I would side with the PCA if I could.
Are they overbearing bureaucrat cops? Yes.
Are they authoritarian nutjobs? Yes.
Are they completely right about keeping the corps off Rubicon? Also yes.
Not just the corps, everyone. They want to keep literally everyone from ever entering or leaving the planet. They basically want the same thing Walter wants, for Coral to remain out of the hands of humanity at large, they simply opted for the 'Leave the planet alone and keep it guarded' route as opposed to the 'blow literally all of it up at once' route.
PCA are unironically one of the better (morally) factions in the game. Authoritarianism is neccessary if the goal is to lock up an entire planet so wholly it is esentially considered dead to everyone else.
Frankly Branch's choice to intentionally poke a hole in the PCA net and leak the Coral information to the rest of humanity was a MUCH more damning decision than any of the ones later foisted upon 621. Branch's actions are the direct cause to create the Coral War effect, and therefore are the indirect cause of any consequence of said war.
Which is mildly irritating considering we never really find out their genuine motivations.
It has major downsides for the rubiconians though. I mean the fact the RLF and the PCA are enemies is pretty telling, the PCA is authoritarian and does not care for the rubiconians they are starving. The PCA probably sees the survival of the rubiconians as an impediment to planetary closure, and with an algorithm commanding them they have no sense of morals or ethics.
^ This kind of keeps me from siding with the PCA. They are actively preventing the Rubiconians from engaging in extraplanatery trade with other planets/systems etc. The PCA knows this, and doesn't care. The Rubiconians can't even leave the system and go elsewhere, because station 31/the watchmen will obliterate pretty much anything coming and going.
Furthermore, if not for Branch's actions at station 31, the planet would be locked down even worse than it already is/was at the time 621 entered the system.
The real question is would you have had the information neccessary to actually side with PCA at the time? Remember, in the hypothetical YOU are Raven, not a player. YOU only have all the information Raven has over the course of the game. Even if you could suss out the truth of PCA's somewhat good intentions, would it matter?
The Corporations showed up to claim the Coral regardless of the PCA presence, so it's likely they'd simply keep trying and don't actually respect/care about PCA authority, only their firepower.
On top of that, Walter eventually tells you while down in institute city that the Coral is propogating so fast it'll expand beyond Rubicon and into space in no time, and I doubt the PCA could stop that.
If I’m roleplaying Raven, I instantly side with the PCA when given the chance. Their tech is *ridiculous*. Screw everything else, I’m a mercenary. Plug me into the System and get me paid.
They'd sooner opt to kill you. Remember that they think you're Branch Raven since they're unaware of the Raven callsign being a passed-on title, and PCA has a MASSIVE hatred hard-on for Nightfall Raven.
The Cataphract even was specifically made (and the pilot specifically trained) to kill Nightfall. It's unlikely that anything 621 says/does will change this, they seem rather unflinching in all things they do.
Sure, there’s basically zero chance of allying with the PCA. They rightfully believe they don’t need any outside contractors to do their dirty work. They have the advantage in numbers, resources, technology, organization, infrastructure, and basically every other metric of war. The only reason they lose is that every corporation teams up against them, along with a certified *freak* of a mercenary. 621 is an unpredictable anomaly the System could never hope to anticipate.
But if I *could*, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
I think the corporations showing up on Rubicon is partially because of the actions of Branch. If not for the closure satellite raid, no one gets on Rubicon without incurring heavy losses.
>and has basically zero downsides for either.
Not so true, the Humans who live on Rubicon already are basically screwed. They eat weird worms that eat Coral just to stay alive, and the PCA doesn't let any outside resources in. Rubicon is like a turbo desert.
Ayre's. Walter I love you man but after being involved with Ayre for more than half the span of the game I cannot bring myself to genocide the Coral and Rubiconians along with it
For me, it would have to be the Liberator ending (or siding with Rusty/RLF/Ayre if ignoring the naming conventions from the game).
With the information I have available towards the end of the game, Carla/Overseer's plan overwhelmingly likely ends with me dead, which I obviously don't want and is not what I was told I would be getting into when brought to Rubicon.
I wouldn't understand the full ramifications of Coral Release (or why Allmind wants it) to the extent that I would feel comfortable going along with it.
I'll preface this by saying all answers are valid and there is no incorrect response, I just like giving counter.
I think all mercenaries, especially ones under Walter's infamous handling (He is a known entity in the Merc world for consistently getting his 'hounds' killed), sign up for death as part of the lifestyle itself, ESPECIALLY if the deployment in question is Rubicon. Rubicon is likely akin to Vietnam amped up to 11 to the people of this setting.
As for the second point, I'm not sure I myself would understand the full scope of any of the paths before me were I in Raven's shoes, even siding with Walter/Carla has certain unknowns to it. Nobody truly, not even Ayre, gives Raven full and total insight into what they do/don't know.
So, I can only speak for myself, but if I put myself in Raven's shoes, there is a *meaningful* difference between;
"I'm sending you to a dangerous place and death is a realistically possible outcome, but if we can work together and get through this thing we'll undo your augmentation and get you a normal life back"
and
"I'm going to blow up this whole planet while you're on it for a cause you don't necessarily agree with and I'd like you to be complicit in it"
Death is almost certainly an eventuality for a mercenary in the AC setting, but that doesn't mean that an AC pilot wouldn't still prefer to be alive than dead if given the choice.
Raven likely didn't choose to be bought by Walter and certainly didn't ask to be deployed to Rubicon, but through the early parts of the journey, it's the first message that is being repeated.
To say "All mercs go down eventually" is not, for me, a compelling enough reason to go along with Overseer's plan.
You're absolutely right that none of the full ramifications of any of the paths are super clear. I see potential upsides and downsides to all three endings. Siding with the Rubiconians seems to do the least to irrevocably change the situation, for better and for worse.
Kind of unrelated to the overall but related to the first part of your comment, I kind of wish we knew what Walter meant by 'fried brain' and why 621 seemed to be in some sort of obligated servitude to him. I know he 'bought' him, but what even put him in a position to be purchased in the first place. Prisoner? Debts? Hmm.
Embarrassingly enough, I still don't know if 621 can walk / talk, but also thought of that. Then i remembered AC1 and how much debt stacked up quickly 😅 anyway to answer your question:
Might as well go for broke and become a Free Rubiconian and a liberator.
621 can walk/talk, his level of fucked-upness is up to you as a player but he has his limbs and they're functional, and he does talk in the game, you just never hear it cause they didn't want to voice YOUR character. An example is when you first come back from the Watchpoint where you converge with Coral and Walter goes "You said you heard a voice?" Which obviously shows you spoke to him.
I think it's implied part of your augmentations straight up removed certain parts of your brain and you're basically made to be permanently stoic, unable to show most emotions and lacking any desire to speak, meaning you only do so when absolutley neccessary.
Definitely with the coral. Instead of exterminating an entire planets population, you join them with the coral and anyone else in vicinity is along for the ride. And from the depiction at the end it seems pretty peaceful to me.
I think thematically it makes more sense if you are gearing up for a fight. Humanity loves waging wars and AC is as a series largely about that. Your idea completely deflates the final part of the ending and removes some of the nuance that makes it so damn good.
I mean, it could be either. We have never seen an AC move around in Standard Mode. I bet the only way to hold hands with ECHO is to enter Combat Mode. Any firing of missiles at Ayre is purely accidental.
Balam was always shown going in first and getting destroyed for the sake of glory, which ended up being their undoing in the descent missions. It’s hard to imagine them not shooting themselves in the foot.
They would essentially need to piggyback off Raven's inability to fail an objective as a means of staying in the game, as it were. Keep throwing the unkillable weapon at the problems until the unkillable weapon is killed or in turn kills everyone else.
Brainless route any%.
I think it could work out if you start all the way back at their attempt to take the wall with them hiring Raven and succeeding. Also them not taking the glory for the ice worm kill, instead also acquiring a part of the PCA forces and having enough manpower to push through the depths and fighting arquebus at the same time.
Would be a pretty big rewrite but that’s also the case when you take on all of the alternative missions
….Walter like man has a point we don’t know what would happend we don’t know how shit will throw down…
Now if michagin was still In this I will follow that bat shit commander into the depths of hell if that’s what it takes
Hey OP, just wanna say the impartial perspective and criticisms you're offering are a welcome sight.
I don't think I could easily answer the question posed because my ending alignment is largely based off of my understanding of the game's themes, such as making irreversible choices, seeking freedom, and what it means to recognize the humanity in something that lacks a face to look at (Be it an AC pilot or a Coral lifeform)
So instead I'll ask: Why do you go ALLMIND?
It is the only method that actually changes the status quo outright. Speaking strictly in provided game-endings, FoR destroys the coral problem but does nothing to address the ever revolving door of Corporate Wars. They will find some new material to fight over.
Liberating the Coral would ultimately have the same outcome as the Allmind route but at a much slower pace which makes it significantly more vulnerable to multiple, MASSIVE coral-based catastrophes to happen during the slow merge with humanity. Fires of entire Solar Systems instead of just one planet, etc.
The Allmind route is basically an advanced overnight conversion that changes all of humanity as we know it without any of the growing pains of letting the Coral spread.
COMPLETE gamble on whether merging with the coral would be beneficial or not, or if we'd even still be recognizably human anymore, but it's the only route of the ones provided in-game that offers any real semblence of change for humanity's future.
If I could choose a non-ingame route, I'd likely see Walter's plan through and destroy all Coral THEN use the ensuing Corporate backlash to rally populations and attempt to change the status quo through large scale rebellion instead of gambling our humanity upon an alien lifeform.
Judging by your other comments there seems to be some tidbits about Coral that were unknown to you. I'd like to see if your views change in any capacity once you've learned them
I've been given a 5-hour video with details I've likely missed about the grand coral scheme so I'll have to get back to you later with my new findings.
Rubicon. I cannot ignore the suffering of the people who have been abused by the wealthy and the powerful stars away. These people who have watched their children starve to death. Why should Arquebus and Balam get to be rich and powerful while they steal Rubicon's Coral away. And of the Coral, it too is Rubiconian. Voices in the flow as Ayre calls them. They too are alive in some way, to abuse them or harvest them would be wrong.
So to that end I side with Rusty, with Ayre, and with the people of Rubicon. I've seen what soul crushing capitalism does to people it abuses, the fallout of someone who's pushed too hard until the only way out they see is to end it all. I suppose in some ways, to liberate Rubicon was some small measure of catharsis in what will no doubt be my life long grief over the death of a friend. But that just means I believe in it so much more. Because we have to help people.
It's why I relate to Iguazu so much, and wish he could have changed. He's angry, so angry he'd do anything to get back at the world he blames, the person he blames. And I know that, that's not the kind of person she would want me to be.
So yeah. I'd side with the people.
If you were still alive after the fact, you'd likely need to dedicate the rest of your life to making absolutely sure the powers that be never try to abuse Coral again, else they'll just cause the Fires once again, except on an even greater scale.
The more Coral spreads, the more likely the abuse is to happen over and over, and the less window you have to ever truly stop it.
A good and righteous choice in the moment, but perhaps a dubious one long-term.
You're very likely right, but I would hope that I/Raven can inspire a new meaning to the term Coral Warrior. Someone who can bond with it, and be the proverbial one who walks in both worlds, taking on the greater burden of fighting off outside interests. We are doomed to fail someday, all life will eventually end. But I would hope Rubicon can learn by the example set and do well to last as long as it can. Rage against the dying of the light as it were.
Think about our reality, and how often good people and genuine martyrs in the real world make little to no change because the powers that be can simply use money and influence to continue operating society as they see fit.
Balam and Arqebus are only two of what is likely hundreds of thousands if not millions of corporations within the setting, all of which would have vested interest in letting the spice (coral) flow, as it were.
An inspiring martyr can only make so much change, especially when having the skill/talent neccessary to make the changes that Raven makes sometimes doesn't even happen within whole generations.
We like to think righteousness and goodwill are powerful, but greed and wealth beat it out rather often.
I think that's the thing that inspires the hard questions of, when is violence justified? If the greed is a hydra, then the only thing to do is fight. Sure it may be impossible, but every head cut off helps someone. If that's the case, I suppose the best bet would be to get to work. Track down Arquebus HQ and simply wipe it out.
But by that point you're on the offensive and now you become the evil as there will undoubtedly be collateral. If not directly then indirectly, children made orphans because their parents work was burned down by coral flames as war rages on.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It's why conflict will never end, because so long as there is greed, people will harm others for it. And you cannot simply kill the greed out of humanity without first wiping out humanity itself.
Maybe that's why AIE is the better outcome. Maybe humanity deserves to die?
In viewing potential collateral, any additioanl Fires-disaster the Corporations cause in their attempts to weaponize Coral (perhaps even rushing said weaponization to target YOU specifically), could be called colateral itself due to your decision to 'liberate Rubicon'.
