| Model Number:XXXG-01S2 | Pilot: Ali al-Saachez |
| Cost: 2500 Hp: 650 Transform: X Form Change: X | |
The Arche Gundam was customized and developed using the data taken from the Gundam Throne Zwei. Powered by a total of 3 GN Tau Drives, the Arche Gundam built for close-range combat assisted by its menacing GN Fangs.
Ability Summary
| Ranged | Armament | Ammo | DMG | Notes |
| Main | GN Buster Sword: Rifle Mode | 3 | 65 | Stops to fire. Can fire up to 3 times consecutively. |
| Charged Main | GN Fangs (All-Range) | – | 22 ~ 134 | All-range attack. |
| Sub | GN Fang | 12 | 22 ~ 117 | Deploys one or more Fangs around the Arche which fire thin beams. |
| Special Shooting | GN Fangs: Beam Saber Form | 1 | 35 ~ 95 | All-range attack. 3 GN Fangs pierce the enemy, stunning on hit. |
| Burst Attack | GN Buster Sword Assault | 323(F)/287(E)/291(E) | A wild melee combo. |
| Melee | Input | DMG | Notes |
| 5B | 5BBBBB | 232 | High damage, 5-stage melee combo. |
| 5B(B)~8B~A | 156~195 | Launch the enemy and fire GN Fangs. | |
| 5B(B)~2B | 134~178 | Causes weak stun. | |
| 5B(B)~A | 146~188 | Hard knockdown. | |
| 8B | 8B | 154 | OTG grab combo. |
| 4/6B | 4/6BB | 171 | Can be cancelled into 8B from the last hit. |
| 4/6B~A | 146 | Hard knockdown. | |
| 2B | 2B | 132 | Melee counter. Can be cancelled into 8B from the first hit. |
| CC8B | CC8BBB | 203 | Slash-through. Can be cancelled into 8B from the first hit. |
| BC | 5BC | – | Flips upwards. Cuts tracking. |
| 5BC~B | 196 | 5BC derivative. Slow helmbreaker that deals multiple hits. | |
| 8BC | 90 | Rolling slash that travels forward | |
| 4/6BC | 100 | Rolling slash that travels sideways | |
| 4/6BC~A | 176 | 4/6BC derivative. Hard knockdown. | |
| 2BCBBBB | 295 | High damage melee combo. |
Cancel Routes:
A: AB, AC, *BC
CSA: AB, AC, *BC
AB: A, AC, *BC
AC: A, *BC
5B, 8B, 4/6B, 4/6BC, 2BC(Any Hit): AB
5B(5th Hit), 4/6B(1st,2nd Hit), CC8B(3rd hit and 6th Hit): 8B
8BC: *BC
4/6BC(even on miss): AB
Overview
Specializing in tricky movement and possessing a wide-range of cancel routes, the Arche Gundam is the King of disruption, intentionally plunging the battlefield into a state of disarray, preventing the enemy from playing at their pace. Arche balances out having poor support and self defense capabilities with its extremely high firepower and the means of which to penetrate the enemy’s defense. Arche stands shoulder to shoulder in damage output with other melee MSes in the same cost bracket, often leading to straight up confrontations and a pure contest of who can deal the most damage.
Arche’s AB~4/6BC~AB cancel route is amazingly good, leaving most MSes with no means of escape. Arche has many good matchups against a large portion of the cast, and I dare you to try suppressing the inner Saachez that laughs wickedly every time he makes the right read, slips past the enemy’s defense, and hits a violent, high-damaging combo.
Ranged Weapons
Main: GN Buster Sword: Rifle Mode
Verniers and fires up to 3 consecutive Beam Rifle shots. Reloads on empty, taking 3.5 seconds to reload all 3 ammo.
While you have nearly 3 times faster a reload on this compared to the average BR, standing still is an absolute drag, and Arche of all MSes hates nothing more than standing still. However, for a melee MS this is still a good move, allowing Arche to punish landings from afar. It has good tracking overall, especially vertically. You can also cancel this into many other moves, including your BC moves for movement.
