of your character's actions rather than a edge-of-your-seat clash of titans. With their dying words revealing their desire for a callsign, the community has decided to grant him one.

Judging by the game's official Reddit page, some of the most popular suggestions refers directly to the payout the mission provides upon completion. As important context, killing this fella provides a relatively large amount of cash compared to other chapter 1 missions. "Pinata", "Loot Box" and "Cash Money" are in the top spot in terms of suggestions as a result.

That being said, there's a lot of hype around more sympathetic names. "Spud" currently has the highest number of votes on the topic's dedicated thread, a cute name for a nonthreatening pilot just trying their best. Also, a sign of reliability! Just like people in our real world rely on the potato for stable and healthy meals, players of Armored Core 6 are constantly going back to kill this guy for reliable cash flow and practice. You can see why it's popular!

The final name with some real momentum behind it is "Tester" - the title given to them in-game. Simple, sure, but there's more to the name than initially appears. Armored Core encourages players to swap out AC parts often in response to various challenges. With a brand-new mech, you'll want to test it out, right? Sadly, early Arena missions are a bit too easy for helpful testing. Enter Tester, who actually puts up a bit of a fight in their standard-build AC, making for a more convenient (and lucrative) target dummy.

Here's a bit of personal opinion. It says a lot about FromSoftware's ability to make a big emotional impact in the span of roughly a minute that fans of the game are trying to assign some humanity to some sad jobber you kill in the first hour of the game. Armored Core 6 - aside from being an intensely fun action game - manages to do a lot of narrative work in very little time. Rest in pieces, random AC tester guy. You'll be missed... kinda.

For more Armored Core 6 articles, check out our beginner's tips guide here, alongside our write up on the staggering number of people jumping into the game since launch.