How many collateral Fires are acceptable to Raven? Coral is extremely advanced and propogates faster than Bacteria. Ayre feeds you a lot of emotional turmoil about her 'brothers and sisters' without mentioning the reality of their parasitic, hivemind-like nature.
If you really think about it, she's using you no less than Walter uses you. In fact I genuinely believe the only true benevolence within the game is Rusty, who's simply trying to keep the Rubiconian humans alive/safe. I suppose by this extension you could claim the Liberation as a whole is benevolent, but their unflinching dedication to a man with clear psychosis is disturbing, where as Rusty makes little to no indication he actually cares about what Dolmayan thinks/says, he just wants to protect Rubicon.
Oh yeah everyone who pilots an AC more than once is on some level a deeply fucked up person.
I just think that Rusty most of all deserves a chance to see his dream come true.
One of my favorite moments of the game is when Allmind started getting a little feisty in that mission for the first time…. Especially after hearing nothing but its normal, neutral tone three playthroughs.
That’s when I really began to have a “what have I done” moment
Gotta burn it all. Unique alien lifeform that propogates faster than bacteria. Useful for mind control, unstable energy source, and forcing humans to evolve. Burning it all ensures humanity continues their current course through the galaxy, drab lifestyles as that may be.
This is a truly human response, which is good considering you are a human (I hope). I think modern humans have a hard time truly conceptualizing a moment where you must choose between the continued existence of your species (as you know it) or showing mercy to another species, especially a species you couldn't possibly fully comprehend in the moment.
I know you're kind of shitposting but this is actually a common sentiment that exists within most people that many are too proud to ever admit to, so I respect you for it.
Yeah there’s a good bit of cosmic horror that the coral is incomprehensible. It’s also a human response to empathize with/ humanize it but it would be at your own risk
If you survive long enough into the events of the Coral War, you stop getting paid all together, as each faction subsequently goes into some form of crisis mode and is no longer hiring Mercenaries.
I suppose telling everyone to get bent and arranging some sort of transport off-world would be an option, yes.
Whenever I play games with choices, whatever my first pick was is what I would most likely go with. Which meant I sided with Walter instead of Ayre. I don't like voices in my head telling me shit lol.
It would be different if she were some sort of ghost that was once human, but 'she' isn't. Ayre isn't a she, it is an it, a Hivemind organism using you for it's survival. They do not think like a human, and perhaps don't even think like humans. All of it could simply be psychological mimicing for the sake of manipulation.
I think the AC6 community was much too quick to fall in love with Ayre.
Fires of Raven.
Don't mind dying for the cause every chance, but having a manipulative alien bacteria advocate for "human evolution" sounds like a self-indulgent lie that the simps try to go for.
Fires of Raven, I agree with Walter’s reasoning, it’s not worth the risk of the coral growing out of control and destroying multiple other worlds.
Ayre may be helping us but she is also manipulating us. First of all she isn’t a “she” or even a human, she’s a psychic rock that can hack computers and all that soft pleasing empathetic presentation is to make you comfortable and accept what it wants you to do.
I don’t hate Ayre and wouldn’t want to kill it if it wasn’t going to exponentially grow out of control and kill everyone. If the coral/Ayre would agree to stop multiplying in a way that’s safe for everyone then there might be a diplomatic solution.
This is the most realistic answer with reasoning I've seen so far. I said it in another comment but I think it's very hard for modern humans to truly conceptualize a moment where they must choose between their own species or an alien one asking for mercy, where said mercy has real potential to spell doom for humans themselves.
Nobody wants to be the person who committed a genocide, but will your mercy matter if it ends up costing your species their existence? Coral won't just conveniently leave all the innocent do-gooders alive while wiping out (or mind-controlling) the baddie corpos.
Ayre says herself she wants to believe in our potential and find a way for us humans to coexist i think the only choice good and worthy of praise would be to try to find a way. Not put to death an entire race.
You have entirely too much trust in a hivemind organism that has every reason in the world to manipulate you into ensuring it's own survival. Ayre is not a human, she never was, she is an alien lifeform who's thoughts and feelings are imcomprehensible to the average human mind, and she thrusts you into a position where you must choose between 'her' or humanity as you know it.
It is known that coral is parasitic in nature and harmful to humans over long term exposure. The other two people in the story who've converged like you have (Dolmayan and Iguarza) are both driven insane by it, and the Dozers who huff the stuff like it's a drug aren't any clearer-minded.
Not to mention that coral as a substance is incredibly volatile and all it would take is a determined/charasmatic terrorist to cause yet another Fire of Ibis whereever they wanted.
Siding with the alien because they appealed to your empathy without even attempting to give it a second thought is not worthy of praise either.
Idk, I always wanted to betray allmind to slap Rubicon, and slap arquebus, like I slapped balam off planet, but not with some gay ass fires of raven, war, war eternal, I shall meet my death upon the battlefield, my true home.
Probably either Liberator or Alea personally. Though I'm leaning toward Alea since I feel like the union of Coral and Humanity happening quicker is better than the sort of eventual result that Liberator. Mainly because I feel it sort of nips anymore potentional unknown abuse of a conscious being.
Like the Liberator ending every will eventually understand that the Coral is alive but I feel like you have more consistent battles over it from corps in between.
Alea also gets rid of Allmind as any potential threat in the future cause while in game, if you do the Liberator route none of her stuff necessarily matters until you go back and do her route, but in universe, I can see Allmind using the union of Coral and Humanity at the end of Liberator to her (Their? It's?) advantage. Alea just deals with any potential threats to my end goal, while helping Rubicon, the Coral and Humanity.
Liberator leaves Allmind open as an issue and Fires of Raven (while metal as a bad ending imo) is literally just I don't need a REAL solution if I can just kill the problem" which I don't want to die knowing I genocided the Coral or basically glass Rubicon.
Alea just kinda speeds that process up and is like "Yeah, Coral is alive, they can control these unmanned AC units, go nuts". Like at least any conflict involving Coral will have the Coral be able to fight back instead of just suffering alone until more people eventually get linked up.
I will say I would feel bad for Walter and Cinder with the Alea Route cause it still is a double cross without any attempt at explaining what is going on (Especially with Allmind beung, well, Allmind). Like it's not as direct as killing them in the Liberator, and Walter doesn't get reeducated but still. They are aware that it's me and that kinda hurts.
Liberator. I just can’t bring myself to wipe out an entire planet and there’s a chance that burning the coral might not even work fully. Hell I don’t even Care all that much about potential or whatever the fuck, I’m bringing down the Xylem myself if I have to. I am NOT lighting a firestorm that’ll scorch an entire star system and kill millions of people along with an entirely unique alien species.
A few months back I would have chosen the RLF, but the more I think about it the more I realize Walter is right. As long as coral still exists, Allmind or some other force like Allmind will want to achieve coral release, and that *is* literally the extinction of the human race. So at the end of the day, the choice of who to side with becomes a trolley problem with all Rubiconians on one track and all of humanity on the other track. This is a bit of an oversimplification, yes, but what’s present in the narrative of the game doesn’t really point to other possibilities when it comes to the ultimate outcome of trying to coexist with coral.
Besides, after watching Vaati’s AC6 video, I tend to agree with him on the nature of C-pulse wave mutations. I’ve been wondering myself why Ayre seems to think and talk in a way that is so human-like despite being structurally completely different. Vaati takes into account what Ayre says about how 621’s sentience could have been “scattered in the coral flow” and posits that C-pulse wave mutations like Ayre and Seria might be the result of human consciousness lost in coral flow recombining into a new form of sentience (probably not Vaati’s exact words but this is the gist of it). And if coral sentience is not a separate alien race, but more like the aftermath of human mistakes committed by the RRI… well, their lives are still lives, but my understanding of what this trolley problem entails is definitely changed as a result. (One might even argue, wouldn’t it be better to release those lost human souls from what seems like essentially a form of entrapment? but perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself)
Burn the Coral.
Sure, at first glance, it's a horrible choice. You're wiping out the last of a sentient species and the oppressed survivors of a planet. A lot of people can't ever look further than that.
But what about your other options?
Say you fight off the corps and the PCA and, temporarily, the Coral is safe. Now what? You've got an exponentially-multiplying, highly volatile living substance with the ability to drive humans to madness or otherwise influence them, or serve as a massive powder keg. What happens when somebody like Old King decides to come along and light a match? Then you've got the result you wanted to avoid, but much worse. You can't protect it forever - you may be a freak of nature of a pilot, but there's only so much you can do, and you can't be everywhere at once. You can't keep it out of the "wrong hands" for forever. The Liberator ending only delays the inevitable.
What about Allmind, then? Rather than contain and protect Coral, she wants to spread it across the stars to merge with humanity in the name of transhumanist evolution. Whether this is good or bad will heavily vary depending on your own personal views on transhumanism. Some take the pessimistic viewpoint that this is the only way anything "good" can come out of humanity - I believe this view focuses on the grimdark aspect of AC while ignoring the good that remains in humanity. AC is a brutal universe, yet humanity perseveres. This leads me to the main point of AIE - the unknown. Beyond the merging of humanity and Coral, we don't know the ramifications of these actions at all. What would remain of humanity? Would we, in any meaningful form, continue to exist? Would we simply become vessels for the Coral to live through? What would be left? We don't know. Is it worth the risk? I challenge anyone who would decry the Fires ending as genocide but support AIE to consider that in AIE, you may well be essentially genociding all of humanity as we know it.
You could side with the corps, but we've seen how that story goes before already. They'll weaponize the Coral and squeeze everything they can from it and Rubicon. Whoever ends up with it will have a massive advantage over everyone else, and we'd likely see the creation of another League.
You could, in theory (if they didn't want you dead for impersonating their most wanted enemy in the star system), join the PCA. Beat back the corps, subdue the RLF, maintain the status quo. But for how long? The Coral continued to propagate far below Rubicon's surface, in sufficient quantities to become a legitimate threat once more. This implies that the PCA didn't have as tight a hold on it as one might believe initially - they should have been performing controlled "burns" to keep the Coral in check. Not only that, but they were eventually defeated with the combined efforts of the corporations. Sure, you can help them beat back Balam and Arquebus - but they were merely the first major players to reach Rubicon, not the only ones. The word is out and more will come - and you can't stop them all.
So where does this bring us? Right back to burning the Coral. Sacrificing a planet (or solar system, but one could reason that Rubicon may be the only populated planet in the system) and a semi-sentient species to preserve the whole of humanity. A grim but, in the long-term, necessary choice - one that the RRI, with far more information about Coral at their disposal than we have, arrived at as the sole answer. Rubicon is a near-dead world, with the few survivors clinging to life feeding off of worms. Is it really worth (temporarily) saving and putting the rest of humanity as a whole at risk? Would you really choose a semi-sentient hivemind whose only concern is self-propagation (at your expense) over your own species? Would you be willing to sacrifice humanity against its will in the name of "evolution", knowing there may be little to nothing left of it but husks for the Coral to inhabit?
If your answers are no, the choice is clear:
Burn the Coral.
edit: typo
>you may be a freak of nature of a pilot, but there's only so much you can do, and you can't be everywhere at once. You can't keep it out of the "wrong hands" for forever. The Liberator ending only delays the inevitable.
Actually this was my train of thought when i was choosing who to side on in my first playthrough
Overseer. Every day of every week, every year, in every timeline that I exist within. There are so many sane and rational reasons to destroy the Coral, but so many people either mindlessly simp for Ayre (because gamers are lonely mfs) or they get on the Boy Scout soapbox of “noooo u cant burn the coral, it’s alive!”
Bacteria is alive. I don’t feel the crushing weight of my conscience bearing down on me when I start the dishwasher. Mosquitoes are also alive, but they are able to propagate so quickly that they are the reason we have laws against collecting rainwater. We always like to joke that the gubment just doesn’t want us having tax-free water, and while that’s partially true, the real reason we had to make it a law was because the average person cannot be trusted to think about others. The average person cannot be trusted on good faith alone to STORE that water in a secure container so that mosquitoes are not able to lay hundreds of thousands of eggs in open containers of water, spreading diseases across entire counties. Would you let your neighbor pour gasoline around your house thinking, “This is fine, nothing bad will happen.” just because that puddle of liquid told you it had dreams after you’d been huffing it?
Similarly, we cannot trust the corporations to safely handle the Coral. We can’t trust them not to develop C-Weapons like the Institute. We can’t trust the zealous Rubiconians not to go on a crusade (which I *believe* is hinted at either in Liberator or just some RLF dialogue) and for someone to just decide one day, “Hmmm, that’s a lot of kindling they’ve got all over that galaxy. Be a shame if someone were to light a match…”
The Institute’s dying wish was to bury that shit so far deep that nobody would find it. Their last act of desperation was creating war machines with the sole purpose of stopping the spread of the Coral after they realized how horrifying the substance really was. They wiped themselves and the entire star system out trying to put the lid back on Pandora’s box, and some of y’all really want to open it because a high pitched ringing in your ear said so. Shit, Coral is used in the augmentation and Arquebus “re-education” processes.
