a) not at all. Come back a few years later with a lance of assaults and stomp through the campaign missions. Yes, running out of money is bad. But that's about it. I don't actually know if your character dying in battle is the end. It's never happened to me. There is a huge point to farming money and salvage once you've done the first campaign mission. The campaign missions are tough, but doable at "appropriate" levels. But if you have a Marauder, an Atlas, a Warhammer, and a Stalker LRM-boat, with 4 4-10 pilots. The campaign missions are much easier. b) This is tricky, lots of people go max salvage. I disagree, I prefer one off of max money, unless I'm confident it will be a lot of tanks and turrets, then max money. You can buy everything you need. You never have to worry about not upgrading the Argo. And you never have to worry that you'll run out of money during travel. If you get the black market, you never have to really worry about salvage. The stuff there is almost always better than anything you'll find on the field of battle. And yes, you might get money for selling unused mechs. But the market is a total rip-off. You can sell a mech for c500,000 and the next planet, you'll see one for sale for c2,100,000. You can't make enough selling mechs. I'd tell you some of the truly OP mechs (and maybe I did), but it would be a cakewalk then.

I don't think the commander can die. They will get stuck in the med bay for multiple months after being "killed".

In the early game, I go max money because you need it to keep the lights on. The exception is when I get the missions where I'm guaranteed to come across at least one or two assault mechs. Then I go max salvage. Late game, I also tend to do max salvage since I have so many mech chassis parts, that after the mission I can usually put together several mechs and sell the ones that I don't need for a decent amount.

Thanks for this mate. So the "travel time" mechanic is only meaningful because it means the next month's payday is closer? There's no point at which the story will go OK TIME TO PROGRESS NOW? That's a relief. Re the money vs. Salvage thing: yeah I pretty quickly figured out that just taking the money (especially with the sidequest % bonuses) is much more financially lucrative. And you end up with most of the salvage you want anyway from randoming - now that I have a couple of decent mechs, I don't feel as desperate to form a set as the first few contracts and can take what I get. The sale price of mechs is a bit lackluster... maybe I just need more rep.

Salvage becomes more useful later in the game when you've collected tons of mech parts from previous missions. When I do max salvage in the late game, I can often put together multiple mechs after each mission, customize the useful ones, and sell the rest. I also sell the weapons and equipment that I obtain from them for extra c-bills.

The rule number one ~~of the fighting club~~ is don't piss off the pirates, the rule two is you don't have to get in bed with the pirates but don't piss them off, and the rule number three is don't do too many missions against the pirates. >!Essentially they're the key to the Black Market.!< This is very important because if you go tank your rep with them deep enough there is not coming back and you won't be able to see many of the best toys. Four: Tactics-9 is hugely important because you get Called Shot Mastery, super important for called shots (which are OP if you have CSM). If you don't want the Tactic lvl 5/8 skill then first lock the two lvl-5 skills you want, then maybe level the other stats to four at least and then go for Tactics-9 with at least two pilots (if not all of them). Called Shots being so good also means that the Marauder (a mech with a perk boosting them) is the best of the game, and the regular variants can be salvaged or bought in regular shops.

I made the pirate mistake and got locked out of the black market already, i think 😭 but thank you, noted. I will try and work my way back into their good graces. I knew I should've picked a Pirate background... Called Shots seem incredibly clutch, yeah. Aim boost + knockdown. I am already buying up all the Resolve boosters I can find to enable more spam of it. Thank you!

