Armored Core, in what order should I play the saga?

Admit it. It’s okay. You discovered From Software through Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. You’ve fallen in love with the company, and now that they’ve announced that their next game is Armored Core 6, you’re wondering, what the hell is Armored Core? And why are they making a sixth installment?

It’s true that they haven’t made one for more than ten years (since they started with Soulsborne), but the truth is that Armored Core is From Software’s fetish saga. They have been working on it since 1997 and have released over twenty games. It has a lore as complex as that of the Soulsborne, but fortunately, its plot is rebooteed with each numbered installment. This means that, as its own director has said, “there are no direct links to the previous games in terms of continuing the story.”

However, for those who want to delve deeper into the setting, we are going to review all the Armored Core games and order them by release date and chronology. This is because there are details and events that allow us to place them before or after each other, creating multiple timelines that make any kind of approach to the franchise easier. Without further ado, let’s get down to business:

Armored Core by release date

Below is a list of all the games in the Armored Core saga, sorted by year of release:

Armored Core in chronological order

This is our proposal to play all the Armored Core video games in order, respecting the chronological order of the events in the saga:

First timeline

Second timeline

Third timeline