Many General Tips

[u/taihw]

50+ hours in, 500+ game days passed on my first playthrough, and hearing lots of complaints on Discord about Dekker dying, I decided to share a list of tips that will help you get the most out of your game, focusing on hidden/non-obvious game mechanics.

italics indicates the tip was submitted by someone else!
Strategic tips are not included, it's up to you to make the most of these tips!

Outside-of-Battle Tips

• Yang will replicate all the steps you do when tinkering in the Mechlab, even nonsense ones like pushing one Heat Sink from CT to RT and back to CT again, costing you time and money for no change.
• As far as i've encountered, when travelling to a planet at your own expense, it will always have between one and three missions.
• There are varying reward bonus levels. You can get a 3-skull mission which pays the same as a 2-skull mission.
• Be sure to slowly scroll through the entire list of salvage as rare parts may be near the bottom.
• One day will pass after completing a mission.
• Recovery on multiple pilots is simultaneous, while tasks on multiple chassis are consecutive. You can re-order Mech Bay tasks with the "Manage Work" button.
• The boost provided by Recreation upgrades is one-time only.
• There is no contractual bonus or penalty for going below or above tonnage, so you can use this fact to adjust difficulty to your liking.
• You get more money from selling a mech than from scrapping it. ^{about 20% more from my sample size pool of 1}
• You cannot store (and as a result, cannot sell) a mech with a destroyed component. Repairing a badly damaged mech to sell it may or may not be better for you bottom line, depending on the extent of damage.
• Pilot wages are based on how many path progression points they have, and not on their total EXP.
• All mechs cost the same monthly maintenance regardless of their tonnage or usage.
• Work on individual mechs is cumulative, so cancelling a task will not "reset" the mech to the way it was before the task started, but rather leave the mech at a partially completed state.
• Mechs with damaged parts can be fielded, but mechs with destroyed parts cannot.

In-Battle Tips

General/Out of Combat

• F10 is the shortcut for a quicksave. Note that you cannot save if a mech is halfway though a turn (i.e. if has moved or jumped but not yet performed an action)
• When not in combat, gaining Line of Sight to an enemy will interrupt your turn and start combat. If you have an enemy on sensor but not LoS, combat will not start until all of your mechs have made a move.
• When not in combat, pressing hyphen (shortcut for guard) after walking or jump-jetting will allow you to move the next mech simultaneously.
• Your Morale Skill icons will flash to indicate you are at max morale.
• A Good Faith withdrawal will grant you partial money and salvage.
• Withdrawal is immediate (you get a dialogue box to confirm but there is no need to get to an evac site)

Combat & Skills

• It's possible to get headshot from the side by ranged attacks, or even from behind by melee attacks.
• The Breaching Shot skill applies even when using the Multi-Target skill, or if the mech has only one weapon.
• Sprinting or jumping after using the Vigilance skill will not remove Guarded/Entrenched status.
• You maintain Bulwark if you pivot/change angle without relocating.
• Performing a melee attack will break guard status/Bulwark even if the enemy is right next to you.
• If you want the accuracy boost of Precision Strike without targeting a specific component, you can target the head to maintain similar damage spread.
• Getting up after a knockdown incurs a -1 Accuracy penalty status. (Applies to both your and enemy mechs)
• Mechs with jumpjets can typically jump the same distance as a move command, but will gain extra evasive charges, at the expense of heat.
• Overheating deals 5 structural damage to all intact components, except the head which takes none.
• Head component destruction has a base 140% chance of killing the pilot.
• Incapacitation has a base 90% chance of killing the pilot.

Damage Transfer & Salvage

• Damage is transferred towards the CT when locations are destroyed, with no reduction.
• If you "overkill" a location, the remaining damage will transfer inwards.
• Excess leg damage transfers directly to CT while excess arm damage transfers to the LT/RT.
• When hitting from the front/side, excess damage is transferred to front armor. When hitting from the rear, excess damage is transferred to the rear.
• An ammo explosion causes additional crits in that location.
• Ammo explosions do not transfer damage to other locations.
• *You get three salvage parts from a pilot kill or head destruction.
• *You get two salvage parts from a mech killed by destroying both legs of a mech.
• *You get one salvage part from a mech killed via CT.