Charged Main: GN Fangs (All-Range)
3-second charge time. Stands still and releases 7 fangs that surround the enemy and fire beams, causing a strong stagger on hit. The travel distance is pretty short, and the Fangs have poor muzzle correction and tracking. The charge time is also rather long.
Because of the long charge time and overall poor performance of this move it’s hard to use this as anything more than a “might as well, I got nothing else to do” tool to throw out. You can, for example, charge it up in green lock, enter red lock and release it on an enemy, forcing them to move and hopefully giving you an opening to capitalize on. However while charging this your all-important AB becomes unavailable, so take caution.
Arche can only deploy 10 Fangs at a time and this move takes 7, so you can either follow up with your AC or release up to 3 Fangs at most with your AB.
Sub: GN Fang
Verniers and releases one or more Fangs that deploy around the Arche Gundam, firing a single beam each. You can hold down the A button to continue releasing Fangs. Reloads 1 ammo every 2 seconds, each shot staggers on hit.
You might be wondering, why would I use this when I have a perfectly good Beam Rifle? There are many, many good reasons why. In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that this is one of Arche’s most important tools.
While this causes vernier, you inherit a lot of inertia before slowing down to release the Fang. There is also very little rigidity after firing, meaning you will very quickly enter a freefall state after using this move. The startup speed and muzzle correction on the Fangs is also good.
In addition, the damage, proration, and down value are all very good on this weapon, making it the perfect opener for a high-damage melee combo. Hitting anything under 4 hits of this weapon will cause no significant proration on your follow-up melee combos.
When you put everything together, what you have is a move that has perfect synergy with your 4/6BC. By using the [4/6BC~AB] loop, you can easily close in on the enemy, and then force the enemy to guess whether you’re going to aim to hit with a 4/6BC, AB, or even 4/6B. There are very few moves that cover all three options, for example melee counter beats 4/6BC but not AB, a melee intercept might beat 4/6BC but not AB or the high priority 4/6B. Even guarding is impossible, because the AB will force a frontal guard and a well-spaced follow-up 4/6BC will curve behind the enemy to hit behind the guard.
In the event you read a move you can’t beat, or if you don’t feel confident about hitting the enemy, you can backstep a 4/6BC and AB to cut tracking, fire a beam, and immediately freefall to replenish your boost. Overall the setup when executed correctly is very safe and difficult to counter for many MSes, and you should practice both executing this technique as well as making the right reads.
Special Shooting: GN Fangs (Beam Saber Form)
5-second reload time. Arche releases 3 GN Fangs that surround the enemy before piercing it one-by-one, stunning on hit.
Much like the CSA this has a max travel distance, if you release this too far from the enemy they will not chase the full distance. The full distance is slightly further than your max red lock range, so to be safe always try to release it within your red lock.
You can cancel this to and from Main, and cancel it into BC.
Unlike your CSA you don’t need to charge this up, making it much more suitable for forcing enemy movement. You can also input a 4 or 6 direction on the lever to slide left or right before releasing the funnels, and doing so does not come at any performance penalty on the Fangs. The muzzle correction on the Fangs is good making them rather easy to hit, and their long stun duration makes it easy for you to follow up. A simple 5B combo after a hit Fang does 220 damage, very respectable indeed.
This is also a great move to use against enemies forced into blockstun, and is useful for set play when used together with your other moves. With its short reload time and superiority to the CSA in almost every area there is almost no reason to use the CSA.
Melee Set
Arche’s melee attacks consist of it using its GN Buster Sword and leg-mounted GN Beam Sabers. As a whole, Arche’s melee attacks have great range, big hitboxes, fast startup, and the ability to score hard knockdowns. It also rounds up its set with a melee counter for the few enemies you can’t beat in a straight-up melee confrontation.
5B: 5-stage Buster Sword Combo
A 5-stage melee combo that deals amazing damage. The startup and hitbox on this move are good, but the travel distance is average. Because your 4/6B is so great, this can be relegated to being a combo
5B & 4/6BC~ A Derivative: GN Buster Sword Rifle Mode
Stabs the enemy and fires a BR shot that instant knockdowns. Scores a knockdown quickly, but 5B~8B does it better.