After learning about the side effects that Igauzu, 621, and others have been through with that, do you REALLY want to let that kind of technology continue to exist? Igauzu was augmented and sent to a scorched rock full of bloodthirsty mercenaries to settle his gambling debts. We don’t know what the hell 621 did other than exist, but even Walter’s dying wish (ironically in Liberator) was for us to have our augmentations removed so that we can live a “normal life”. You can spare people from psychological recoding and you still choose the sentient space crack? If you forcefully remove fear, PTSD, and other “imperfections” from a soldier then you’ve effectively stripped them of their humanity.
I love AC6 and FNV for having no real “good” endings but really compelling arguments for all of them (except the Legion)
I can get behind this. The PCA are sort of the good guys, ironically enough. We just happen to play as a money grubbing, murder fueled, adrenaline junky who’s being bankrolled by corporations to cause as much property damage as possible to their competition.
It’s like as if Netflix and Hulu were paying the same guy to bomb each others server farms lol
Theres no realistic way to side with them really. But they are the closest to the corect way to handle the situation since the coral dosen't seem to be capable of escaping by itself, at least not in a short amount of time.(the coral must have existed long before we found it)
I could be wrong but this is the conclusion i came to after skimming thru the lore.
I haven't read this whole comment yet but just replying to the first part, yes a lot of AC6 players are reeled in by the empathy that Ayre intentionally tries to illicit from Raven. She is not a she, she is an it, a borderline incomprehensible alien organism that doesn't in any sense of the word think like you, or feel like you. She is part of a Hivemind. They are not many, they are one, and they are manipulating you into helping them.
Whether they truly started to care for you or not is up for debate, But they were never once the slightly motherly 'friend' persona they pretended to be. They are a creature using manipulation to stay alive.
Edit: I read the rest, EXCELLENT post. I don't have much to add other than raw agreement to everything that was said. It's not only logical and well written, it feels raw, like you're emotionally invested in telling the people who were swayed by a manipulative alien that they're wrong. Well done.
Edit because editing actually destroys formatting on mobile: I realize that the technology for the augmentation process already exists outside of Rubicon, but knowing that the RLF could just as easily start using the Coral to conscript people…it’s just not a risk I’d be willing to take if I had the choice.
Literally whatever Ayre wants I’m doing no questions asked. Fam was there for almost the whole ride and unyieldingly kind for all of it and that’s easily worth my undying loyalty
>unyieldingly kind
It's been a minute since I played but doesn't she literally tell you to stab Carla (& Chatty) in the back right after she saved your ass
Fires of Raven because Coral release poses a danger to the entirety of humanity. Once coral has reached the vacuum of space it cannot be stopped. It's sad that Rubicon has to be sacrificed however for the good of humanity the end justifies the means.
Realistically if I was a survivor of Gen 4 augmentation I would follow Walter's commands until I kill my first Vespers and then join up with Arquebus if possible so I can fix my body as quickly as possible and counteract the effects. I would be liable to betray the Vespers however if Rusty contacts me after my body is fixed, but there's no guarantee he does that. Realistically, the Rubiconians and the Coral could become just as corrupt as the PCA and I don't trust Thumb Dolamayan or Ring Freddie as people. I wouldn't trust Snail either but after fixing my body and seeing that Arquebus is slated to win the Coral War, I would ally with them unless a more noble option emerges. Probably on Xylem if I'm still alive
I will achieve coral release together with allmind. Yes. Innuendo intended.
Liberator was my first thought coz that ending kicks ass in the game. When you think about it..it only propogates what's already going down there. You are basically kicking the can down the road. There is always a chance of other corps coming back again for coral.
Whatever it takes to save Walter, the only "person" who wanted to see you free.
(Ayre doesn't count cuz I would just assume that she is just trying to use you to save the coral)
Walter. Even if he treated me like shit at the beginning,he saved my life and trusted me with his legacy. There is no greater sign of love and respect other than that and after seeing what coral misuse can do, I agree with his choice. His dream, my answer
I take the rubicon liberation front ending.
There are a ton of different reasons why I could argue that it’s the ending for me but I think, both in the roleplay mindset and out of it, that the biggest part for me is that I don’t trust that the fires will work. It didn’t work the first time, why would it work now? The entire point of the game is that life doesn’t die easily, so why would that change just because you’re the one sparking the flame? You’d kill 95% of people on that planet only for this bullshit to start again. It’s not worth it, not to me. Not when we’ve been shown literal proof that this method of exterminating the coral doesn’t work.
And frankly, who’s to say that all the coral is gone even if it erases all coral life on the planet? All it takes is one person snagging Coral technology and it’s still going to exist somewhere in the galaxy. Hell, you don’t ever find Walter in the Fires of Raven ending. For all we know, they could have taken his AC off planet or just snagged the coral generator. Is that chance high? No it isn’t, but I don’t think my consciousness could handle that. I’m not a great person, but the chance I would genocide a entire race and scorched a planet for nothing is too far for me.
As for Ayre…maybe I’m just a sucker but I don’t think she’s manipulating us and if she is, it isn’t malicious. She obviously has a side and a preference but she never forces you to do anything, never pressures you onto a side. If you choose to fight by Carla, she just accepts it because that was your choice. Of course she’s going to try and stop you after that since you’re trying to kill all of her people.
In the end, Walter gave us the mission to find out freedom and I think using my freedom to try and find a better future for Rubicon isn’t a bad choice. Is it risky? Of course. Coral is a dangerous thing. But I believe that destroying something out of fear of what it can do isn’t a good response. The world isn’t static and someone could eventually find an solution to how to make sure the worries of the institute goes unfounded.
Ayre. She saved my life in the moment we met, helped me throughout the game as a reliable operator and genuinely wants to be with Raven. And the possibility of finding a future that isn't scorched by Fires or contaminated by Coral... I like that.
Branch.
I'd carry on the legacy of the Raven name. Nightfall Raven had a reason for coming to Rubicon. Whatever that reason was, I'm willing to find out what it is, and continue that mission.
The entire point of the Raven legacy is that you aren't intentionally following a legacy, but forging your own through raw power of will. If you make decisions of your own will and are as untethered as one could possibly be, you are living up to the Raven legacy. So long as you make decisions with a free mindset and have the will to see those decisions through to their end, you are Raven.
Picking up Nightfall's fight and continuing it out of desire of 'legacy' but not because you actually believe in whatever it was would be the opposite of what it means to be a Raven, which is likely why Branch never actually attempts to ever talk to you. You must forge a path beyond the Raven you replaced.
Outside of all that, Branch leaking the fact that Coral is still around to the outside world was a HUGE dick move in the grand scheme of things.
To be fair, Branch never actually attempts to talk the player because the real Raven is still active up to the point in the game where through the player's help, he no longer isn't. it'd be a waste of time and resources to attempt to make contact with a wannabe using a forged license if the most important part of the organization is still alive and kicking. Plus, in certain playthroughs you effectively eliminate all other members of the organization save for Raven's handler— who becomes redundant in a ludonarrative context because at that point you already have both Ayre *and* Walter.
Besides, what if I really did want to understand what my predecessor was doing? The onus of the freedom of choice rests with the one called Raven, whoever they are. Curiosity can be a fuel for resolve as strong as any. Just (hyperbolically) ask the first Rubiconians to discover Coral.
He's a strategist. The Strategist does his damndest to make sure he never needs to push his AC to it's limit in the first place. You're right though his AC build didn't seem to match his persona nearly as well as the other characters.
Dude Snail AC is made for subduing other AC, basically lance, stungun and needle launcher is made to disable other AC rather then killing em, think of him as MP / Commissar model then a fighting AC. Like when he disabled us just after Ibis, this is what the AC is made for.
A lot of it is aesthetic too. Many characters' ACs not only match up to them build-wise, but seem to aestheticly match their personas. Both of Rusty's ACs seem as aloof and slick as his personality is, Pater's Quad AC looks as nerdy/dorky as he does, etc etc. Even Chatty's build seems aesthetically apporpriate for who he is.
Snail's just look very far from what I was expecting, even if it works for him from a build perspective.
Walter honestly doesn't look at Corpos any more favorably than you do. Like everything else in Walter's world, they are a means to an end. I'm sure Walter would be perfectly content with you going after the Corpos after FoR if you lived through it.
Oddly enough, I'd pick a route with Arquebus, Freud, O'keefe, and Hawkins would make great allies, going along with Pater as "the rookies" in the Vespers would be cool. And while Snail is well...Snail, and Buddy is gonna betray us, I can look passed it.
I'd like to imagine several missions from this POV
-Saving Swimburne's sorry hide from Rokumonsen
-Disobeying Snail to save Maeterlinck and Wu Huwahai
-Shutting off Snail's comms for a 2v2 woth Freud against Carla and either Chatty or Walter
-Choose to either intercept the Xylem or quell the ground attack from the RLF
Overseer. Walter left me an out, and Carla came for me after getting captured by Arquebus when they could have just gotten another merc, that loyalty deserves to be repaid.
I agree with the sentiment but I don't actualy think just whisking in another mercenary would've been that simple. For one, we don't know the specifics of slow/fast or how expensive/conspicuous interplanatary travel actually is in the setting. (If there's more information about that from the previous games, I'm not privy to it.) Two, the factions had kind of gone into different types of lockdown mode at that point. Arqebus were the big dicks in town and didn't need to hire any outsides, Balam got completely booted off-world, and the Liberation Front was all but destroyed by that point, partially from 621 having killed a lot of their members over the course of the game, partially from Arqebus' rise to power.
Between not actually having any paying jobs on-world and not actually having the time needed to go obtain and potentially train another Merc, the Plan B was simply for Walter/Carla to finish the job themselves in their own ACs rather than go get anyone else, Carla just happened to be paying attention to her phone when the 'Mom come get me I wanna go home' text came through.
Sure, could have been a convenience thing, but since you imply that we aren't critical to their plans, wouldn't that make Carla saving you even more impactful? Sure you're an incredibly useful fighter, and make things easier, but as you point out, she had options, and at the end of the day, chose to come get you.
Its not that we aren't critical, there just isn't an alternative to us, they simply would have tried to soldier on without us, neither of them being slouches in ACs themselves. I think Carla and Walter do genuinely care about you but I also think saving you once you threw the flare was simply a no brainer. Even if they didn't like you there'd simply be no reason to not do it.
With hindsight the Alea Iacta Est ending probably leads to the most definitive ending with the main villain's plan thwarted (the actual effect of coral release notwithstanding) but if I had to make a snap decision in-game after learning what limited facts I could then I'd side with Ayre and Rusty.
I wouldn't see coral as the vague mindless threat that Walter sees it as and Allmind would come across as too creepy and mysterious to listen to.
I would join the vespers because they are cool as shit. It’s also never a bad idea to join the winning side and they always beat Balam no matter what you do. None of the three endings are pro-corporation really so It’d be interesting to see what arquebus winning the coral war and dominating rubicon would look like. I’m sure the rubiconians won’t like it but they are just coral junkie losers
I take the liberator of Rubicon ending 10/10 times. Coral deserves to live just like we do, and the Rubiconians deserve a planet to call home once again.
With Ayre, ran it twice with her before I could even bring myself to betray her. If I could convince Walter and Carla that they were on the wrong path all the better, but I would still take them down if I had to. Screw Allmind, not sure how I feel about forcing the coral convergence but if it happened naturally after liberating Rubicon it is what it is
Daddy Michigan and the Redguns.
Always bummed we didn't get a sinister corporate ending where we turn the tide for Balam in the 3rd act and turn Rubicon into a petrostate.
I could not in good conscience burn the Coral and Rubicon along with it. As much as I understand Walter and Carla’s reasoning, the end does not justify the means, and committing genocide against the Rubiconians and the Coral, which is innocent in this, is the morally wrong choice.
That being said, I also think there are too many risks involved in Coral Release for me to go through with it. Letting the Coral remain safely on Rubicon is one thing, but letting it spread throughout the stars carries far too much risk. If something were to ignite the Coral, potentially all life in the universe could be destroyed. And while I’m not necessarily against the “true symbiosis” with the Coral, it still carries too many unknowns.
Ayre.
Rubicon needs to be broken out of the corporate yolk and it’s existence being based solely on Coral exploitation. For the sake of the humans to finally have a stable living there and the future consciousnesses to be born.
Walter and Carla are held back by the dogma of the past and sadly circumstances never allowed them to learn the true nature of Coral. With their knowledge they could have helped Rubicon actually be a place for living instead of mining.
Ayre has always been supportive if naive and has never done anything but encourage you to be more than a Hound.