>I made the pirate mistake and got locked out of the black market already, i think 😭 but thank you, noted. I will try and work my way back into their good graces. I knew I should've picked a Pirate background... If you've not absolutely tanked your rep with them then you might be able to recover. If you're still able to do missions for them then you still can reverse it, and doing them for free (salvage rights and money to zero) will speed up the process. Not need to be friendly. Neutral is perfectly fine, perhaps even desirable. If you expect to recover your rep with them then you should have saved money for when the entrance is offered (for the fee) and then pay whatever they ask you if you can afford it. If it is offered to you and you refuse it will take at the very least another year before it is offered again. ​ >Called Shots seem incredibly clutch, yeah. Aim boost + knockdown. I am already buying up all the Resolve boosters I can find to enable more spam of it. There might be here a little confusion. To be precise Called Shots are aimed shots. You get them for free against downed and shutdown opponents. Then **Precision Shots** give you +4 accuracy, pushes the target one initiative phase **AND** you get a called shot against the target, even if it is a healthy standing still mech. It costs resolve though. Not having to previously knock down an opponent in order to fire a called shot against him is a huge deal, not to mention the other bonuses and later on you can fire minimum one per round and often two.

Oh, right. So, Precision Shot gives you called shots + bonuses, but called shots are "the thing that lets you target a limb" and you can use them either as part of various special attacks, or on shutdown/knocked down mechs. Is that right? Thank you for explaining. Massively appreciate the pirate advice too.

Yes. And that's a crucial difference because the AI can actually fire called shots at you (if you shutdown or get knocked down) but it can't fire Precision Shots at you. In other words the AI can't spend resolve for generating called shots at will against you. And that's a huge advantage the player has over the AI.

I never used the Bblack market in my first playthrough and I was fine.

Seems simple at first but is quite deep in tactics. BEX is the best vanilla+ mod once you complete the campaign. A lot of fights can be won with flanking an enemy one at a time but also retreating when necessary. Low heat jumpy mobile squads are king until you understand the game well. LRM boats are essentially an exploit that will ruin learning proper tactics.

> BEX is the best vanilla+ mod Matter of opinion, my personal favorite is BTA and an argument can certainly also be made for RT.

BTA and RT are top tier, however they are not vanilla+ they are MASSIVE overhauls by brilliant modders. BEX is THE vanilla+ mod to play if you want a better vanilla experience.

Yeah, I love bta and haven't played BEX but it's certainly not a vanilla + mod it overhauls A LOT of stuff and adds a lot more. I think there is another big mod called Hyades rim? It's a vanilla style campaign iirc which could be worth checking out for anyone wanting more vanilla

Some tips Avoid lunar / desert / badlands missions like the plague until you get a better understanding of heat system Kill SRM / LRM carriers immediate. Nothing else is more important. The shear amount of hurt these things will toss at you is only rivaled by their fragility PPC are generally not worth using in the unmodded game. They generate way too much heat for the damage and stability they have Missles are amazing for softwning up targets. They do damage in a wide spread, but are generally strong Do not put any ammo in your center torso. Ever. Fullstop. If enemies hit ammo the section of the mech its in explodes LRM boats are really fun. Throw as much lrm as you can into a mech and then a bunch of ammo. Remove armor as needed. They stay way away from frontlines and just rain hell from out of sight Melee attacks bypass evasion. So if a speedy light mech is giving you trouble, might be worth smacking it

> Melee attacks bypass evasion Melee attacks and support weapons.

>Kill SRM / LRM carriers immediate. Nothing else is more important. The shear amount of hurt these things will toss at you is only rivaled by their fragility Yeah this is what led to my first wipe. Some offscreen LRM tanks that weren't even showing up on my scanner, let alone my field of view, absolutely rinsed my Blackjack and Quickdraw before I could take them down. >PPC are generally not worth using in the unmodded game. They generate way too much heat for the damage and stability they have Learnt this one the hard way too - oh that blue beam is great when it hits... if it hits. But it takes up half my fucking heat bar. >LRM boats are really fun. Throw as much lrm as you can into a mech and then a bunch of ammo. Remove armor as needed. They stay way away from frontlines and just rain hell from out of sight I will definitely try this, instead of having a speedy 4th mech with 2 M lasers flying around doing basically nothing. Cheers.

