Chief

Chief
General information
Classification	AI
Gender	Male
Affiliation and military information
Affiliation	The Corporation
Occupation	AC Pilot
Craft	Hanged Man
Eras present	The First Rebellion, The Second Rebellion
Real world information
Appearances	Armored Core V
Voice actor	Wally Wingert (US), Keiji Fujiwara (JP)

Chief is one of the two main antagonists in Armored Core V, voiced by Wally Wingert in the US version and Keiji Fujiwara in the Japanese version.

Information

Chief appears several times in combat. He first appears at the end of Mission 00, where he kills the Leader of the Resistance, Fran's father. The second appearance is in Mission 05 where he has a Giga Cannon equipped and is firing at the player's AC periodically and the player must dodge the shots, otherwise the attack will instantly destroy the AC. Upon reaching the oil rig Chief attacks from, the player wrecks his AC with a charge kick, destroying it and knocking it into the ocean. In Mission 07 Chief is encountered in the sewers with a second AC, equipped with the KARASAWA as one of his main weapons. This can deal massive damage and he is very powerful. When defeated, he will grab a destroyed concrete pillar to form a makeshift Mass Blade in a second attempt to kill the player. After being defeated again, Chief's AC explodes, though he survives its destruction. At the end of the game, Chief pilots Exusia in a final attempt to destroy the player. Although Exusia is destroyed in this conflict, it is quite likely that Chief is still 'alive,' as he has survived the destruction of his AC twice before.

In Forgotten Day, the Raven, Fran, and Rosary encounter several copies of Chief's AC upon first discovering a Tower. Although outnumbered, with the help of Cesar Venide they manage to fight off Chief yet again.

Chief and Carol are AIs, most likely "descendants" of the AI network created by the League. Their purpose is to protect and preserve mankind, run experiments on them, and devise a perfect program to free man from the endless cycles of conflict and war, despite the League assuming the third function to be impossible.

Role

Chief is generally sadistic and rude, constantly acting on his own desires than orders, shooting the City Police Captain with the Giga Cannon instead of the player, then playing the betrayal off as an accident. Despite this, Carol claims Chief is "a handful... but the best". In Mission 07, it is hinted at, but never blatantly stated, that Chief is an AI, completely self-aware. The most outstanding proof of this is that although he had been destroyed after getting kicked in Mission 05, and after being defeated once in Mission 07, he was still "alive". He also states after being reactivated that "human beings are just so damn interesting!" in a garbled voice, similar to what the system voice sounds like when an Ultimate Weapon is active.

AC Hanged Man

Chief's AC, Hanged Man, is a heavy-weight, TE-focused AC with multiple types of weaponry. Quite unlike other antagonists in the series, Chief modifies Hanged Man to suit his needs, so that he is featured with no less than three different weapon load-outs. Among its dominant characteristic is its very high AP with low KE defense, moderate CE defense and extremely high TE defense.

His first loadout, encountered in Story Mission 00, uses a close-range type weapon loadout. Utilizes a rapid fire battle rifle and a high attack power rifle as its main weapons. On its hangars, it houses a laser blade on the right hangar and a shot gun on the left hangar. It is likely also equipped with medium missiles.

His second loadout, encountered in Story Mission 05, doesn't have any arm weapons whatsoever, but instead utilizes a Giga Cannon Ultimate Weapon. For some reason, his AC can use it indefinitely (despite having limited time of use under normal circumstances), although he has to remain stationary to fire it.

His third and "actual" loadout, encountered in Story Mission 07, is geared towards mid-to-close combat. Utilizes the deadly LR-81 Karasawa laser rifle along with a rapid fire battle rifle as its main weapons. It also comes equipped with medium missiles as well as a rapid fire laser rifle on its right hangar. This time, Hanged Man also makes frequent use of Boost Charge attacks (often striking near point blank ranges) and can often one-hit kill any AC (even high AP tank ACs).

After his AC is defeated the first time in Mission 07, his AC fuses itself with a large pillar, making use of it as a makeshift Mass Blade Ultimate Weapon. This time however, Hanged Man is damaged and regains only about 60% of his AP and has greatly reduced defense stats.

Hanged Man
Classification: Armored Core	Assembly Type Booster: HB: KE: 1165/888 CE: 1487/725 TE: 4135/3110
Parts: Head: HD-21 Sealeye Core: KT-104/Perun Arms: KT-1S/Amur Legs: KT-3N2/Barguzin FCS: Generator: Booster: KT-2R3/Dafeng Recon Unit: Shoulder Unit: UMM-20/H Surat R Arm Unit: UBR-05/R/LR-81 Karasawa L Arm Unit: Tansy RF-12/UBR-05/R Ultimate Weapon: Giga Cannon/Mass Blade R Bay Unit: ULB-13/H/Lapsane LR220 L Bay Unit: USG-11/H
Stats: Total Weight: Stability: Recoil Resistance: Turning Performance: Energy Recovery: Repair Cost: AP: 50443/32900 Total Load: Loading Capacity: Total EN Consumption: EN Output:

Strategy

Chief is fought three times during the course of the game: Story Mission 05, 07, and 09. The fight in Story Mission 05 largely comprises of trying to reach Chief to trigger a cutscene. However, due to the lethal use of the Giga Cannon that Chief possesses during the fight, hiding behind obstacles or Quick-Boosting out of incoming fire is paramount to survival; only undamaged heavy ACs can survive a hit from the Giga Cannon. Submerging temporarily underwater is another (risky) strategy. Abusing unlimited power given by using an Ultimate Weapon of your own is yet another option.

