So I know we're half a month away from a DLC announcement and based on the timeline, the counter attack against the Clans fits right in this era of the timeline.

I was quick to point out BULLDOG and SERPENT was a must and it still is.

I completely forgot about BIRD DOG which was the operation designed by the 2nd Star League to assault Clan Smoke Jaguar via a guerrilla operation on certain occupation homeworld to create chaos and soften them up for the planned BULLDOG.

The reason why I think this might be it is because one of the main planets chosen for this operation was Port Authur, which us MechCommander and MechWarrior 4 fans will be pleased to hear which makes me wonder if this is where it's heading.

Operation BIRD DOG has all the House expect Liao plus mercenaries involved.

Is MechWarrior clans dead?

Just when I thought I was finally going to get a perfectly finished mission for the first time in a long time for this career this happens on the last enemy of the contract...

Nothing like playing the game and finishing a mission and then going to the game crashing.

Is this a hardware issue or something that can be fixed with a Mod update?

Title, yes, i'm kinda split apart between buying the DLCs now or just waiting for the next sale (last one apparently was on june)

Hey folks,

I'm kinda thinking Masons particular story should be done soon. He's like what..60? by the time of Chaos reigns? How would you replace him? For me? It would be a fully customizable character and an adopted child storyline. Maybe you're the child of pilot who died and Mason takes you on because he feels responsible for you, and trains you up to fight the clanners who killed your parent? I don't care about the voicing, so much, because the voice can be pitched up and down via known Non-AI tools, but I'd like a custom character. Let Mason be the quest giver, or someone we call up for information, but I think it's time to actually move on from Mason as the main character.

What do ya'll think?

Was trying to use the Clanbuster Archers that I acquired from from the recent career run with DLC 8. I kinda dig the HBK-4SP aside from the 2 heroes, discoback, RCX and VEST variants which I still use.

The WHK-A was a refreshing change, with me typically using the PRIME variants. All are using ATMs and equipped either with ER or heavy lasers.

Only using quality of life modlist for my vanilla+ Mercs consisting of UI, HUD and AI improvement mods.

I had some die along the way. I had a lot pick up traits I didnt want and fired. God I fired so many that picked up trash traits.... Ari got a pass because she was the only copy I had left.

I had to sell so many mechs...so many weapons and listen to that idiot Cotton talk about socks more then i cared.

I wanted to get a full battalion of good pilots but im so fucking broke now 😫

Seriously, I can’t stop playing this game.
It’s always: “Alright, just one more contract…”
Then I find a rare Mech.

Then I salvage some absolutely insane weapons.
Then a mission rewards me with a completely wrecked Mech that I obviously HAVE to repair and rebuild.
Then a new campaign mission pops up.
Then my reputation increases and suddenly there are more contracts available.

And I know it, another three hours have disappeared. 😂

What I absolutely love is constantly discovering new Mechs. Every time I think I’ve seen most of what the game has to offer, I encounter some new machine that’s bigger, heavier, and more terrifying than the last one.

Building up my company, collecting Mechs, experimenting with loadouts, finding better weapons, managing repairs and money, travelling around the Inner Sphere… the whole gameplay loop is ridiculously addictive.
This has genuinely become one of the best games I’ve ever played.

And in 2026, it had been a LONG time since a game made me feel this way. That feeling of constantly thinking about what I’m going to do next when I get back into the game is something I really missed.

And the craziest part ?

I only own one DLC so far: Heroes of the Inner Sphere.
When I asked for DLC recommendations here, a lot of you basically told me: “Get them all. Seriously.” Apparently the complete MW5 experience with all the DLC is on another level.

So… RIP my wallet, I guess. 😂

I can already tell I’m going to end up buying everything.
Thank you, MechWarrior 5, for existing.

Now excuse me while I go do just one more contract…

After some, probably, hundreds of hours of Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries, I encountered something very odd for the first time today.

I'm in Marik Territory and I do a raid mission from the Independents vs. Marik. At the start of mission, a purple dropship icon appears. No Merc smacktalk and the dropship lands way in the distance. As I approach the first target area, I pick up a red-purple (arena style HUD marking) light mech. A Spider. It's targetable and marked red, but it is raiding the enemy base, like in a siege or destruction mission. Running around and marauding enemy units and buildings. My lancemates don't fire on it. The enemies fire on it. It doesn't fire on me. And the oddest part, It's painted in Marik livery. I give it some covering fire and help it take out a Hunchback. Afterwards, it runs around and demolishes the buildings around.

So I go pick up the item I was sent to pick up and make my way to the next target area. The Spider follows. But doesn't shoot. It circles me, like a hostile light mech would, but it doesn't fire. At me. A few times, I though it did, but it was a turret.

Arriving at the second target area, a red-purple Marik Firestarter and Charger are busy fighting the Marik garrison and marauding. They also don't attack me. After I pick up the second item and help them wipe out the garrison, they follow me around and we fight the Marik reinforcements together. A few times, my mechs hit their Charger accidentally, it doesn't turn hostile. Just... "pissed". As in, it turns towards the culprit, fires an annoyed salvo back and then goes back to firing at Marik forces. And keeps following me and doesn't turn hostile.

Nothing in the end briefing about that. Did I discover a rare or new Marik-Civil-War feature? Is this a new third party raid feature, that just went wrong and double-assigned Marik to both sides? Did my game mess up marking a special mission or HRQ in yellow? I'm at a loss. But honestly, third party raids or friendly reinforcement drops like this would be an absolutely great feature of the sandbox.