5B~8B Derivative: Slash-through
One-hit slash that launches the enemy in an untechable down state. Can be cancelled into a ~A derivative. However you can simply end the combo here if necessary as the opponent is already in an untechable state.
5B~8B~A Derivative: GN Fang Follow-up
Releases Fangs that stab the launched enemy, stunning it. Useful for down value reset setups. If you simply want to down the enemy quickly, end the combo at ~8B.
5B~2B: Spin Kick
Delivers a spin kick with the hidden Beam Saber mounted in Arche’s leg. Stuns on hit, and is overall even better than the ~8B~A Derivative for down value reset setups.
8B: Stab and Strike
Arche stabs the enemy with its Buster Sword, lifts it up, and then strikes it. This has a great hitbox and fast startup, but poor reach. However, because Arche’s 4/6B is just that good, there’s no real reason to use this as a combo starter or melee intercept.
The true value of this move is its rare ability to hit enemies OTG, similar to Wing Zero TV’s 8B. When the situation allows for it you can further extend your combo damage, or you can even intentionally end combos early with moves that knockdown, ensure the coast is clear, and then finish the combo with 8B. Simply put, as long as enemies are on the floor and not in yellow lock (5.0 down value), you can use 8B to tack on more damage.
Arche has a lot of moves that cause untechable down states, which gives plenty of opportunities to exploit this move.
4/6B: Sweep Kick
Dashes in a curved trajectory towards the enemy while low-profiling, before delivering a sweeping kick into two follow-up kicks with the GN Beam Sabers. This is a key move for Arche, thanks to its amazing reach, priority, startup, and curve angle. On top of all that, even the first hit puts the enemy into an untechable downed state.
On the down side, this move has a rather narrow hitbox, making it unsuitable for 4/6B rainbow step wars. The good news is that Arche does not often find itself in such scraps— if you think the enemy is aiming for one, opt to use your Sub as a combo opener instead. The dash speed on this move is also not great, often failing to catch up to high-mobility MSes, and you will often find yourself losing out in direct confrontations with other melee-oriented MSes in the same or higher cost brackets.
While this move is not perfect, it covers for all of 4/6BC’s weaknesses, and vice versa. If you use it at the right time and in the right situation, it will show its true value.
4/6BB(1hit)>4/6BB~8B is a very important combo for Arche. By cancelling out of the first hit you set the down value just right so that the final 8B will merely poke the enemy once, allowing you to freefall quickly. The timing on this is very tight and requires a lot of practice, but it can be extremely useful.
4B~A Derivative: GN Buster Sword Rifle Mode
Fires multiple shots into the enemy after kicking it. Recreation of the scene where Ali kills Johann in Season 1. Downs the enemy at the end of the shooting barrage. The timing on the input of the A is rather tight so practice it well. Arche moves backwards slightly after firing.
2B: Counter
Saachez laughs while the Arche takes an obnoxious pose. Hitting Arche with a melee attack during the pose triggers the counter, where Arche kicks the enemy twice and knocks it back.
Actually, the hitbox on the counter is active even before Arche raises its hands, so with ideal timing the enemy will not even be able to visually perceive the counter is active and react accordingly. However the counter hitbox is only in the front of the Arche, so watch out for attacks that come from the sides or back.
This is still a very useful move for Arche, especially since many of its melee moves do not allow it to win in direct confrontations with other melee units.
This is complete nonsense, but Ali’s laughter is really obnoxious and can be used as a tactical taunt. Or just a regular taunt.
CC8B: Slash-through
High speed, far travel distance. This also has great damage proration, meaning it leads to big damage combos. Nice cut resistance, too. However the startup is rather slow, so make sure you use this a short distance away from the enemy.