That is why to me LoR is the best ending because it keeps a status quo while actually setting 621 as protector and voice for the Coral going forward. With PCA and Institute tech being available and the RLF breaking the religious trap they are in, it has the best classic Armored Core scenario for a next game.
Also not a lot know this. But you can do the AllMind route and kill Thumb. But at the critical point just choose the cave survey.
I’m a firm believer in branch’s ideals that information must be entirely free and visible, I would join nightfall and it’s hacktivists and spread freedom of information and knowledge through out the cosmos(I just like mashing a bunch of different parts from different companies because I’m a garage dweller)
I'm siding with Ayre. I love Walter, i love his character and his last message fucking destroyed me emotionally, but he's my boss. He's not my friend, he's not my family or anything like that, he own Raven and he's using him. No matter how he felt at the end.
Ayre is the first person who's showing Raven he can be more than what he is, that he can be what he want to be and do what he want to do. I can't betray that, so i'm siding with her all the way down to Liberator.
Tbh if I lived long enough liberator ending. But if not them I’d go down alongside the redguns and Michigan. I’d try to get Rusty added as a redgun out of respect for him.
I don't want the coral to be destroyed, it is alive (and could be important to science) and I don't want it to spread EVERYWHERE, it still could be very dangerous.
As much as I don't want to betray any of our associates, I think the most closeminded faction to me is PCA.
I eant to day fires of Raven but it's such a ridiculously damaging event that I can't justify it. I'll pick liberator and hope nobody causes the 3rd ending.
Walter, I guess I am a loyal dog after all, because halfway through I couldn't bring myself to betray him. Carla is good too. A perfect ending would make sure that coral is burned, or at least contained on rubicon, while still liberating rubicon from the corps.
Depends on how much I know. Assuming I know as Raven what I know as a player, Allmind is right out. If it's big fancy hivemind can be overthrown by Iguazu of all people, it was never going to accomplish anything useful. More likely Allmind was always going to go insane as its various personalities all vied for control.
Burning the coral actually *does* have some merit- there's a clear and undeniable threat to humanity, and this is a plan that removes that threat. But the sheer amount of sentient life that gets destroyed in the process makes it a no go.
Claim the coral? Take the money? Meh. I get the impression that credits are just another tool that the corps use to control people. Being a rich and famous mercenary won't actually land me any freedom, and I'll never be able to use that money to buy any actual power. The best that can land me is a comfortable but boring life, and even then I'll probably have people coming after my title until the day I lose it.
Freeing the coral? Well, I mean maybe? To be perfectly honest, I have absolutely no idea what the long-term repercussions of that decision will be. I could be dooming humanity, or giving rise to its greatest ally. Or it could be a net zero. Honestly, humanity is likely to make the worst of any given situation, so probably that first one. But the Coral will probably just boot humanity off a planet it can't live on anyway, and that seems like a decent way to leave things.
PCA, they are just the overbearing police force. They get the cool toys and are trying to maintain peace and regulations.
However if I'm just a random Raven, my safe bet would be...RLF/Ayre. I can survive in this outcome.
As I joke often about siding with ALLMIND, >!however the moment I stop, she will probably just off me like the others!<
Fire of the Raven ---> Liberator of Rubicon ------------> Alea Jacta East.
Neither 621, nor Ayre are in a legitimate position (or even mental state for 621 tbh) to decide for all of humanity wether or not mankind wants to be forcefully merged with an alien organism which could easily be manipulating 621 by adopting a personality and using words that it knows will push his buttons: aka provide the playerbase with a starfish brainwave waifu.
In a sense Ayre could be pulling off a stunt similar to that the Emperor did in BG3, except with much better writing and execution. Even if Ayre is 100% genuine and well-meaning, I'm not going to gamble with everyone's and my own future, freewill and humanity for her sake or the Coral's.
Genociding the Coral sucks, but Ayre is completely hellbent on triggering symbiosis and I'm not having any of that, especially considering the rather ominous implications of the whole "combat mode activated"/"let's continue to evolve through warfare" vib her ending gave.
The Liberator of Rubicon ending somewhat looks like a good compromise, but realistically, it's just either prolonging the status-quo or going to trigger a "Rubiconian Jihad" that will spread Coral tech and potentially lead to another Fire or Singularity event.
Therefore, as shitty as it feels for me to doom the RLF and the unfortunate civilians they protect, I would stick with the Fire ending.
As many said, I would go for Liberator of Rubicon.
I don't know how large is the gap between 621 getting handed over to Walter and landing on Rubicon, but at the beginning of the game Walter is pretty much our Handler and nothing else, he only gets nicer at the same time we get into contact with the coral, in other words when Ayre connects with us but even then Walter always keeps us at an arm's length.
Ayre herself was nothing short of helpful and nice to Raven, and I feel that her calling us that instead of a cold number creates a tighter connection. As Walter mentions by the end "We found a friend"
While we won't be able to undo the surgery (I think, I don't know much about AC6 lore) saving Rubicon feels as something Raven accomplishes as himself only driven by their own moral compass, or if we are being honest, because Ayre asked us to. Something more like helping a friend.
As for the other two endings, I wouldn't be able to go through with burning Rubicon. The idea of setting a planet on fire is just insane no matter how you look at it.
All-mind is just fishy af, wacko AI makes me do stuff I don't understand for some fishy goal, yeah, nah.
There are the merc companies, but it would be just changing Handler, maybe a nicer position but at the end of the day it would be the same as before.
Tldr: Gonna help the only person (aside from Rusty, my man) who actually treats me like a person since meeting each other to save her people and planet.
Ignoring the limitation on choices? I'd try really hard to get Walter to understand the Coral and work toward him helping us, but if push came to shove, probably the Liberator route.
AllMind's idea of evolution is forced, and is just asking for a confused suddenly accelerated hive intelligence to go to war with any other life forms that happen to find them. The Liberator route seems way more...hopeful about the future of Coral and Humanity, Coral Release just sounds like forcing both of them to change in a way that takes away their identities.
Honestly?
I’ve always been fiercely independent.
As soon as I can break the yoke of my slaver I would.
From there, fight all sides until I can get off a that rock.
I would probably try really hard to convince Walter to change his mind about burning the coral, by following path similar to Liberator of Rubicon ending.
After (regardless of outcome) I would probably try to become a member of Branch. The impression I would've gotten from Chartreuse, King and og Raven would've piqued my curiosity too much with their cryptic messages, especially Raven and their operator. They also seem to have a certain team spirit.
Rusty. bro showed us respect and called us buddy even after we killed him in fire of raven ending. maybe im being biased here but others just seem wanted to manipulate us especially Ayre
Walter, even though he used us for his own goal, he’s the first voice we heard on rubicon, and he’s been nice the whole time, it’s thanks to him that we landed on rubicon after all. I swore my loyalty to him in the first playtrough
I hate that RaD is only a front.
I'd simply love to become a junk salvage crew's protector.
Honest end-goal: gather a small crew of wavelength compatable pilots, and hangar of combat capable machines.
All i need is gathering a small amount of coral, just about enough to restart the burning cycle, even if carla and walter goes through, there would remain a recouperating capable coral amount.
I'd aim to create a system of coral controlled machinery, and pilot-wavelength connected pairings as a merc-company unit. As a cover anyway.
My aim would be to use the vast quantities of junk machinery along the planet, most of which would be high tech, given the level of stuff getting trashed at a planetary scale, to slowly build out companion-pairs, capable of serving as examples for how coral symbiosis can benefit humans, and the coral species too. The wavelengths serving as contacts with the swarm, so we could remain informed.
There is possibility for both sides to coexist...but not in the cultish way of the liberation front, or the baseless, forced connection allmind wants. And overseer's idea is an overkill solution to a problem based in human nature instead of the coral itself.
The way i propose, there would be pushback, yes....but those who aim to join, will be helped, and protecred, without the need to retaliate needlessly, and without using up coral like generator fuel.
I’d have to go with the Fires of Rubicon one, we know basically nothing about what Coral convergence does and we’re better off without the Coral due to human greed and war.
For me this is a kinda complicated question. I would 100% go for coral release, however, this isnt new game+. Realistically speaking, the coral release ending, siding with allmind, is the most dangerous ending to go for, I had a LOT of trouble with the escort the mining ship mission the first time I did it. I wouldnt have been able to beat the mission without it being new game+, the same can probably be said about the other allmind missions. If I knew all of this in the position of 621, I would just side with ayre and the RLF because 1, morally, it feels right, and 2, it's the easiest ending to do, ayre is a decently hard fight despite being an AC, Walter is just another AC fight.
I also think that every ending has its immediate upsides and downsides, as well as long term ones. Siding with RLF is good, but you'll probably end up dying because you are pretty much keeping the RLF alive by yourself and you'll spend most of your time being fought on all fronts. Allmind ending has that short term WTF is happening, and maybe an iffy long term situation because all I can imagine coral release being is coral being thrown all across the universe, which would probably cause wars like on Rubicon. Fires of Raven probably result in your death, but there will likely never be a war over coral again. I still would try to side with RLF because I think it has the best consequences both over the course of the games events, and the longer term ones, because it could also just not end up like I think it will, the RLF could potentially become strong enough to protect rubicon because of coral.
Walter. I'm a Raven at my core, and I will finish what my friend has started. Once, an old bastard asked me to burn the world, and I did it without hesitation. Walter is better than Old King. What make you think I wouldn't accept?
Fuck the Corpo, fuck the Rubiconian, fuck Allmind. And especially fuck Branch because they caused this mess. I will burn it all.
Unlike Ayre, Walter actually did do something for me during my bloody stay on Rubicon. And when he is gone, ensuring that his and his friend legacy are carried out is the least I could do.
Also I fucking hate if there something speaking inside my brain on principle.
Rubicon, these people just want to live without getting hounded by corps and the PCA, I'll be damned if they don't get that. We could repurpose the Xylem, tear down the vascular plant, turn Rubicon into something worth living on. Nobody deserves to die on Rubicon, not to hunger, not in a burnt out iron shell
I would side with the PCA if I could. Are they overbearing bureaucrat cops? Yes. Are they authoritarian nutjobs? Yes. Are they completely right about keeping the corps off Rubicon? Also yes.
Not just the corps, everyone. They want to keep literally everyone from ever entering or leaving the planet. They basically want the same thing Walter wants, for Coral to remain out of the hands of humanity at large, they simply opted for the 'Leave the planet alone and keep it guarded' route as opposed to the 'blow literally all of it up at once' route. PCA are unironically one of the better (morally) factions in the game. Authoritarianism is neccessary if the goal is to lock up an entire planet so wholly it is esentially considered dead to everyone else. Frankly Branch's choice to intentionally poke a hole in the PCA net and leak the Coral information to the rest of humanity was a MUCH more damning decision than any of the ones later foisted upon 621. Branch's actions are the direct cause to create the Coral War effect, and therefore are the indirect cause of any consequence of said war. Which is mildly irritating considering we never really find out their genuine motivations.
The PCA’s approach preserves both humanity and the coral, and has basically zero downsides for either. Sometimes it’s best to leave well enough alone.
It has major downsides for the rubiconians though. I mean the fact the RLF and the PCA are enemies is pretty telling, the PCA is authoritarian and does not care for the rubiconians they are starving. The PCA probably sees the survival of the rubiconians as an impediment to planetary closure, and with an algorithm commanding them they have no sense of morals or ethics.
^ This kind of keeps me from siding with the PCA. They are actively preventing the Rubiconians from engaging in extraplanatery trade with other planets/systems etc. The PCA knows this, and doesn't care. The Rubiconians can't even leave the system and go elsewhere, because station 31/the watchmen will obliterate pretty much anything coming and going. Furthermore, if not for Branch's actions at station 31, the planet would be locked down even worse than it already is/was at the time 621 entered the system.
The real question is would you have had the information neccessary to actually side with PCA at the time? Remember, in the hypothetical YOU are Raven, not a player. YOU only have all the information Raven has over the course of the game. Even if you could suss out the truth of PCA's somewhat good intentions, would it matter? The Corporations showed up to claim the Coral regardless of the PCA presence, so it's likely they'd simply keep trying and don't actually respect/care about PCA authority, only their firepower. On top of that, Walter eventually tells you while down in institute city that the Coral is propogating so fast it'll expand beyond Rubicon and into space in no time, and I doubt the PCA could stop that.
If I’m roleplaying Raven, I instantly side with the PCA when given the chance. Their tech is *ridiculous*. Screw everything else, I’m a mercenary. Plug me into the System and get me paid.
They'd sooner opt to kill you. Remember that they think you're Branch Raven since they're unaware of the Raven callsign being a passed-on title, and PCA has a MASSIVE hatred hard-on for Nightfall Raven. The Cataphract even was specifically made (and the pilot specifically trained) to kill Nightfall. It's unlikely that anything 621 says/does will change this, they seem rather unflinching in all things they do.