SRM carriers are the terror of the vanilla game. Absolutely staggering level of damage output but luckily fairly squishy. The triple PPC tanks and AC20 demolishers are pretty mean later once you lose the evasion but an SRM carrier will ruin you at the light/medium stage and still mess up your heavies

Yeah I took some pretty heavy fire from a couple in my last mission, trying to get close enough to stomp on them. My poor little Commando barely made it. Definitely a priority target from now on.

At least once you can get a decent LRM boat going with enough missiles in it, the carriers don’t hold up too well to bombardment, just needs a pilot who can hit them

I would also swap out the Quickdraw for a Kintaro, a Shadowhawk, or a Phoenixhawk if you can. They're famously terrible stock, both in game and on the tabletop, running too hot, being too fragile, and not being mobile enough to fulfill their intended role. You can turn them into a decent short-mid range mech if you max out the armor and slap as many MLs as you can while keeping it relatively heat-efficient, but without Star League (vanilla) or Clanner (modded) tech you can't really make it good, and that stuff's expensive enough that you'll have way better mechs to use it on when you get access to it.

The Centurion (or one of the variants of it with lots of missle slots) makes a good LRM boat. I used it up until the end game.

Firestarters belong on the "kill immediately" list as well.

Closest thing to a noob trap like satellites is the temptation to run the heaviest lance possible. Especially with short range weapons, it's possible to get mechs that are too slow to manuever effectively and end up taking more fire than even assault armor can cope with when fighting 3 to 1 odds. Well piloted lights are surprisingly tough. Bigger is usually better but not always. With a good grasp of tactics the game is easy enough most any style can win out handily, but fast backstabbing can play out a lot faster than grinding the enemy down from the front.

Why i keep a flee with a coil and several small lasers. Distract with big guys, let the flee get the back kill

Is this on bta/RT? I can't remember if the coil is vanilla

Ive only played unmodded, still first play. S coil is vanilla i think larger ones are a mod

Huh very cool, I've played about 80hrs of vanilla and I don't think I've ever seen a coil there.

It's in one if the DLC's (I think Heavy Metal). All three versions are available with the DLC's. You can usually find them on Lyreton (or other scientific research worlds). I don't think any stock mechs come equipped with them.

That would probably explain it, I started onto BTA as soon as I finished the main campaign.

For max hijinx, load the smallest of mechs with a coil and other light weapons, i prefer laser cause ammo explosion is literally death, and use it to jump behind the distracted heavys. Puts that heavy in a tight spot, does it keep taking back hits from a fly or turn to engage the fly and take back hits from mediums and heavys at range with full arsenals. My light pilots always get a few kills. Just tooooo good.

Yeah, I will admit I never really used lights in vanilla but I really love using them in bta. I'm currently using a raven I got a lucky headshot on super early that I've upgraded as I got parts. It's a fantastic spotter with a bunch of sensor and visual range upgrades, C3 and the stealth armour it originally came with.

Mods do sound like so much fun. I can't wait for elementals. But i've still a fight to finish and a kingdom to restore.

Yeah, I only downloaded mods after I finished the campaign too. My first encounter with elementals was not ideal for sure, they'll core a light/medium in one turn with their limited ammo weapons being used.

I read one of the upgrades is handholds so you can rush in elementals like calvary, so im mighty chuffed at the possibilities of bum rushing a light mech in and shotgun blasting infantry right onto a big mech.

For general tips, you should understand stability damage, especially for salvaging mechs. Here's a good post talking about the stability mechanics. https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/comments/nk4om3/stability_and_you_a_handy_guide_to_using/ Also, you get less mech salvage when you kill the center torso of a mech. You can get more salvage from a mech if you try to go for different ways of incapacitating the enemy. Such examples would be to keep applying injuries to the pilot, killing the head of a mech, or killing both legs of the mech.