Special Melee (BC) Attacks
All of these moves cannot be used in Overheat, and can be sidestep canceled. A, AB, AC, 5B(2nd-4th hit), CC8B(2nd hit) cancel into any of the BC moves, and all BC moves can cancel into other BC moves. If you start a cancel route during your Burst and your Burst gauge depletes during the same cancel route, your Burst will remain active until that cancel route ends. For Arche who is able to chain together many moves and has potentially long combo times this is pretty important, because you can start a combo towards the end of your boost and execute a long, high-damage combo using BC cancels instead of sidestep cancels and maintain the damage increase.
The same principle applies to lock. If you start a cancel route while the enemy is in red lock and it retreats into green lock (flying above you), you maintain the red lock properties as long as you continue that same cancel route. Exploiting this, you can patiently wait below enemies who boost upwards to escape you, and use BC cancel routes to attack them one-sidedly while they are helpless to attack you (because unlike you they’re in actual green lock).
These are both difficult concepts to understand and even harder to utilize, but they are very key strengths Arche possesses that few other MSes do.
5BC: Flip
Arche flips upwards while cutting tracking. You also move a very slight distance backwards. There’s a very short period of rigidity after the flip so you can almost immediately use another attack after the flip.
You can use this move to escape upwards in tight situations, or cut tracking and move quickly while boost dashing. However be mindful of your boost consumption. Canceling 5BC to a sidestep is also a key technique for escaping incoming melee attacks, cutting tracking twice while moving diagonally. Arche in general has poor self defense so this technique is all the more important, but watch out for the boost consumption.
5BC~B: Helmbreaker
Arche descends slowly with the GN Buster Sword held out, slashing on its target in multiple grinding hits. This travels a good distance and has excellent tracking, but the startup is painfully long. However this has great damage proration and deals a lot of damage, making it best suited as a combo part. You can also switch targets in the middle of the Helmbreaker to look at your target’s partner, and escape quickly at the first sign of trouble.
8BC: Inverted Slash
Arche turns upside-down and charges straight at the enemy, slashing it quickly and causing a dust down. While charging in your hitbox is inverted and you can actually slip under smaller attacks like BR shots. You can also easily follow-up on hit with another melee attack. This is especially effective against enemies fleeing upwards, or when you’re too close to the enemy for 4/6BC to be effective.
4/.6BC: Rolling Slash
Arche’s calling card. Spins towards the enemy in a wide arc before delivering a powerful slash that launches on hit. Does not cut tracking.
The traveling arc is similar to Turn X’s own 4/6BC, but it’s no exaggeration to say this is a souped-up version of that move. The actual slash at the end of the dash has a wide arc, covering a 180-degree angle hitting even behind Arche.
You can cancel into any BC move on hit, most popular being 5BC~5B. This very simple combo deals a very respectable 254 damage.
As far as melee combo initiators go, this move is top class. Combined together with your absolutely filthy AB, this is one of those moves that, when properly utilized, will harvest the laments of your enemies. One might even call this move— dare I say it— “cheap”.
Do note that the distance you travel before you slash is fixed, meaning that if you execute this move too close to the enemy, you will end up being a sitting duck for a short duration before actually attacking. Get used to the optimal spacing for this move, and use it from a safe distance. You can use the AB cancel inbetween to adjust the distance, or use 8BC when you’re too close. This move is also very effective on enemies above or below you thanks to both the strong tracking of this move, and the big hitbox on the slash.
This move’s downside is its high boost consumption. Attacking blindly will quickly force you into Overheat. Instead of trying to force your way in repeatedly, you can use this move as a feint to force the enemy into evasive maneuvers, land, and then punish its landing.
You can cancel at any time during the rolling animation into AB, and then cancel that into any BC, so linking all your BC attacks together with your AB (which has bountiful ammo) is a key technique. Many anti-4/6BC measures the enemy will employ cause vernier (counter, back-fired Main, etc), so a well-placed AB shot will easily beat their countermeasures.
It’s no exaggeration to say that the outcome of the match is decided by how well you can utilize this move. Unlike other melee suits that often rely on sneak attacks to get in, Arche can force its way in using the excellent wraparound curve on this move and the AB cancel route. It feels great to hit an enemy with this setup multiple times, but make sure you don’t become a one-trick pony and learn other setups as well. A firm grasp of this move’s strengths and weaknesses will carry you to victory.