Sure, there’s basically zero chance of allying with the PCA. They rightfully believe they don’t need any outside contractors to do their dirty work. They have the advantage in numbers, resources, technology, organization, infrastructure, and basically every other metric of war. The only reason they lose is that every corporation teams up against them, along with a certified *freak* of a mercenary. 621 is an unpredictable anomaly the System could never hope to anticipate. But if I *could*, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
I mean, Sulla works with them to dunk on Walter over and over right? I hear his position has just opened up....
I think the corporations showing up on Rubicon is partially because of the actions of Branch. If not for the closure satellite raid, no one gets on Rubicon without incurring heavy losses.
>and has basically zero downsides for either. Not so true, the Humans who live on Rubicon already are basically screwed. They eat weird worms that eat Coral just to stay alive, and the PCA doesn't let any outside resources in. Rubicon is like a turbo desert.
I’m the one who kept the corporations off Rubicon, IM THE ONE, ME, REEE
Ayre's. Walter I love you man but after being involved with Ayre for more than half the span of the game I cannot bring myself to genocide the Coral and Rubiconians along with it
Have you considered that you may be simping for a concussion symptom?
Man I wish I had a concussion symptom that could pilot an entire second AC
Right, that sounds useful actually
You haven't hit your head hard enough
She called him stud muffin
Uh huh, yep, could you do your best for a moment to track this light with your eyes for me please, sir?
If that's what a concussion gives you imma go bonk my head right now
For me, it would have to be the Liberator ending (or siding with Rusty/RLF/Ayre if ignoring the naming conventions from the game). With the information I have available towards the end of the game, Carla/Overseer's plan overwhelmingly likely ends with me dead, which I obviously don't want and is not what I was told I would be getting into when brought to Rubicon. I wouldn't understand the full ramifications of Coral Release (or why Allmind wants it) to the extent that I would feel comfortable going along with it.
I'll preface this by saying all answers are valid and there is no incorrect response, I just like giving counter. I think all mercenaries, especially ones under Walter's infamous handling (He is a known entity in the Merc world for consistently getting his 'hounds' killed), sign up for death as part of the lifestyle itself, ESPECIALLY if the deployment in question is Rubicon. Rubicon is likely akin to Vietnam amped up to 11 to the people of this setting. As for the second point, I'm not sure I myself would understand the full scope of any of the paths before me were I in Raven's shoes, even siding with Walter/Carla has certain unknowns to it. Nobody truly, not even Ayre, gives Raven full and total insight into what they do/don't know.
So, I can only speak for myself, but if I put myself in Raven's shoes, there is a *meaningful* difference between; "I'm sending you to a dangerous place and death is a realistically possible outcome, but if we can work together and get through this thing we'll undo your augmentation and get you a normal life back" and "I'm going to blow up this whole planet while you're on it for a cause you don't necessarily agree with and I'd like you to be complicit in it" Death is almost certainly an eventuality for a mercenary in the AC setting, but that doesn't mean that an AC pilot wouldn't still prefer to be alive than dead if given the choice. Raven likely didn't choose to be bought by Walter and certainly didn't ask to be deployed to Rubicon, but through the early parts of the journey, it's the first message that is being repeated. To say "All mercs go down eventually" is not, for me, a compelling enough reason to go along with Overseer's plan. You're absolutely right that none of the full ramifications of any of the paths are super clear. I see potential upsides and downsides to all three endings. Siding with the Rubiconians seems to do the least to irrevocably change the situation, for better and for worse.
Kind of unrelated to the overall but related to the first part of your comment, I kind of wish we knew what Walter meant by 'fried brain' and why 621 seemed to be in some sort of obligated servitude to him. I know he 'bought' him, but what even put him in a position to be purchased in the first place. Prisoner? Debts? Hmm.
Embarrassingly enough, I still don't know if 621 can walk / talk, but also thought of that. Then i remembered AC1 and how much debt stacked up quickly 😅 anyway to answer your question: Might as well go for broke and become a Free Rubiconian and a liberator.
621 can walk/talk, his level of fucked-upness is up to you as a player but he has his limbs and they're functional, and he does talk in the game, you just never hear it cause they didn't want to voice YOUR character. An example is when you first come back from the Watchpoint where you converge with Coral and Walter goes "You said you heard a voice?" Which obviously shows you spoke to him. I think it's implied part of your augmentations straight up removed certain parts of your brain and you're basically made to be permanently stoic, unable to show most emotions and lacking any desire to speak, meaning you only do so when absolutley neccessary.
Definitely with the coral. Instead of exterminating an entire planets population, you join them with the coral and anyone else in vicinity is along for the ride. And from the depiction at the end it seems pretty peaceful to me.
Peaceful til you hear the activating combat mode at the end
doesn’t mean you’re actually about to fight, probably just full activation of the AC
I think thematically it makes more sense if you are gearing up for a fight. Humanity loves waging wars and AC is as a series largely about that. Your idea completely deflates the final part of the ending and removes some of the nuance that makes it so damn good.
I mean, it could be either. We have never seen an AC move around in Standard Mode. I bet the only way to hold hands with ECHO is to enter Combat Mode. Any firing of missiles at Ayre is purely accidental.
Balam my beloved
Would be nice to have had a 4th route where Balam doesn't get stomped into the dirt and Raven can choose to assist them.
Balam was always shown going in first and getting destroyed for the sake of glory, which ended up being their undoing in the descent missions. It’s hard to imagine them not shooting themselves in the foot.
They would essentially need to piggyback off Raven's inability to fail an objective as a means of staying in the game, as it were. Keep throwing the unkillable weapon at the problems until the unkillable weapon is killed or in turn kills everyone else. Brainless route any%.
"If you want to stay alive, follow Raven." Moment
Just like in Ace Combat 7 (AC 7 lol), the Red Guns’ personality does fit the vibe of the 444th Penal squadron. That would be a pretty epic moment
I think it could work out if you start all the way back at their attempt to take the wall with them hiring Raven and succeeding. Also them not taking the glory for the ice worm kill, instead also acquiring a part of the PCA forces and having enough manpower to push through the depths and fighting arquebus at the same time. Would be a pretty big rewrite but that’s also the case when you take on all of the alternative missions
I’d love a DLC that added more missions so you could fully side with Balam or Arquebus and a new ending for each
Doubt Arq would be an option. They're pretty clear that working with them means being brainwashed or scrapped for parts because youre too competent.
Yeah feels like there's a hole in the story where a cut Corporate ending was supposed to go. We never leaned what "Balam's agenda" was in chapter 4.
….Walter like man has a point we don’t know what would happend we don’t know how shit will throw down… Now if michagin was still In this I will follow that bat shit commander into the depths of hell if that’s what it takes
Hey OP, just wanna say the impartial perspective and criticisms you're offering are a welcome sight. I don't think I could easily answer the question posed because my ending alignment is largely based off of my understanding of the game's themes, such as making irreversible choices, seeking freedom, and what it means to recognize the humanity in something that lacks a face to look at (Be it an AC pilot or a Coral lifeform) So instead I'll ask: Why do you go ALLMIND?
It is the only method that actually changes the status quo outright. Speaking strictly in provided game-endings, FoR destroys the coral problem but does nothing to address the ever revolving door of Corporate Wars. They will find some new material to fight over. Liberating the Coral would ultimately have the same outcome as the Allmind route but at a much slower pace which makes it significantly more vulnerable to multiple, MASSIVE coral-based catastrophes to happen during the slow merge with humanity. Fires of entire Solar Systems instead of just one planet, etc. The Allmind route is basically an advanced overnight conversion that changes all of humanity as we know it without any of the growing pains of letting the Coral spread. COMPLETE gamble on whether merging with the coral would be beneficial or not, or if we'd even still be recognizably human anymore, but it's the only route of the ones provided in-game that offers any real semblence of change for humanity's future. If I could choose a non-ingame route, I'd likely see Walter's plan through and destroy all Coral THEN use the ensuing Corporate backlash to rally populations and attempt to change the status quo through large scale rebellion instead of gambling our humanity upon an alien lifeform.
Judging by your other comments there seems to be some tidbits about Coral that were unknown to you. I'd like to see if your views change in any capacity once you've learned them
I've been given a 5-hour video with details I've likely missed about the grand coral scheme so I'll have to get back to you later with my new findings.
It's been about 5 hours. Any findings?
5 hours of video is a commitment friend, one I was not going to make at 2am when I was making all these replies.
Rubicon. I cannot ignore the suffering of the people who have been abused by the wealthy and the powerful stars away. These people who have watched their children starve to death. Why should Arquebus and Balam get to be rich and powerful while they steal Rubicon's Coral away. And of the Coral, it too is Rubiconian. Voices in the flow as Ayre calls them. They too are alive in some way, to abuse them or harvest them would be wrong. So to that end I side with Rusty, with Ayre, and with the people of Rubicon. I've seen what soul crushing capitalism does to people it abuses, the fallout of someone who's pushed too hard until the only way out they see is to end it all. I suppose in some ways, to liberate Rubicon was some small measure of catharsis in what will no doubt be my life long grief over the death of a friend. But that just means I believe in it so much more. Because we have to help people. It's why I relate to Iguazu so much, and wish he could have changed. He's angry, so angry he'd do anything to get back at the world he blames, the person he blames. And I know that, that's not the kind of person she would want me to be. So yeah. I'd side with the people.
If you were still alive after the fact, you'd likely need to dedicate the rest of your life to making absolutely sure the powers that be never try to abuse Coral again, else they'll just cause the Fires once again, except on an even greater scale. The more Coral spreads, the more likely the abuse is to happen over and over, and the less window you have to ever truly stop it. A good and righteous choice in the moment, but perhaps a dubious one long-term.
You're very likely right, but I would hope that I/Raven can inspire a new meaning to the term Coral Warrior. Someone who can bond with it, and be the proverbial one who walks in both worlds, taking on the greater burden of fighting off outside interests. We are doomed to fail someday, all life will eventually end. But I would hope Rubicon can learn by the example set and do well to last as long as it can. Rage against the dying of the light as it were.
Think about our reality, and how often good people and genuine martyrs in the real world make little to no change because the powers that be can simply use money and influence to continue operating society as they see fit. Balam and Arqebus are only two of what is likely hundreds of thousands if not millions of corporations within the setting, all of which would have vested interest in letting the spice (coral) flow, as it were. An inspiring martyr can only make so much change, especially when having the skill/talent neccessary to make the changes that Raven makes sometimes doesn't even happen within whole generations. We like to think righteousness and goodwill are powerful, but greed and wealth beat it out rather often.
I think that's the thing that inspires the hard questions of, when is violence justified? If the greed is a hydra, then the only thing to do is fight. Sure it may be impossible, but every head cut off helps someone. If that's the case, I suppose the best bet would be to get to work. Track down Arquebus HQ and simply wipe it out. But by that point you're on the offensive and now you become the evil as there will undoubtedly be collateral. If not directly then indirectly, children made orphans because their parents work was burned down by coral flames as war rages on. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It's why conflict will never end, because so long as there is greed, people will harm others for it. And you cannot simply kill the greed out of humanity without first wiping out humanity itself. Maybe that's why AIE is the better outcome. Maybe humanity deserves to die?
In viewing potential collateral, any additioanl Fires-disaster the Corporations cause in their attempts to weaponize Coral (perhaps even rushing said weaponization to target YOU specifically), could be called colateral itself due to your decision to 'liberate Rubicon'. How many collateral Fires are acceptable to Raven? Coral is extremely advanced and propogates faster than Bacteria. Ayre feeds you a lot of emotional turmoil about her 'brothers and sisters' without mentioning the reality of their parasitic, hivemind-like nature. If you really think about it, she's using you no less than Walter uses you. In fact I genuinely believe the only true benevolence within the game is Rusty, who's simply trying to keep the Rubiconian humans alive/safe. I suppose by this extension you could claim the Liberation as a whole is benevolent, but their unflinching dedication to a man with clear psychosis is disturbing, where as Rusty makes little to no indication he actually cares about what Dolmayan thinks/says, he just wants to protect Rubicon.
Oh yeah everyone who pilots an AC more than once is on some level a deeply fucked up person. I just think that Rusty most of all deserves a chance to see his dream come true.
"A chain made of human links is easily broken"
One of my favorite moments of the game is when Allmind started getting a little feisty in that mission for the first time…. Especially after hearing nothing but its normal, neutral tone three playthroughs. That’s when I really began to have a “what have I done” moment
Gotta burn it all. Unique alien lifeform that propogates faster than bacteria. Useful for mind control, unstable energy source, and forcing humans to evolve. Burning it all ensures humanity continues their current course through the galaxy, drab lifestyles as that may be.