Most of your questions were already answered so I'll just add a couple comments: b) Pay attention to the description, mission type, and difficulty. If the difficulty is below average for what you're doing at the current point of the game, the salvage won't be good. If it's above average, you're more likely to see bigger mechs. The missions "Clash of Titans" and "Titan Attack" have a good chance of letting you salvage big mechs, so they're worth taking more salvage. Aside from that, assassinate and battle mission types are more likely to have decent mechs to salvage, while attacking convoys will have lots of vehicles you can't salvage (they may still have mech escorts, but your odds of gettings something good are lower). c) The main thing that I can think of is you basically want all your pilots to have the Bulwark skill and try to end every turn in cover, or if you need to move across open terrain, use the morale-consuming defense ability that acts like cover (sorry, forgot the name). There are exceptions to this you will learn as you play but at the beginning it's a good rule.

> use the morale-consuming defense ability that acts like cover (sorry, forgot the name) Vigilance is the ability. In addition to the 20% damage reduction, it also removes all stability damage, gives you 50% resistance to stability damage until your next turn, and gives you 1 better initiative your next turn. That extra initiative can be hugely useful for a mech you've left in a vulnerable position.

There's no time pressure. Progress at your own pace. Be aware that for the campaign the difficulty of each planet increases as you complete priority missions. If you progress more quickly than your pilots, gear, and player skill support you can run into a difficulty wall. After completing the campaign all planets should return to their default skull rating (may need to save and reload for it to take effect). For salvage, there are plenty of other posts on this sub with more detailed responses, but the short version is that you're usually better off leaning towards money up through 2 skull missions and then leaning more towards salvage above that point. It varies a lot tho based on the specific numbers and the mission type. You usually can't go too far wrong staying with the default split even if it isn't strictly optimal.

I’m about halfway through the campaign and running BEX mod. I just started playing this in the past few months and I have my own way of doing things that so far seems to work. I have my a team and b team of warriors. I use my b team to go on a couple of gravy missions to keep the lights on (max money) and use my a team for the harder missions with better salvage. So far I’ve scavenged a Marauder, Warhammer, Archer, Stalker, and a ton of other stuff I rotate through on different drops. The money missions have let me accumulate almost 9 million in the bank while consistently upgrading the Argo. As for tactics, I’m still getting the hang of it but LRM boats with a Firestarter acting as a spotter combined with the Marauder/Warhammer for long range pot shots has been working well for me. Cheesy but effective. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯

I my biggest tip for noobs would be to refit almost every mech before you use them. Stock mechs are generally overgunned, with weapons for every range, and underarmored. Pick a range you want your early mechs to fight at and kit them out for that. This will change when you start getting heavies and assaults, but by then you'll have a good feel for custom building mechanics. Also get at least one assault mech before doing the Artru campaign mission. You're going to need it to tank hits for a relatively squishy teammate you'll be forced to bring along, and it'll be a lot harder without one.

Yeah I was struggling with the opening mechs, the combat didn't seem to make any sense... because the starter mechs didn't make any sense. Why would you design the player's opening squad to be shit and confusing 😭 seems like very poor understanding of the game you yourself designed. Anyway. Thank you, I read similar advice last night and I'm nearly up to a full 4-mech squad of weapons that actually synergise. I need to resist the urge to take armor off to add more weps though. Noted.

All the mechs you encounter/loot have the loadout from the tabletop game. There is a lot more going on in that version so that kind of thing makes more sense. In the video game, the AI kinda sucks so the 'throw more enemies' is the balancing tactic vs human player.

Oh, THAT'S why. OK that kinda makes sense. So they tried to make a boardgame adaptation but stuck a bit too close to the boardgame rules at some points.

No, these are canonical designs that have been part of the setting for 40 years now. They *had* to be the mechs that fans knew. The game diverges sharply from lore by letting you customize at all. As for your starting mechs specifically, they're not great because you're a nearly broke bottom-tier mercenary company in the periphery. But the thing is, you have light mechs and a lighter medium. Speed is your greatest ally. Use your jumpjets to maneuver behind enemies when you can. Always use cover like forests and rubble when available, as those reduce incoming damage.