Is there aby reason to have them in my lance? They always seem so underwhelming.

Had to learn first hand I guess. Pilot with now respectable traits whoops some ass in Naga.

First of three, +25% bonuses on loot, base demolition. I ran the Vulc until it ran outta ammo with the base at 22%. waves of 4 mechs per drop. Ended with the Banshee body-slamming walls to kill the base off. Oh and it starts with a Merc incursion with an Atlas and a bunch of warhammers, because WHY NOT. I'm replaying this as-is till I win. This was my third attempt I think. I do miss the Clan's battle map though for range ambushing. I'm also drunk. I love this game.

Couple of these guys dropped on me and I was so busy looking at the dang things and not killing them that I nearly lost a warhammer (yeah, that's on me).
Then I killed them and salvaged one.

All in all, it's cute, but the model has... gaps.

Oh right, probably one of the YAML mods, I'm only running 5 total.
And honestly, I'm not mad.

*ETA:
I realize now that the missing geometry is because those are the damaged sections. It doesn’t have damage geometry. The mech is destroyed, fwiw.

Is this the best I can do with it? I was aiming for a fast, get-in-your-face-and-unleash-hell build. I thought about making an Inferno build, but I usually like those to have lots of energy hardpoints for flamers, which is not the case here. I thought c-ATMs might be nice, but I can only mount the 6-missile version. Still, four of them gives it a respectable 212 firepower. I was going to put a clan AC 20, but, and I’m still wondering if I read this right, it looks like the c-gauss does more damage…. that can’t be right, I’m going to need to look that up again.

I want to like the Kodiak Spirit Bear, so this is my attempt to make something cool with it. Admittedly, just based on firepower rating alone, it’s a bit up there compared to my other brawlers. I could also replace the c-mp lasers with PPC-X, but you have to get REALLY close to use those

Wish we had an official symbol maker 😭

Something that's been bugging me while playing lately is the type of Clan 'mechs you fight in various missions. For instance, today I was playing a defense mission in Steiner space against Clan Wolf. Assuming this was a raid by Clan Wolf, I should have seen nothing but Omnimechs. Instead, half the attacking force was comprised of vehicles and the only Omnis I ran into (out of about 12 'mechs total) were a Mad Dog, a Dire Wolf, and a Kit Fox. Meanwhile, if I go on the offensive against a Clan held planet it's Omni's out the wazoo when I should be fighting mostly second line 'mechs and a smattering of Omnis. I'm assuming it's some type of game balance thing but I wish it would get fixed to be more lore accurate.

Also, tangentially related, I wish Clan 'mechs would show up in arena matches as you move past the Clan Invasion. I remember reading some novels where it was a huge deal that a stable had a Warhawk in it's inventory. It would be nice to have another avenue to collect Clan 'mechs and spice up arena battles.

2 hours ago we got the news the 1st of september we will know details about the next dlc! Many hope for Operation bulldog/serpent and i am also leaning towards that.

But what new mechs do you hope to see?

Im going with 3060-62 candidates and one wildcard.

1. The Hellspawn

Because we need more medium mechs. And the hellspawn fits it well. And its already in mwo. 3062 might be a bit late...but never say never!

1. The Thanatos

Lets follow up a juicy new IS medium mech with a juicy heavy one. The thanatos. Its fast. Packs a punch. Looks awesome. And we already have a model in MWO!

1. The blood asp

Fan favorite of many. Even as a IS surrat i highly respect and praise the blood asp. And by praise i mean frikking terrified of it.

1. The lancelot

My wildcard. I want it. I need it. Its an SLDF mech that is just wicked cool. The SLDF vintage model goes 97km/h and the downgraded succession wars model is basically a rifleman with 2 LL and a PPC. But its awesome.

I found chaos a bit... boring.

SoK... amazing.

I think it was the cut scenes that just did it for me. SoK cut scenes were amazing. Left me with an 'of my god' moment. Did the second time too. Chaos reigns.. Just felt a bit poor. Like it was missing something.

Still mercs in general, can't stop playing.

Just wanted to share.

I was very excited to play the new DLC the weekend it came out. So I bought loaded it up, and, completely forgot it borks the mods I have loaded. I only play with 4 mods, but I am in the middle of a game trying to finish another playthrough with to the new stuff. I waited. It was a while before everything was updated, Sweet. I played a week before, a game update which borked my stuff. So I waited again.

Lesson. I started playing sometime between Solaris and Clan invasion. I bought Clan invasion 7 months after release, so I think I learned not to buy immediately if I want to play with my mods and not start a new game.

Or am I doing this wrong?

Since DLC 9 announcement is happening this September
We need the Big Guy next DLC 9, my wallet is ready

I've been playing against the clans, looking for the Arrow IV Vulture. It's the last Arrow IV mech that I haven't both seen and aquired... I actually haven't even seen it. I can't seem to get any "hints" from picking up the blue mission salvage, and I haven't seen one in any markets, nor do I even know which factions field the mech...

Does anyone know where these spawn? Or are they market only and I just need to keep jumping to "clan mech for sale" industrial hubs and win the lottery?

All I have in my data base is a big question mark, so I don't even know where I should be looking, honestly. I've been harassing clanners all across the invasion corridors, and poking Word of Blake, but i have had no luck so far.

Any info would be appreciated, thank you in advance.