Software

The ROG Falchion Ace HFX is supported by ASUS's ROG Armoury Crate, a unified software program for all compatible ROG products. You can find the installer in the downloads page on the ASUS website with the latest version at the time of testing being 3.2.11.2 that supports Windows 10 and 11 64-bit only. It downloads as a compressed folder that is just 4 MB in size and turns out to be an executable you can then use to install Armoury Crate, AURA Creator, and/or an ASUS virtual pet, if you ignore the typo on the screen. The downloads page allows you to also get the full package installer (v5.9.9.0 at the time of testing) and I highly recommend going this route to give you more control over what is installed and where. In addition, you may also want to have the uninstaller tool ready to go since even installing Armoury Crate flawlessly can be a hassle. I had to try twice before everything was up and running, which is never something you want to see from a software program that people have complaints about to begin with.


When you first open either ROG Armoury Crate or AURA Creator, you are greeted with the EULA. Seen above are the various steps to agree to in Armoury Crate before you can finally use it. Also note that ASUS Live Services is needed and has to be running in the background for them to work, especially for AURA Creator, which is used to synchronize compatible AURA lighting effects across ASUS products. This results in several installed programs in Windows, a total of seven even, for ~950 MB combined, and more used CPU and RAM resources than I would like with everything running. On the plus side, I did appreciate the helpful tutorial and tips, which can be skipped or pulled up at any time. I had to also update the keyboard firmware first before I could use the software customization features for it, and updating it was smooth even if it took closer to three minutes to get done.

Armoury Crate responds quite well to high DPI displays, which makes the user experience better than many other keyboard drivers I have had my hands on recently. You will also see ASUS has a lot of bloat in Armoury Crate, which is one of the main reasons people are not fans of it. It not only takes up more system resources than is necessary, I fail to see why I would want ASUS to try and optimize game settings or fetch me news. It also prompts you to have a user account multiple times, and there are some keyboard features which are placed under different tabs/menus as opposed to having them all collectively together. The settings tab can be handy though, especially if you want to change the skin/theme of the program, but otherwise just head to the keyboard page to record/edit/save macros and then fully customize the ROG Falchion Ace HFX. Given this is a Hall effect keyboard, there are also some new features on top of the usual ones for key mapping, lighting etc. You can customize the actuation point of the keys on a per-switch basis from a wide range of 0.1-4.0 mm in 0.1 mm steps, allow for deadzones, have rapid trigger on, and also access ASUS' take on SOCD with what it calls Speed Tap. The key mapping options also now include dynamic keystrokes—allowing you to set up to four functions per key based on travel distance—and mod tap—allowing you to have different functions for a key depending on if you just tap it or continue to hold it—again things we've seen on other HE keyboards but more than welcome on an ASUS ROG product too. The RT toggle on the keyboard only does rapid trigger for WASD keys by default, so you will need software customization to have it on other keys too.

The touch panel has up to five functions you can toggle through using the accompanying switch, with Armoury Crate allowing you to keep them active or not. The fifth one is a custom one, effectively giving you three functions for scrolling up/down or clicking inward. The lighting tab is fairly self-explanatory and comes with some preset lighting effects you can then further customize for brightness, speed/direction as applicable, and the specific color from 16.8 M options. Aura Sync is a quick set to synchronize the lighting of all compatible devices, be it inside your case or outside, with a single button. The performance tab is quite sparse, only allowing you to choose the polling rate of the keyboard from the default 8000 Hz to the more standard 1000 Hz. What got my attention more, and indeed this is also the first thing which comes up on the downloads page for the Falchion Ace HFX, is the new Armoury Crate Gear. This is supposed to be a device-specific standalone software program that should cut down on all the bloat and unnecessary feature, leaving behind only the relevant keyboard features only. I was unfortunately unable to get it installed on my PC or laptop, with the installer just getting stuck at ~95% completion no matter what I do. I did reach out to ASUS about this and was told it is likely a conflict from residual driver files in my system, which is understandable given all the software installed and removed over the years. ASUS also said they were not able to reproduce the issue after I sent them log files, so hopefully this is going to work fine for you—especially as it can be potentially a big deal for anyone who don't want to use the full-fat (in more ways than one) Armoury Crate.


ASUS AURA Creator is a separate program for more advanced lighting effects and works fine enough even if it feels there should be more customization options if you go through the trouble of having a separate program installed. You do get the ability to stack lighting layers now, with each layer chosen from those separately available before. It also allows for per-key lighting, and you can import/export the lighting profiles as well. I am not sure why this is not included in Armoury Crate itself, even if it's a separate menu as with macro recording.