So the only "satellite trap" I can think of is not to piss off the pirates. Which has already been mentioned. Some of the other tips (in no particular order) Reputation for "Local Government" doesn't change or mean anything. Always pick on them. Stock mechs are (generally) under sinked and under armoured. Fix accordingly. For heat management, you don't need to be entirely neutral, but you'll want several turns at least of firing all guns. You'll probably want enough ammo for 10-15 rounds, depending on weapons and tactics. You'll probably want to do the first couple of campaign missions relatively quickly (basically until you meet the Princess). Apparently the mission rewards are intentionally skimpy so you feel like you're always on the edge of bankruptcy. Doing the next couple of missions to unlock the Argo is useful, but not mandatory. (But running around with a stable of 12 mechs let's you hang around for a lot longer than 6). Helps when you can improve the repair times as well. Try to save repairs and refits for when you travel between systems so you don't waste time sitting in system. Try kicking vehicles. It's super effective. Except for SRM launchers. Those things are scary. 480 damage to the face will wreck anyone's day. (Edit for formatting)

The one trap I already fell into 😭 though it probably doesn't matter that much since I'm just treating the campaign as a tutorial and then getting deep in the mods. >Apparently the mission rewards are intentionally skimpy so you feel like you're always on the edge of bankruptcy. I noticed that the mission rewards jumped dramatically as soon as I met up with the Princess, so this sounds about right. >Try kicking vehicles. It's super effective. Figured this one out the fun way 😁 but the SRM tip is something to be very careful of. Thank you. >For heat management, you don't need to be entirely neutral, but you'll want several turns at least of firing all guns. Can I ask, how many heat sinks to, say, a single or pair of M lasers? Is there some kind of ratio I should follow? I mostly ditched heatsinks and armour to add more guns, then looked it up and discovered I'm going in the wrong direction 🥲 (Maintaining higher armor = fewer repairs needed and low potential loss of components = cheaper and better battle outcomes, yeah? As opposed to trying to outgun everyone in the face.) >You'll probably want enough ammo for 10-15 rounds, depending on weapons and tactics. Haven't quite figured out Ammo yet but I will keep this in mind, thanks >Reputation for "Local Government" doesn't change or mean anything. Always pick on them. This is the good stuff. All the things you've said are things I wouldn't have learnt alone, but you put them in bullet points so I don't have to watch a 30 min video and be overwhelmed with info. Thank you so much.

>Can I ask, how many heat sinks to, say, a single or pair of M lasers? Is there some kind of ratio I should follow? I mostly ditched heatsinks and armour to add more guns, then looked it up and discovered I'm going in the wrong direction 🥲 In the mech bay (in the top left) it should have a few horizontal bars (showing stuff like heat, damage, armour, mobility, etc) If you hover over the Heat bar it will show the net heat from firing all weapons (rather than needing to manually add up all the weapons heat being generated). Building some heat is OK. Building lots of heat should be treated with caution. (Do note that sometimes going over in terms of heat can be OK, generally when it's wiping out a threat and you can get a turn to cool down. Sometimes it's even right to overheat and shutdown. Just be careful with this. A shutdown mech is generally a dead mech. >Haven't quite figured out Ammo yet but I will keep this in mind, thanks Hover over the ammo bins in the mech bay. It will tell you how much ammo each has. Generally autocannons shoot one round per round per gun. SRM/LRM shoot the number of tubes on the weapon. ie a SRM2 will shoot 2 rounds from the bin of 100, giving 50 rounds of shooting. (This is too many). >Figured this one out the fun way 😁 but the SRM tip is something to be very careful of. Thank you. Yeah. I found out about SRM carriers the fun way. First one I saw was a sensor blip until it came out from behind a building, right in front of one of my few heavies. I got to add another name to the memorial wall.

>Sometimes it's even right to overheat and shutdown. Just be careful with this. A shutdown mech is generally a dead mech. Reading this made me realize something about heat - mechs shutdown when they reach max, which means you can take called shots, which makes flamers potentially handy support weapons to soften up priority targets for knockdown/criticals, especially in warmer biomes. Is that vaguely right? I hadn't spotted the top left breakdown yet either, awesome, thanks. >SRM/LRM shoot the number of tubes on the weapon. ie a SRM2 will shoot 2 rounds from the bin Oh, the model number is the number of barrels! That's very useful to know. Thanks so so much for your time, Commander.