Story Mission 07 however, gives you the first "proper" fight against Chief; one that is actually quite dangerous. Chief is equipped with a full-spec Karasawa heavy laser rifle, and starts off the fight by firing the fully-charged rifle right off the bat, so immediately dodge. Compounding the problem is Chief's rapid-fire battle rifle and hard-hitting medium missiles. To top it off, the fight area is very cramped, and Chief is prone to abusing Boost Charge; one hit is very often lethal.

Chief's lack of KE defense is apparent in this battle. Equip double Gatling guns or shotguns, and Chief should fall easily. Despite this, Chief move around at quite an alarming rate, and poor situation awareness can mean getting stuck on or around a pillar, giving Chief an easy target to hit. Lastly, after defeating Chief, the AC restarts and fuses itself with a collapsed concrete girder as a Mass Blade Ultimate Weapon. In this form, Chief regains around 60% of his AP, but with greatly reduced defenses. Due to its lunging attack, it is advisable to position away from Chief and wail at it when its attack animation commences, as it takes quite some time for it to regain control.

The final battle with Chief sees him controlling Exusia, a boss-level character. With 100,000 AP, lightning-fast movements, and a practically invincible mode, Exusia is the bane of new players. Despite so, Exusia is far from unbeatable. Exusia's main weakness is, again, lack of protection against KE weaponry. Just as well, Exusia often stops for a precious few seconds after executing its blade lunge. While the stunlocking missile barrage when Exusia is airborne is a nuisance, it is easily avoidable. The most dangerous of Exusia's attacks is therefore the plasma bombing run, which can take upwards to half the health of a non-TE focused ACs. The only maneuver is to quickly Glide Boost sideways from the predicted bombing run trajectory. Due to most of its attacks being easy to avoid, mobility is recommended against sheer defenses.

Weapons

Story Mission 00 version:

• R Arm: UBR-05/R
• L Arm: Tansy RF-12
• Shoulder: Unknown
• R Bay: ULB-13/H
• L Bay: USG-11/H
• Ultimate Weapon: --

Story Mission 05 version:

• R Arm: --
• L Arm: --
• Shoulder: --
• R Bay: --
• L Bay: --
• Ultimate Weapon: Giga Cannon

Story Mission 07 version(Phase 1):

• R Arm: LR-81 Karasawa TE: 10253
• L Arm: UBR-05/R CE: 1623
• Shoulder: UMM-20/H Surat CE: 2023
• R Bay: Lapsane LR220 TE: 2366
• L Bay: --
• Ultimate Weapon: --

Story Mission 07 version (Phase 2):

• R Arm: --
• L Arm: --
• Shoulder: --
• R Bay: --
• L Bay: --
• Ultimate Weapon: Mass Blade

Trivia

• Although there is evidence to suggest Chief is an AI, it can also be implied that, during the events of his AC being destroyed (twice) and he still continues to speak, he could simply be remotely-controlling his unit from a distant location (most likely The Corporation's Space Station). It is ultimately proven that he and Carol are AIs in Armored Core Verdict Day: The Forgotten Day, when Carol explains their true nature to the Dark Raven and Cesar Venide moments before Chief, piloting multiple Hanged Man units simultaneously, attacks the two AC pilots.
• Ironically, there is a soundtrack in Armored Core V called Halo, and the antagonist is named Chief (similar to Halo's protagonist, Master Chief). In addition, Chief is encountered as a boss fight in mission 07, another reference to Bungie known for the Company's favorite number. However; the question remains whether or not this was intentionally done by FROM Soft
• Although Chief's "resurrection" may be to add more interesting aspects to his character, this is not the only time an enemy has repaired itself. In the Hard Mode of "Defeat White Glint" on Armored Core for Answer, after depleting White Glint's AP one time, the NEXT goes silent, then regains AP and begins fighting again.
• Chief's Emblem (as well as his AC name) is The Hanged Man; the twelfth card of the major arcana in a tarot deck, additionally the symbolism itself means 'self sacrifice' or 'self acceptance'.
• Chief's Japanese voice actor, Fujiwara Keiji, also voiced Nohara Hiroshi, the father of Crayon Shinchan's eponymous character, Nohara "Shin-chan" Shinnosuke. This led Chief to be affectionately called "Super Hiroshi". Its Exusia and Red Exusia incarnation is therefore dubbed "Hyper Hiroshi".
• The Japanese version of ACV has Chief acting like a flippant, childish person interested in the Protagonist, simply to toy with them for his/her power. He only drops the facade after he reappears at the end of Story Mission 08.
• Interestingly, Hanged Man's improvised Mass Blade features an additional bash attack animation; resembling the overhead, downward swing of a hammer strike. This lengthens Hanged Man's recovery animation, thus making it more vulnerable for attack, but this also lengthens its instant-kill radius around it.
• Another interesting nature resemblance Chief has is that of Celo. His flippant and childish personality are identical in both Japanese and US versions of the game. 
• In Verdict Day's DLC packs there's a ruined version of Chief's emblem, much like Rotten Fly's emblem of Flame Fly, as well as the two remnants (or Devotees) of BeeHive. This may imply someone has taken his emblem and/or his ruined AC.

Image Gallery

Chief prepares to use the Giga Cannon