Yeah you really had to explore the map to find hidden parts. By loosing the game you got some kind of cheat upgrades. It was years ago since I played that game. You could also buy upgrade parts and better weapons as the game went along. But only some weapons and parts were obtained from secret areas on the map or hiding spots. I don't think I found all the secrets so I went online to find hints and cheats.
YUP! It's called human+, a few benefits that stack together as you accumulate debt, and restart the game. I think you had to be at -50,000 credits, the game would restart, and you get the upgrades. To get them all you had to restart from getting too much debt like 5 or 7 times. You'd get a built in map, like twice the energy for boosting, infinite core or arm weight, and being able to fly with mounted weapons (grenade launcher/laser canon/chain gun). It could carry over to armored core master of arena if you used the save data from armored core 1!
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