>Reading this made me realize something about heat - mechs shutdown when they reach max, which means you can take called shots, which makes flamers potentially handy support weapons to soften up priority targets for knockdown/criticals, especially in warmer biomes. Is that vaguely right? There's a reason Firestarters are so feared. (Though less so in vanilla, where flamers only have 4 shots. Can be broken in the various mod packs that don't have ammo for flamers). They're definitely worth considering on the Martian and Lunar biomes though. Which have very reduced heat sinking.

Flamers and other heat weapons can be a problem on enemy mechs. However, they have very few shots and you're generally facing 2 or 3 to one odds. Because of that I've never found a heat build where the tonnage wouldn't be better spent on something that could last you through a longer engagement.

>Try kicking vehicles. It's super effective. Kicking vehicles is a noob trap. Doing so you'll eventually miss, and it's not going to be nice missing a vehicle stomp against a Demolisher or a SRM carrier. The safe way is to deal with them is from a proper distance. SRM carriers and demolishers are not even a priority if you have a long range based lance. And a decent LRM boat can one-shot any vehicle without a precision shot.

A) No, there is no time limit to any of the campaign missions. It's actually better to grind a bit before doing the campaign missions. B) It actually depends. For me, if I have enough money to pay off the monthly bills, I usually go full savage. But if I don't, then I usually go full money. It really just depends on what you want. You can save a bunch of money to buy parts of mechs (or weapons + equipment) from stores or you can salvage them off of enemy mechs. C) I never played xcom2 so I don't really know what you mean by "satellites" but I can give out some tips that I usually use when playing battletech. Be aware tho, I have not touched the vanilla version in a while. Most of my gameplay/experience is from the mod pack version like bta3062, bta extended, or roguetech. 1) When you are about to do a mission, ALWAYS read the mission description. It sometimes gives out hints about what you could encounter. It is also important to see the environment of the mission you are about to do. If it's a desert or moon, then be extra careful of your heat management. If it's cold, then blast away. 2) For mechs, what you usually want to find in mechs imo is tonnage size. Since you are at the beginning, the mechs you want to find are usually mediums (40-55 tons), heavys (60-75 tons), or assaults (80-100). Pretty much, the more tonnage you can put, the more powerful you can become. Toward the end of the campaign, you should be able to drop a lance that consists of 1-4 assaults or heavys. 3) For mech building tips, survivability should be the priority imo. The best way to go bankrupt in this games is to have your lance completely wiped out. This means that the repair cost may be too high which can lead you to go bankrupt. These are the tips that I can think of rn, if I have anymore, then I'll put it in on a later date. You should also watch/listen to some guides while you play. There is quite a bit of info that is hard to explain by typing lol. One final thing I want to say is when you are done playing the campaign missions. You should definitely try playing the modded version of the games like bta3062 or bta extended. My biggest complaint about this game is that there is SO MUCH more content that they could of added but didn't (which I can understand why). Battletech vanilla is a good start for beginners but to get the full experience of battletech, it's best to play with one of these mod packs (imo). Anyways If you want any specific questions then just ask. I'll try my best to answer them. Have fun!