2BC: GN Buster Sword Rampage
Is that a Burst Attack? No, it’s just a regular melee attack that does 295 damage. Nothing unusual about that.
This attack has a very, very long animation time (even longer than your actual Burst Attack), but what you get in exchange is a very cool-looking, very damaging combo. If the opportunity presents itself, don’t hesitate to bust this out.
Burst Attack
GN Buster Sword Assault
Standard super armor on startup melee combo Burst Attack. Not easy to hit raw due to the poor reach and slow dash speed. However this does a lot of damage, making it suitable as a combo ender.
While Arche acrobatically zips around performing this combo, it actually doesn’t move very much making it easy to cut this combo. There’s a right time and place for everything, and there’s a big payoff if you can find this one’s.
Recommended Combos
| Ranged Weapons | ||
| Input | DMG | Notes |
| BR~BR~BR | 137 | |
| BR~4/6BC~A | 183 | |
| AC(3hit)>2BCBBB | 258 | Long combo time but high damage. Worth it? |
| AC(3hit)>5BBBBB | 233 | |
| AC(3hit)>CC8BBB | 223 | Less damage than the above, but better cut resistance |
| AC(3hit)>BC~BR | 167 | |
| Melee | ||
| 5BB~2BCBBB | 276 | |
| 5BB~8B>AB~4/6BC~4/6BC | 247 | |
| 4/6BB(1hit)>4/6BB | 235 | |
| 4/6BB(1hit)>2BCBB | 292 | |
| 4BB~8B | 268 (243) | () damage indicates 8B hitting OTG |
| CC8B>5BBBBB | 270 | BnB |
| CC8BB~5BC~B | 268 | BnB #2 |
| CC8BB~2BCBBB | 296 | |
| 8BC>5BBBBB | 262 | |
| 8BC>2BCBBB | 293 | |
| 8BC>5BB~2B | 229 | Down value reset |
| 4/6BC>5BB~2B | 233 | Down value reset |
| 4/6BC>5BC~B | 254 | Standard combo |
| 4/6BC>2BCBBB | 293 | |
| Burst Only (Damage shown is during F Burst) | ||
| 4/6B>5BBBBB | 340 | |
| 5BBBB~2BCBB | 353 | |
| 8BC>ABC | 335 | |
| 4/6BC>ABC | 333 | |
| 4/6BC~5BC~B~8BC | 359 | Highest feasible damage. F Burst only. |
Strategies
- While most melee-oriented MSes have shooting moves that are made to supplement their melee offense, Arche’s AB is very much a part of its main offense.
- Another key difference is that while most melee MSes have to go sneaking around the backdoor to attack the enemy, much like a Nurarihyon Arche can walk straight through the front door like it owns the place, attacking the enemy with a frontal assault all while the enemy is looking straight at it guns blazing. Which isn’t to say that you should attack like a mad berserker and just charge in.
- With Arche, you can aim to simply deal more damage than you receive, a legitimate tactic for Arche and few other units simply because of its high damage output and ability to effectively launch frontal assaults. Remember to learn multiple attack patterns and setups to keep the enemy guessing on how you’re going to attack next.
- Essentially, the key to success with Arche is knowing when to attack, and knowing which move to use when attacking. Effectively reacting to what the enemy is doing while executing a 4/6BC~AB chain is what separates the amateurs from the pros.
- F Burst is the best for Arche, greatly boosting everything it’s already good at. E is also a possible choice if you’re teaming up with a 3000 cost partner and you’re aiming for more of a sneak attack playstyle.
- As mentioned above, Arche can take the sneak attack playstyle with 3000 cost partners. It can also form a hyper-offensive team with 2500 or 2000 cost partners, attacking together instead of the traditional back and front role. The aim here is to split the enemy forming two 1on1 situations. With 1500 cost partners Arche can take the front role, and burst multiple times.