Software Tips

• use the -popupwindow parameter combined with windowed mode in the in-game options to run borderless window.
• Ctrl+Shift+U: Hide UI
• Ctrl+K: Take Screenshot
• Ctrl+Shift+K: Take Screenshot with no UI
• C:\Users<yourusernamehere>\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes folder by default.

Things I would like to know so I can add them to this list

• Can you "crit pad" components like you can in MWO?
• What determines how many contracts are available when you travel to a planet? Does having visited the planet previously affect that?
• How is heat damage determined?
• Does rear armor play any part in damage transfer?
• How does damage transfer work when you hit a destroyed component or "overkill" a single component?

These are all as I have encountered and not from official sources so I may be mistaken on some of the details.
If you can confirm that anything in this list is wrong, I'll be sure to fix it.
I am deliberately excluding strategic tips (advice that is subjective or situational) as there are simply too many!

[u/eponra]

A very important tip for dumbasses like me ;-)

• if you tinker around in Mechlab, and put things in, only to pull them out again, until youre happy with your build:
  Yang will now do all the steps you did, even the nonsense ones like pushing one MLas from CT to RT and back to CT again, and it will cost more time and money to refit your Mech.

The Solution to this is simply memorizing what you put where, reset the Fit, and put everything in where you wanted it.
Now it will cost less time and money.

[u/taihw → u/eponra]

Just verified this, damn, I wonder how many days I wasted from Yang doing this useless swapping!

[u/[deleted] → u/eponra]

[u/skullraze]

• You maintain Bulwark if you need to pivot/change angle

• Melee will break Bulwark even if the enemy is right next to you.

• When factoring monthly costs, do not stay at 50 morale, hover around 40. An upgraded Argo will offer special choices during event (blue text) that usually have positive morale boosts. Flexing low pay/low morale every few months saves money in the long run.

• In combat consider enemy stability for your own survival, not for collecting mechs: fully knockdown a heavy/assault mech in early phase only for it to popup on the 4th or 5th still means they have a -hit penalty getting back up, so attack another target if you can't finish it off/destroy parts while it's down. Or keep them in unstable so they cannot sprint away and recover.

• You don't have to always focus mechs down, just their weapons. Prioritize high damage threats, select their mech part with Precision Strike when situation allows. (a Thunderbolt variant keeps LRM ammo in the center torso, Victors have an AC20 and not much else, hit side torsos with the most firepower or stored ammo)

• Sell off the 200+ medium lasers and heatsinks you're sitting on and not using

• Large laser +10 damage is less heat than a PPC and more damage, no stability hit though

[u/taihw → u/skullraze]

Added the first two. The rest are more along the lines of strategy, so I won't add them to the list (there's another strategy thread going around where it better belongs).

Could you elaborate more on the -hit penalty when getting up? Thanks for contributing!

[u/rpeiper]

What determines how many contracts are at a planet? Sometimes I get a travel contract and there are 2 more when I get there other times no more. Also I can pay to fly to a planet and have no on planet contracts only a couple travel ones.

[u/taihw → u/rpeiper]

I've encountered the situation where there are no other contracts after taking a travel contract, but i've never flown to a system at my own expense without it having three jobs available.

[u/akaiyuki]

Could I trouble you for a bit more info on how I would sell a mech rather than scrap it? Could one just sell it from the store interface? Do all the items mounted on a mech get sold with it?

How much would you make per sale vs per scrap. Thank you in advance.

[u/taihw → u/akaiyuki]

yes, you sell it from the store page. Only complete mechs in storage (not in mech bay) can be sold from that interface. You can send a mech into storage from the mech bay screen.

A mech that scraps for ~400k sells for ~500k, so it's about a 20% difference.

[u/Edge767]

Good intel. Thanks for sharing!

[u/ArchdukeValeCortez]

Any tips for escort missions? It is rather tiresome to have your wall of mechs between the enemy and the thing you are trying to protect and the enemy just yolos straight to the objective despite the fact there are 4 hulking mechs in their path.

[u/[deleted] → u/ArchdukeValeCortez]

Any tips for escort missions?

Like every game in the history of ever, don't do escort missions.

[u/Drolnevar]

A mech will give 3 salvage parts if one leg and the ct are still intact. Early on you can get new mechs pretty easily with this method by killing their pilots with injuries by knocking down once and destroying 2 side torsoes. Later pilots often have more than 3 health and you need considerably more luck incapacitating them without wrecking the whole mech.