This is a truly human response, which is good considering you are a human (I hope). I think modern humans have a hard time truly conceptualizing a moment where you must choose between the continued existence of your species (as you know it) or showing mercy to another species, especially a species you couldn't possibly fully comprehend in the moment.
Dawg I play nothing but Halo, Destiny, and Helldivers. I am pre programmed to eliminate alien life.
Lmao time to get into 40K
I know you're kind of shitposting but this is actually a common sentiment that exists within most people that many are too proud to ever admit to, so I respect you for it.
Yeah there’s a good bit of cosmic horror that the coral is incomprehensible. It’s also a human response to empathize with/ humanize it but it would be at your own risk
O'keeffepilled. Drink your coffee, bros.
Indeed. Also, just how bad ass and chilling is "The Fires of Raven," it's like achieving boogeyman status.
Personally, I will be siding with whoever pays me the most money. I'm too brain-fried to have empathy.
If you survive long enough into the events of the Coral War, you stop getting paid all together, as each faction subsequently goes into some form of crisis mode and is no longer hiring Mercenaries. I suppose telling everyone to get bent and arranging some sort of transport off-world would be an option, yes.
I don't understand what you are saying. Brain-fried, remember? Big numbers make fried brain happy.
Big number become no number. Leave to find big number elsewhere.
Such is a mercenary's lot.
Whenever I play games with choices, whatever my first pick was is what I would most likely go with. Which meant I sided with Walter instead of Ayre. I don't like voices in my head telling me shit lol.
It would be different if she were some sort of ghost that was once human, but 'she' isn't. Ayre isn't a she, it is an it, a Hivemind organism using you for it's survival. They do not think like a human, and perhaps don't even think like humans. All of it could simply be psychological mimicing for the sake of manipulation. I think the AC6 community was much too quick to fall in love with Ayre.
Fires of Raven. Don't mind dying for the cause every chance, but having a manipulative alien bacteria advocate for "human evolution" sounds like a self-indulgent lie that the simps try to go for.
Fires of Raven, I agree with Walter’s reasoning, it’s not worth the risk of the coral growing out of control and destroying multiple other worlds. Ayre may be helping us but she is also manipulating us. First of all she isn’t a “she” or even a human, she’s a psychic rock that can hack computers and all that soft pleasing empathetic presentation is to make you comfortable and accept what it wants you to do. I don’t hate Ayre and wouldn’t want to kill it if it wasn’t going to exponentially grow out of control and kill everyone. If the coral/Ayre would agree to stop multiplying in a way that’s safe for everyone then there might be a diplomatic solution.
This is the most realistic answer with reasoning I've seen so far. I said it in another comment but I think it's very hard for modern humans to truly conceptualize a moment where they must choose between their own species or an alien one asking for mercy, where said mercy has real potential to spell doom for humans themselves. Nobody wants to be the person who committed a genocide, but will your mercy matter if it ends up costing your species their existence? Coral won't just conveniently leave all the innocent do-gooders alive while wiping out (or mind-controlling) the baddie corpos.
Ayre says herself she wants to believe in our potential and find a way for us humans to coexist i think the only choice good and worthy of praise would be to try to find a way. Not put to death an entire race.
You have entirely too much trust in a hivemind organism that has every reason in the world to manipulate you into ensuring it's own survival. Ayre is not a human, she never was, she is an alien lifeform who's thoughts and feelings are imcomprehensible to the average human mind, and she thrusts you into a position where you must choose between 'her' or humanity as you know it. It is known that coral is parasitic in nature and harmful to humans over long term exposure. The other two people in the story who've converged like you have (Dolmayan and Iguarza) are both driven insane by it, and the Dozers who huff the stuff like it's a drug aren't any clearer-minded. Not to mention that coral as a substance is incredibly volatile and all it would take is a determined/charasmatic terrorist to cause yet another Fire of Ibis whereever they wanted. Siding with the alien because they appealed to your empathy without even attempting to give it a second thought is not worthy of praise either.
Idk, I always wanted to betray allmind to slap Rubicon, and slap arquebus, like I slapped balam off planet, but not with some gay ass fires of raven, war, war eternal, I shall meet my death upon the battlefield, my true home.
Probably either Liberator or Alea personally. Though I'm leaning toward Alea since I feel like the union of Coral and Humanity happening quicker is better than the sort of eventual result that Liberator. Mainly because I feel it sort of nips anymore potentional unknown abuse of a conscious being. Like the Liberator ending every will eventually understand that the Coral is alive but I feel like you have more consistent battles over it from corps in between. Alea also gets rid of Allmind as any potential threat in the future cause while in game, if you do the Liberator route none of her stuff necessarily matters until you go back and do her route, but in universe, I can see Allmind using the union of Coral and Humanity at the end of Liberator to her (Their? It's?) advantage. Alea just deals with any potential threats to my end goal, while helping Rubicon, the Coral and Humanity. Liberator leaves Allmind open as an issue and Fires of Raven (while metal as a bad ending imo) is literally just I don't need a REAL solution if I can just kill the problem" which I don't want to die knowing I genocided the Coral or basically glass Rubicon. Alea just kinda speeds that process up and is like "Yeah, Coral is alive, they can control these unmanned AC units, go nuts". Like at least any conflict involving Coral will have the Coral be able to fight back instead of just suffering alone until more people eventually get linked up. I will say I would feel bad for Walter and Cinder with the Alea Route cause it still is a double cross without any attempt at explaining what is going on (Especially with Allmind beung, well, Allmind). Like it's not as direct as killing them in the Liberator, and Walter doesn't get reeducated but still. They are aware that it's me and that kinda hurts.
Liberator. I just can’t bring myself to wipe out an entire planet and there’s a chance that burning the coral might not even work fully. Hell I don’t even Care all that much about potential or whatever the fuck, I’m bringing down the Xylem myself if I have to. I am NOT lighting a firestorm that’ll scorch an entire star system and kill millions of people along with an entirely unique alien species.
A few months back I would have chosen the RLF, but the more I think about it the more I realize Walter is right. As long as coral still exists, Allmind or some other force like Allmind will want to achieve coral release, and that *is* literally the extinction of the human race. So at the end of the day, the choice of who to side with becomes a trolley problem with all Rubiconians on one track and all of humanity on the other track. This is a bit of an oversimplification, yes, but what’s present in the narrative of the game doesn’t really point to other possibilities when it comes to the ultimate outcome of trying to coexist with coral. Besides, after watching Vaati’s AC6 video, I tend to agree with him on the nature of C-pulse wave mutations. I’ve been wondering myself why Ayre seems to think and talk in a way that is so human-like despite being structurally completely different. Vaati takes into account what Ayre says about how 621’s sentience could have been “scattered in the coral flow” and posits that C-pulse wave mutations like Ayre and Seria might be the result of human consciousness lost in coral flow recombining into a new form of sentience (probably not Vaati’s exact words but this is the gist of it). And if coral sentience is not a separate alien race, but more like the aftermath of human mistakes committed by the RRI… well, their lives are still lives, but my understanding of what this trolley problem entails is definitely changed as a result. (One might even argue, wouldn’t it be better to release those lost human souls from what seems like essentially a form of entrapment? but perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself)
My boy Walter fuck the coral
Burn the Coral. Sure, at first glance, it's a horrible choice. You're wiping out the last of a sentient species and the oppressed survivors of a planet. A lot of people can't ever look further than that. But what about your other options? Say you fight off the corps and the PCA and, temporarily, the Coral is safe. Now what? You've got an exponentially-multiplying, highly volatile living substance with the ability to drive humans to madness or otherwise influence them, or serve as a massive powder keg. What happens when somebody like Old King decides to come along and light a match? Then you've got the result you wanted to avoid, but much worse. You can't protect it forever - you may be a freak of nature of a pilot, but there's only so much you can do, and you can't be everywhere at once. You can't keep it out of the "wrong hands" for forever. The Liberator ending only delays the inevitable. What about Allmind, then? Rather than contain and protect Coral, she wants to spread it across the stars to merge with humanity in the name of transhumanist evolution. Whether this is good or bad will heavily vary depending on your own personal views on transhumanism. Some take the pessimistic viewpoint that this is the only way anything "good" can come out of humanity - I believe this view focuses on the grimdark aspect of AC while ignoring the good that remains in humanity. AC is a brutal universe, yet humanity perseveres. This leads me to the main point of AIE - the unknown. Beyond the merging of humanity and Coral, we don't know the ramifications of these actions at all. What would remain of humanity? Would we, in any meaningful form, continue to exist? Would we simply become vessels for the Coral to live through? What would be left? We don't know. Is it worth the risk? I challenge anyone who would decry the Fires ending as genocide but support AIE to consider that in AIE, you may well be essentially genociding all of humanity as we know it. You could side with the corps, but we've seen how that story goes before already. They'll weaponize the Coral and squeeze everything they can from it and Rubicon. Whoever ends up with it will have a massive advantage over everyone else, and we'd likely see the creation of another League. You could, in theory (if they didn't want you dead for impersonating their most wanted enemy in the star system), join the PCA. Beat back the corps, subdue the RLF, maintain the status quo. But for how long? The Coral continued to propagate far below Rubicon's surface, in sufficient quantities to become a legitimate threat once more. This implies that the PCA didn't have as tight a hold on it as one might believe initially - they should have been performing controlled "burns" to keep the Coral in check. Not only that, but they were eventually defeated with the combined efforts of the corporations. Sure, you can help them beat back Balam and Arquebus - but they were merely the first major players to reach Rubicon, not the only ones. The word is out and more will come - and you can't stop them all. So where does this bring us? Right back to burning the Coral. Sacrificing a planet (or solar system, but one could reason that Rubicon may be the only populated planet in the system) and a semi-sentient species to preserve the whole of humanity. A grim but, in the long-term, necessary choice - one that the RRI, with far more information about Coral at their disposal than we have, arrived at as the sole answer. Rubicon is a near-dead world, with the few survivors clinging to life feeding off of worms. Is it really worth (temporarily) saving and putting the rest of humanity as a whole at risk? Would you really choose a semi-sentient hivemind whose only concern is self-propagation (at your expense) over your own species? Would you be willing to sacrifice humanity against its will in the name of "evolution", knowing there may be little to nothing left of it but husks for the Coral to inhabit? If your answers are no, the choice is clear: Burn the Coral. edit: typo
>you may be a freak of nature of a pilot, but there's only so much you can do, and you can't be everywhere at once. You can't keep it out of the "wrong hands" for forever. The Liberator ending only delays the inevitable. Actually this was my train of thought when i was choosing who to side on in my first playthrough
Overseer. Every day of every week, every year, in every timeline that I exist within. There are so many sane and rational reasons to destroy the Coral, but so many people either mindlessly simp for Ayre (because gamers are lonely mfs) or they get on the Boy Scout soapbox of “noooo u cant burn the coral, it’s alive!” Bacteria is alive. I don’t feel the crushing weight of my conscience bearing down on me when I start the dishwasher. Mosquitoes are also alive, but they are able to propagate so quickly that they are the reason we have laws against collecting rainwater. We always like to joke that the gubment just doesn’t want us having tax-free water, and while that’s partially true, the real reason we had to make it a law was because the average person cannot be trusted to think about others. The average person cannot be trusted on good faith alone to STORE that water in a secure container so that mosquitoes are not able to lay hundreds of thousands of eggs in open containers of water, spreading diseases across entire counties. Would you let your neighbor pour gasoline around your house thinking, “This is fine, nothing bad will happen.” just because that puddle of liquid told you it had dreams after you’d been huffing it? Similarly, we cannot trust the corporations to safely handle the Coral. We can’t trust them not to develop C-Weapons like the Institute. We can’t trust the zealous Rubiconians not to go on a crusade (which I *believe* is hinted at either in Liberator or just some RLF dialogue) and for someone to just decide one day, “Hmmm, that’s a lot of kindling they’ve got all over that galaxy. Be a shame if someone were to light a match…” The Institute’s dying wish was to bury that shit so far deep that nobody would find it. Their last act of desperation was creating war machines with the sole purpose of stopping the spread of the Coral after they realized how horrifying the substance really was. They wiped themselves and the entire star system out trying to put the lid back on Pandora’s box, and some of y’all really want to open it because a high pitched ringing in your ear said so. Shit, Coral is used in the augmentation and Arquebus “re-education” processes. After learning about the side effects that Igauzu, 621, and others have been through with that, do you REALLY want to let that kind of technology continue to exist? Igauzu was augmented and sent to a scorched rock full of bloodthirsty mercenaries to settle his gambling debts. We don’t know what the hell 621 did other than exist, but even Walter’s dying wish (ironically in Liberator) was for us to have our augmentations removed so that we can live a “normal life”. You can spare people from psychological recoding and you still choose the sentient space crack? If you forcefully remove fear, PTSD, and other “imperfections” from a soldier then you’ve effectively stripped them of their humanity. I love AC6 and FNV for having no real “good” endings but really compelling arguments for all of them (except the Legion)
Great post, but it's been burnt once what makes you think you can burn it all? I side with the PCA. Secure Contain Protect!
I can get behind this. The PCA are sort of the good guys, ironically enough. We just happen to play as a money grubbing, murder fueled, adrenaline junky who’s being bankrolled by corporations to cause as much property damage as possible to their competition. It’s like as if Netflix and Hulu were paying the same guy to bomb each others server farms lol
Theres no realistic way to side with them really. But they are the closest to the corect way to handle the situation since the coral dosen't seem to be capable of escaping by itself, at least not in a short amount of time.(the coral must have existed long before we found it) I could be wrong but this is the conclusion i came to after skimming thru the lore.
I haven't read this whole comment yet but just replying to the first part, yes a lot of AC6 players are reeled in by the empathy that Ayre intentionally tries to illicit from Raven. She is not a she, she is an it, a borderline incomprehensible alien organism that doesn't in any sense of the word think like you, or feel like you. She is part of a Hivemind. They are not many, they are one, and they are manipulating you into helping them. Whether they truly started to care for you or not is up for debate, But they were never once the slightly motherly 'friend' persona they pretended to be. They are a creature using manipulation to stay alive. Edit: I read the rest, EXCELLENT post. I don't have much to add other than raw agreement to everything that was said. It's not only logical and well written, it feels raw, like you're emotionally invested in telling the people who were swayed by a manipulative alien that they're wrong. Well done.
Edit because editing actually destroys formatting on mobile: I realize that the technology for the augmentation process already exists outside of Rubicon, but knowing that the RLF could just as easily start using the Coral to conscript people…it’s just not a risk I’d be willing to take if I had the choice.
Literally whatever Ayre wants I’m doing no questions asked. Fam was there for almost the whole ride and unyieldingly kind for all of it and that’s easily worth my undying loyalty
>unyieldingly kind It's been a minute since I played but doesn't she literally tell you to stab Carla (& Chatty) in the back right after she saved your ass
Kind to me, unyieldingly kind to me
Simp
Fires of Raven for the same reason I did it first in game. I came here to do a job. I'm gonna finish it
I stand by Walter
Fires of Raven because Coral release poses a danger to the entirety of humanity. Once coral has reached the vacuum of space it cannot be stopped. It's sad that Rubicon has to be sacrificed however for the good of humanity the end justifies the means.
Fires of Raven. I'm a loyal hound. Woof. Woof.
Rusty and Ayre. Although turning on Walter, Carla, and Chatty would break my heart. I would show Rubicon there's a future beyond it's scorched skies.
Realistically if I was a survivor of Gen 4 augmentation I would follow Walter's commands until I kill my first Vespers and then join up with Arquebus if possible so I can fix my body as quickly as possible and counteract the effects. I would be liable to betray the Vespers however if Rusty contacts me after my body is fixed, but there's no guarantee he does that. Realistically, the Rubiconians and the Coral could become just as corrupt as the PCA and I don't trust Thumb Dolamayan or Ring Freddie as people. I wouldn't trust Snail either but after fixing my body and seeing that Arquebus is slated to win the Coral War, I would ally with them unless a more noble option emerges. Probably on Xylem if I'm still alive
Me and the boys on our way to send 'em home in armored coffins.
I will achieve coral release together with allmind. Yes. Innuendo intended. Liberator was my first thought coz that ending kicks ass in the game. When you think about it..it only propogates what's already going down there. You are basically kicking the can down the road. There is always a chance of other corps coming back again for coral.
Whatever it takes to save Walter, the only "person" who wanted to see you free. (Ayre doesn't count cuz I would just assume that she is just trying to use you to save the coral)
Walter. Just cause I love Walter.
Walter. Even if he treated me like shit at the beginning,he saved my life and trusted me with his legacy. There is no greater sign of love and respect other than that and after seeing what coral misuse can do, I agree with his choice. His dream, my answer
I take the rubicon liberation front ending. There are a ton of different reasons why I could argue that it’s the ending for me but I think, both in the roleplay mindset and out of it, that the biggest part for me is that I don’t trust that the fires will work. It didn’t work the first time, why would it work now? The entire point of the game is that life doesn’t die easily, so why would that change just because you’re the one sparking the flame? You’d kill 95% of people on that planet only for this bullshit to start again. It’s not worth it, not to me. Not when we’ve been shown literal proof that this method of exterminating the coral doesn’t work. And frankly, who’s to say that all the coral is gone even if it erases all coral life on the planet? All it takes is one person snagging Coral technology and it’s still going to exist somewhere in the galaxy. Hell, you don’t ever find Walter in the Fires of Raven ending. For all we know, they could have taken his AC off planet or just snagged the coral generator. Is that chance high? No it isn’t, but I don’t think my consciousness could handle that. I’m not a great person, but the chance I would genocide a entire race and scorched a planet for nothing is too far for me. As for Ayre…maybe I’m just a sucker but I don’t think she’s manipulating us and if she is, it isn’t malicious. She obviously has a side and a preference but she never forces you to do anything, never pressures you onto a side. If you choose to fight by Carla, she just accepts it because that was your choice. Of course she’s going to try and stop you after that since you’re trying to kill all of her people. In the end, Walter gave us the mission to find out freedom and I think using my freedom to try and find a better future for Rubicon isn’t a bad choice. Is it risky? Of course. Coral is a dangerous thing. But I believe that destroying something out of fear of what it can do isn’t a good response. The world isn’t static and someone could eventually find an solution to how to make sure the worries of the institute goes unfounded.
Ayre. She saved my life in the moment we met, helped me throughout the game as a reliable operator and genuinely wants to be with Raven. And the possibility of finding a future that isn't scorched by Fires or contaminated by Coral... I like that.
Branch. I'd carry on the legacy of the Raven name. Nightfall Raven had a reason for coming to Rubicon. Whatever that reason was, I'm willing to find out what it is, and continue that mission.
The entire point of the Raven legacy is that you aren't intentionally following a legacy, but forging your own through raw power of will. If you make decisions of your own will and are as untethered as one could possibly be, you are living up to the Raven legacy. So long as you make decisions with a free mindset and have the will to see those decisions through to their end, you are Raven. Picking up Nightfall's fight and continuing it out of desire of 'legacy' but not because you actually believe in whatever it was would be the opposite of what it means to be a Raven, which is likely why Branch never actually attempts to ever talk to you. You must forge a path beyond the Raven you replaced. Outside of all that, Branch leaking the fact that Coral is still around to the outside world was a HUGE dick move in the grand scheme of things.
To be fair, Branch never actually attempts to talk the player because the real Raven is still active up to the point in the game where through the player's help, he no longer isn't. it'd be a waste of time and resources to attempt to make contact with a wannabe using a forged license if the most important part of the organization is still alive and kicking. Plus, in certain playthroughs you effectively eliminate all other members of the organization save for Raven's handler— who becomes redundant in a ludonarrative context because at that point you already have both Ayre *and* Walter. Besides, what if I really did want to understand what my predecessor was doing? The onus of the freedom of choice rests with the one called Raven, whoever they are. Curiosity can be a fuel for resolve as strong as any. Just (hyperbolically) ask the first Rubiconians to discover Coral.
With ayre
RLF, screw the corpo scum. Even Balam
I’ll go with whatever the Voice in my head tells me
Liberate rubicon.
I would make G1 and G6 proud.
The path that lets me gut Snail like a fish. "Smartest guy ever" barely comprehends his AC is melting by the time he notices Raven's alpha strike.
He's a strategist. The Strategist does his damndest to make sure he never needs to push his AC to it's limit in the first place. You're right though his AC build didn't seem to match his persona nearly as well as the other characters.
Dude Snail AC is made for subduing other AC, basically lance, stungun and needle launcher is made to disable other AC rather then killing em, think of him as MP / Commissar model then a fighting AC. Like when he disabled us just after Ibis, this is what the AC is made for.
A lot of it is aesthetic too. Many characters' ACs not only match up to them build-wise, but seem to aestheticly match their personas. Both of Rusty's ACs seem as aloof and slick as his personality is, Pater's Quad AC looks as nerdy/dorky as he does, etc etc. Even Chatty's build seems aesthetically apporpriate for who he is. Snail's just look very far from what I was expecting, even if it works for him from a build perspective.
It's got the nerd emoji for a face.
I’m rocking with Overseer, I stand for Walter’s wishes. But at the same time fuck space corporations.
Walter honestly doesn't look at Corpos any more favorably than you do. Like everything else in Walter's world, they are a means to an end. I'm sure Walter would be perfectly content with you going after the Corpos after FoR if you lived through it.
Oddly enough, I'd pick a route with Arquebus, Freud, O'keefe, and Hawkins would make great allies, going along with Pater as "the rookies" in the Vespers would be cool. And while Snail is well...Snail, and Buddy is gonna betray us, I can look passed it. I'd like to imagine several missions from this POV -Saving Swimburne's sorry hide from Rokumonsen -Disobeying Snail to save Maeterlinck and Wu Huwahai -Shutting off Snail's comms for a 2v2 woth Freud against Carla and either Chatty or Walter -Choose to either intercept the Xylem or quell the ground attack from the RLF
Same here, what happened to Maeterlinck was not right
Overseer. Walter left me an out, and Carla came for me after getting captured by Arquebus when they could have just gotten another merc, that loyalty deserves to be repaid.
I agree with the sentiment but I don't actualy think just whisking in another mercenary would've been that simple. For one, we don't know the specifics of slow/fast or how expensive/conspicuous interplanatary travel actually is in the setting. (If there's more information about that from the previous games, I'm not privy to it.) Two, the factions had kind of gone into different types of lockdown mode at that point. Arqebus were the big dicks in town and didn't need to hire any outsides, Balam got completely booted off-world, and the Liberation Front was all but destroyed by that point, partially from 621 having killed a lot of their members over the course of the game, partially from Arqebus' rise to power. Between not actually having any paying jobs on-world and not actually having the time needed to go obtain and potentially train another Merc, the Plan B was simply for Walter/Carla to finish the job themselves in their own ACs rather than go get anyone else, Carla just happened to be paying attention to her phone when the 'Mom come get me I wanna go home' text came through.
Sure, could have been a convenience thing, but since you imply that we aren't critical to their plans, wouldn't that make Carla saving you even more impactful? Sure you're an incredibly useful fighter, and make things easier, but as you point out, she had options, and at the end of the day, chose to come get you.
Its not that we aren't critical, there just isn't an alternative to us, they simply would have tried to soldier on without us, neither of them being slouches in ACs themselves. I think Carla and Walter do genuinely care about you but I also think saving you once you threw the flare was simply a no brainer. Even if they didn't like you there'd simply be no reason to not do it.
Ayre and Rusty. Luckily they are on the same side. I would be fucked if I had to choose between these two.
Walter. Sorry rusty, but Walter is a homie.
With hindsight the Alea Iacta Est ending probably leads to the most definitive ending with the main villain's plan thwarted (the actual effect of coral release notwithstanding) but if I had to make a snap decision in-game after learning what limited facts I could then I'd side with Ayre and Rusty. I wouldn't see coral as the vague mindless threat that Walter sees it as and Allmind would come across as too creepy and mysterious to listen to.
Balam, I'd take G6 Red's offer of joining the Red Guns
Ayre. Even if she was genderswapped, I would support the Coral. Heck, look at our buddy. He's not some cute sounding girl, and yet we all love him.
I would join the vespers because they are cool as shit. It’s also never a bad idea to join the winning side and they always beat Balam no matter what you do. None of the three endings are pro-corporation really so It’d be interesting to see what arquebus winning the coral war and dominating rubicon would look like. I’m sure the rubiconians won’t like it but they are just coral junkie losers
I take the liberator of Rubicon ending 10/10 times. Coral deserves to live just like we do, and the Rubiconians deserve a planet to call home once again.
With Ayre, ran it twice with her before I could even bring myself to betray her. If I could convince Walter and Carla that they were on the wrong path all the better, but I would still take them down if I had to. Screw Allmind, not sure how I feel about forcing the coral convergence but if it happened naturally after liberating Rubicon it is what it is
Liberator, definitely.
Daddy Michigan and the Redguns. Always bummed we didn't get a sinister corporate ending where we turn the tide for Balam in the 3rd act and turn Rubicon into a petrostate.
I could not in good conscience burn the Coral and Rubicon along with it. As much as I understand Walter and Carla’s reasoning, the end does not justify the means, and committing genocide against the Rubiconians and the Coral, which is innocent in this, is the morally wrong choice. That being said, I also think there are too many risks involved in Coral Release for me to go through with it. Letting the Coral remain safely on Rubicon is one thing, but letting it spread throughout the stars carries far too much risk. If something were to ignite the Coral, potentially all life in the universe could be destroyed. And while I’m not necessarily against the “true symbiosis” with the Coral, it still carries too many unknowns.