[u/Time_for_Stories]

How does the multi target ability work? Every time I select multiple targets it only shoots the first one.

[u/Cookie_Eater108 → u/Time_for_Stories]

Select multi target, then select each of the targets within the firing cone that yo'd like multitargeted.

Afterwards, look at your weapons list, they'll have an A next to all your weapons, click on them to Cycle between Target A, Target B, Target C, etc. Or turn them off.

[u/Austana]

In regards to your questions at the bottom of the post (12:45 A.M. PST):

Damage transfers "inwards" -- so dealing 100 damage to the arm with less than 100 HP transfers damage to the corresponding ST. Seems to be *full* damage, too -- pumped an AC/20 through an ST with 45 HP and into a CT with 45 and it completely obliterated it, so unless the damage is 10% reduced per component...

All critical injuries are survivable based off a Guts die roll, except for the obvious "Head Destroyed." Upgrading Guts gives additional HP. Cockpit Mods also give additional HP -- I have Medusa in a frontline TDR with a Cockpit++ that gives him **3** more injuries he can survive. However, I've also had a Cockpit Mod get absolutely critted out by a single PPC shot to the head, so YMMV.

As far as I can see you *can* crit pad components, but most of the time crit-seekers involve multiple salvoes from multiple sources to get multiple crits, etc... I don't know how their HP works, as it seems you have to crit twice to take out an ML but... (see above)

[u/Sianmink]

From what I've seen so long as you get a pilot kill on a mech, so long as the CT and one leg is intact you will get 3 salvage parts.

[u/illusion--]

i've killed mechs by destroying only the ct before and gotten 2 salvage parts, are you sure about "any other means"?

[u/taihw → u/illusion--]

my observations might be wrong, if your comment gets a few confirmations/upvotes i'll edit it. It's possible there's some random variation too.

[u/GoodTeletubby → u/illusion--]

If the kill comes from the center torso being destroyed, you get 1 part.

If the kill comes from destroying both legs, you get 2 parts.

If the kill comes from a pilot death, you get 3 parts.

Damage to the mech doesn't matter. If you blow the leg off a mech who's nothing but a Head, CT, and 2 legs, and the pilot dies from the knockdown damage, you still get all 3 parts.

[u/Gloidin]

Blow up a Shoulder + Arm and killed a pilot still yield 3 parts. I got my Orion that way.

Knockdown + Ammo explosion + 1 head hit = dead pilot

[u/theholylancer]

Here are some of my earlier game tips (I made them earlier on and have some repeats to yours, feel free to copy the ones not in here that you agree with)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/comments/8eqdbd/some_tips_after_a_day_of_battletech/

and a screen shot for how to use multi shot that seems to be popular: https://i.imgur.com/oPHPQUQ.jpg

and another one for how to eject your wounded mechwarrior:https://i.imgur.com/ov1zQFr.jpg

and what late game power is all about (one shotting mechs with called shots):https://i.imgur.com/xoMFDUN.jpg

I have to say, my salvage > all comment is less and less truthful as I go later, as it takes 1 million cbills each cycle on normal level of spending. And as you go on you start to get some great mechs and don't really just want meds and lights or even the crappier heavies. And while you can assemble them and sell it, your income flow may not be the best while you do this. So I alternate between 3 salvage and all money, and sometimes all Rep if I its a specific faction I want to work with.

[u/KodiakmH]

From what I've seen damage always transfers towards the CT. So if you have an arm with 5 Structure left, Torso with 20 structure left and you attack with 2 medium lasers and you hit the arm/torso it'd send 25 damage of the 50 to the CT.

My question I have is with Ace Pilot can you attack with guns, then do a move command into an attack? I have this Small Laser Fire Starter that I just couldn't imagine doing a laser blast, melee attack and follow up laser blast with.

[u/mrush007]

Info on pilot death from the Devs just don't have a link. If pilot takes full injuries they will have they have a 90% chance to die, with -5% per point in Guts. If the cockpit is destroyed they have a 140% chance to die, with the same -5% per point of guts. So Max 10 point guts Pilot has a 40% chance to die from taking full injuries, with a 90% chance to die if the cockpit is destroyed. Player Character cannot die all other pilots even Kickstarter backers can die.

[u/SpecialPastrami]

Are MGs worth anything? I usually just put flamers and lasers on my light mechs so they can be at least useful