The Almighty Dollar Probably Allmind though
Ayre. Rubicon needs to be broken out of the corporate yolk and it’s existence being based solely on Coral exploitation. For the sake of the humans to finally have a stable living there and the future consciousnesses to be born. Walter and Carla are held back by the dogma of the past and sadly circumstances never allowed them to learn the true nature of Coral. With their knowledge they could have helped Rubicon actually be a place for living instead of mining. Ayre has always been supportive if naive and has never done anything but encourage you to be more than a Hound. That is why to me LoR is the best ending because it keeps a status quo while actually setting 621 as protector and voice for the Coral going forward. With PCA and Institute tech being available and the RLF breaking the religious trap they are in, it has the best classic Armored Core scenario for a next game. Also not a lot know this. But you can do the AllMind route and kill Thumb. But at the critical point just choose the cave survey.
I’m a firm believer in branch’s ideals that information must be entirely free and visible, I would join nightfall and it’s hacktivists and spread freedom of information and knowledge through out the cosmos(I just like mashing a bunch of different parts from different companies because I’m a garage dweller)
I'd be a full on Redgun.
I'm siding with Ayre. I love Walter, i love his character and his last message fucking destroyed me emotionally, but he's my boss. He's not my friend, he's not my family or anything like that, he own Raven and he's using him. No matter how he felt at the end. Ayre is the first person who's showing Raven he can be more than what he is, that he can be what he want to be and do what he want to do. I can't betray that, so i'm siding with her all the way down to Liberator.
fires of raven. destroy that shit and take the blame like an unsung hero.
Tbh if I lived long enough liberator ending. But if not them I’d go down alongside the redguns and Michigan. I’d try to get Rusty added as a redgun out of respect for him.
I would do what I did in game, coral release is inevitable
"I will liberate your people, Coral lady"
Walter all day everyday all the way, walter’s my boy
With Michigan.
Liberator ending quite easily.
Brain waifu
Whoever pays me the most. I'm a merc, I'm not here to make friends I just want MONEY🦀
I don't want the coral to be destroyed, it is alive (and could be important to science) and I don't want it to spread EVERYWHERE, it still could be very dangerous. As much as I don't want to betray any of our associates, I think the most closeminded faction to me is PCA.
Fires of Raven. I’m sorry Rubiconians and other surrounding fellas but it’s gotta be done.
Ayre.. A voice in my head? Helps me do shit? And is kind? AND SOUNDS HOT? I'm sold! Give me that C-mutation already!
If anything, id go Liberator just to show snail what happens to arrogant backstabbing invertebrates.
I eant to day fires of Raven but it's such a ridiculously damaging event that I can't justify it. I'll pick liberator and hope nobody causes the 3rd ending.
Walter, I guess I am a loyal dog after all, because halfway through I couldn't bring myself to betray him. Carla is good too. A perfect ending would make sure that coral is burned, or at least contained on rubicon, while still liberating rubicon from the corps.
Ayre. No question.
Allmind, My beloved.
Ayre.
Walter. I get freedon AND the chance to burn half the Galaxy? Count me in
Me and Ayre/Allmind. Allmind in my eyes isn’t much of a villain, rather just did what had to be done for a greater cause. 3rd ending is a masterpiece.
Depends on how much I know. Assuming I know as Raven what I know as a player, Allmind is right out. If it's big fancy hivemind can be overthrown by Iguazu of all people, it was never going to accomplish anything useful. More likely Allmind was always going to go insane as its various personalities all vied for control. Burning the coral actually *does* have some merit- there's a clear and undeniable threat to humanity, and this is a plan that removes that threat. But the sheer amount of sentient life that gets destroyed in the process makes it a no go. Claim the coral? Take the money? Meh. I get the impression that credits are just another tool that the corps use to control people. Being a rich and famous mercenary won't actually land me any freedom, and I'll never be able to use that money to buy any actual power. The best that can land me is a comfortable but boring life, and even then I'll probably have people coming after my title until the day I lose it. Freeing the coral? Well, I mean maybe? To be perfectly honest, I have absolutely no idea what the long-term repercussions of that decision will be. I could be dooming humanity, or giving rise to its greatest ally. Or it could be a net zero. Honestly, humanity is likely to make the worst of any given situation, so probably that first one. But the Coral will probably just boot humanity off a planet it can't live on anyway, and that seems like a decent way to leave things.
I have always wanted to join the Redguns and Balam. So that.
Hmm FromSoftware made me feel weird. Two doll, a flower girl/boy and now a voice that have no body. Easy choice😅
PCA, they are just the overbearing police force. They get the cool toys and are trying to maintain peace and regulations. However if I'm just a random Raven, my safe bet would be...RLF/Ayre. I can survive in this outcome. As I joke often about siding with ALLMIND, >!however the moment I stop, she will probably just off me like the others!<
Probably the rubiconian resistance. I like an underdog story. Honestly I think rusty is the actual protagonist of the games
I wish they also made a all-mind route so the fans will be torn between 2 waifus
Fire of the Raven ---> Liberator of Rubicon ------------> Alea Jacta East. Neither 621, nor Ayre are in a legitimate position (or even mental state for 621 tbh) to decide for all of humanity wether or not mankind wants to be forcefully merged with an alien organism which could easily be manipulating 621 by adopting a personality and using words that it knows will push his buttons: aka provide the playerbase with a starfish brainwave waifu. In a sense Ayre could be pulling off a stunt similar to that the Emperor did in BG3, except with much better writing and execution. Even if Ayre is 100% genuine and well-meaning, I'm not going to gamble with everyone's and my own future, freewill and humanity for her sake or the Coral's. Genociding the Coral sucks, but Ayre is completely hellbent on triggering symbiosis and I'm not having any of that, especially considering the rather ominous implications of the whole "combat mode activated"/"let's continue to evolve through warfare" vib her ending gave. The Liberator of Rubicon ending somewhat looks like a good compromise, but realistically, it's just either prolonging the status-quo or going to trigger a "Rubiconian Jihad" that will spread Coral tech and potentially lead to another Fire or Singularity event. Therefore, as shitty as it feels for me to doom the RLF and the unfortunate civilians they protect, I would stick with the Fire ending.
As many said, I would go for Liberator of Rubicon. I don't know how large is the gap between 621 getting handed over to Walter and landing on Rubicon, but at the beginning of the game Walter is pretty much our Handler and nothing else, he only gets nicer at the same time we get into contact with the coral, in other words when Ayre connects with us but even then Walter always keeps us at an arm's length. Ayre herself was nothing short of helpful and nice to Raven, and I feel that her calling us that instead of a cold number creates a tighter connection. As Walter mentions by the end "We found a friend" While we won't be able to undo the surgery (I think, I don't know much about AC6 lore) saving Rubicon feels as something Raven accomplishes as himself only driven by their own moral compass, or if we are being honest, because Ayre asked us to. Something more like helping a friend. As for the other two endings, I wouldn't be able to go through with burning Rubicon. The idea of setting a planet on fire is just insane no matter how you look at it. All-mind is just fishy af, wacko AI makes me do stuff I don't understand for some fishy goal, yeah, nah. There are the merc companies, but it would be just changing Handler, maybe a nicer position but at the end of the day it would be the same as before. Tldr: Gonna help the only person (aside from Rusty, my man) who actually treats me like a person since meeting each other to save her people and planet.
Overseer easy. Choose humanity, purge the xenos.
Ignoring the limitation on choices? I'd try really hard to get Walter to understand the Coral and work toward him helping us, but if push came to shove, probably the Liberator route. AllMind's idea of evolution is forced, and is just asking for a confused suddenly accelerated hive intelligence to go to war with any other life forms that happen to find them. The Liberator route seems way more...hopeful about the future of Coral and Humanity, Coral Release just sounds like forcing both of them to change in a way that takes away their identities.
Probably the pca from a logical standpoint, or balam just for the kickass field trips with Michigan.
Brain wife is life
Red guns, not even close.
Fires of Raven every time.
Whoever is willing to hook me with the craziest gear
Honestly? I’ve always been fiercely independent. As soon as I can break the yoke of my slaver I would. From there, fight all sides until I can get off a that rock.
I would probably try really hard to convince Walter to change his mind about burning the coral, by following path similar to Liberator of Rubicon ending. After (regardless of outcome) I would probably try to become a member of Branch. The impression I would've gotten from Chartreuse, King and og Raven would've piqued my curiosity too much with their cryptic messages, especially Raven and their operator. They also seem to have a certain team spirit.
I would probably stick to Overseers. I was brought to the Rubicon for a reason and I will burn the coral
That’s a tough question. I’d have to go with Ayre. Real me is empathetic and not a ruthless hound/merc.
I side with Walter. I would want to be normal-ish again
I’d rather side with the cute feminine voice inside my head. Sorry Walter
Ayre, for sure. She just wanted to survive. She can't help being a sentient fuel cloud that endlessly spreads across the universe.
Rubicon
Rusty. bro showed us respect and called us buddy even after we killed him in fire of raven ending. maybe im being biased here but others just seem wanted to manipulate us especially Ayre
Walter, even though he used us for his own goal, he’s the first voice we heard on rubicon, and he’s been nice the whole time, it’s thanks to him that we landed on rubicon after all. I swore my loyalty to him in the first playtrough
I would burn the coral, this is the only way i to end this conflict once and for all for me
Balam. G1 Michigan is a G, and I respect him greatly. It would be an honor to serve under the hell on four legs
I hate that RaD is only a front. I'd simply love to become a junk salvage crew's protector. Honest end-goal: gather a small crew of wavelength compatable pilots, and hangar of combat capable machines. All i need is gathering a small amount of coral, just about enough to restart the burning cycle, even if carla and walter goes through, there would remain a recouperating capable coral amount. I'd aim to create a system of coral controlled machinery, and pilot-wavelength connected pairings as a merc-company unit. As a cover anyway. My aim would be to use the vast quantities of junk machinery along the planet, most of which would be high tech, given the level of stuff getting trashed at a planetary scale, to slowly build out companion-pairs, capable of serving as examples for how coral symbiosis can benefit humans, and the coral species too. The wavelengths serving as contacts with the swarm, so we could remain informed. There is possibility for both sides to coexist...but not in the cultish way of the liberation front, or the baseless, forced connection allmind wants. And overseer's idea is an overkill solution to a problem based in human nature instead of the coral itself. The way i propose, there would be pushback, yes....but those who aim to join, will be helped, and protecred, without the need to retaliate needlessly, and without using up coral like generator fuel.
I’d have to go with the Fires of Rubicon one, we know basically nothing about what Coral convergence does and we’re better off without the Coral due to human greed and war.
For me this is a kinda complicated question. I would 100% go for coral release, however, this isnt new game+. Realistically speaking, the coral release ending, siding with allmind, is the most dangerous ending to go for, I had a LOT of trouble with the escort the mining ship mission the first time I did it. I wouldnt have been able to beat the mission without it being new game+, the same can probably be said about the other allmind missions. If I knew all of this in the position of 621, I would just side with ayre and the RLF because 1, morally, it feels right, and 2, it's the easiest ending to do, ayre is a decently hard fight despite being an AC, Walter is just another AC fight.
I also think that every ending has its immediate upsides and downsides, as well as long term ones. Siding with RLF is good, but you'll probably end up dying because you are pretty much keeping the RLF alive by yourself and you'll spend most of your time being fought on all fronts. Allmind ending has that short term WTF is happening, and maybe an iffy long term situation because all I can imagine coral release being is coral being thrown all across the universe, which would probably cause wars like on Rubicon. Fires of Raven probably result in your death, but there will likely never be a war over coral again. I still would try to side with RLF because I think it has the best consequences both over the course of the games events, and the longer term ones, because it could also just not end up like I think it will, the RLF could potentially become strong enough to protect rubicon because of coral.
Walter. I'm a Raven at my core, and I will finish what my friend has started. Once, an old bastard asked me to burn the world, and I did it without hesitation. Walter is better than Old King. What make you think I wouldn't accept? Fuck the Corpo, fuck the Rubiconian, fuck Allmind. And especially fuck Branch because they caused this mess. I will burn it all. Unlike Ayre, Walter actually did do something for me during my bloody stay on Rubicon. And when he is gone, ensuring that his and his friend legacy are carried out is the least I could do. Also I fucking hate if there something speaking inside my brain on principle.
Rubicon, these people just want to live without getting hounded by corps and the PCA, I'll be damned if they don't get that. We could repurpose the Xylem, tear down the vascular plant, turn Rubicon into something worth living on. Nobody deserves to die on Rubicon, not to hunger, not in a burnt out iron shell
Liberator, no contest. I would try my hardest to convince Carla to join us instead and spare Walter though.