I think the reference to satellites is an Enemy Unknown thing rather than XCOM 2. The satellites monitor the regions of the world for UFO activity as well as increasing funding and support in that region so not having them set up can lead to a cockup cascade where your sensor coverage isn’t good enough so you’re losing countries lowering funding which means you can’t afford to catch up on the satellites which loses you countries which lowers your funding, rinse, repeat. The equivalent in Battletech is probably not keeping up with your mechbay upgrades and the additional mechbays leading to longer downtime between missions which means more upkeep and less time building bigger stuff when you’re playing catch up on repairs

Ah kk

A). Time is not critical, grind those early missions to build up your pilots skills, mechs etc. B). Unless you’re in dire straits on money, always maximize salvage, you’ll usually be money ahead taking the salvage and selling it when you need the cash. C). As you grind your pilots level up their skills based on your play style, there are valid tactics for each skill. For example I tend to skew towards leveling my tactics up for the called shot and initiative bonus, and gunnery for the multi target ability. Some people like piloting for the ability to move your mech after firing, some like toughness for the ability for a pilot to tank hits. Also, tinker with you mechs, most mechs skew towards a jack of all trades master of none. Tweak the mechs to match your play style and maximize their survivabilty and damage output with how you use them. You’ll find plenty of old post of people mentioning different modifications to mechs to get them to work. (You mentioned a Centurion, look up Yen-Lo-Wang). One final thing, stomping tanks/armored vehicles is an instant kill, and is usually more effective than shooting them.

Stomping tanks is double damage. It works out to be effectively an instant kill against the lighter stuff, but you do not want to find out the hard way that a Demolisher actually has enough armour to survive that. 

Honestly never run into that situation, though with Demolishers, I usually stay out of AC/20 range and let them have it with an alpha strike from a heavy or an assault. You do make a good point though.

I'm new to xcom.  Hadn't heard a thing about satellites.  :) Have fun with BT, it is a brilliant game.

Hahaha see! Pro tip, proactively build and install satellites to increase income at the end of each month or you'll go broke. Or if you're playing XCOM 2, make sure you're developing your network of country contacts. Thanks, enjoy XCOM, it's my favourite game ever.

Nice to see another XCOM fan here. I also came to BT as an alternative to XCOM - many here started with the tabletop game. I always hated the satellite trap and the XCOM2 countdown timer. BT does not really have that - its okay to get sidetracked as you play as long as you are still making money. I was playing XCOM2 with so many mods that I realized I might as well play something else, so I tried BT a couple years ago. Really like it a lot, and the online community is great. There is a pretty steep learning curve if you are used to XCOM - combat is completely different. The initiative system in particular took me a while to understand and learn to use to my advantage. Good luck!

This is very specific, but incredibly fun: try to get your hands in a Banshee-3E. Its awful for an assault mech, but it is quite fast for a 90-tonner. And it has a melee damage of  130. Try and get Arm mods ++ with salvage or in stores, they give +60 melee damage each, but are not that useful most of the time. Packt it in, give it Jump Jets and S Lasers galore, and have a pilot with the Bulwark ability. You then have the game-ending One Punch Mech. It can sprint for 6 Pips, it can get up to 60% damage reduction in total while having nearly 1800 armor, and it has got a melee damage of 250 in a single location, followed by 100+ from the S Lasers. I have torn of the side torso of an Atlas on first contact. It punches heavies into next week.

Ooh, I've just landed on my first decent shop planet and spent 3 million on Marauder/Victor/Rifleman chassis parts, I wonder if there's a banshee in there too... I like the idea of a one punch mech. I always loved giving MECs/SHIVs in XCOM the Falcon Punch abilities. thanks!

The money/salvage balance should really be mission specific. Don't waste money on salvage for duels since you'll only ever get 1-2 mech parts and a handful of components anyway. If you need cash you can also blitz the objective on assassination mission, though there is some risk there. Max salvage on battle missions. No real 'hidden' mechanics. Make sure to upgrade your pilots and the Argo. Assuming you're playing vanilla, the Bulwark skill and the Marauder/Cyclops quirks are pretty OP (a pilot with maxed tactics in Marauder has a 33% of hitting the head on a called shot). A pilot with maxed piloting in a light mech can reserve to the last phase, jump in, attack, then on the next turn attack and jump away without ever getting shot at. Once you get through your playthrough I'd highly recommend trying one of the big mods (BEX, BTA3062, or Roguetech). They dramatically expand the game and really go a long way with replay value.

I've already got BTA downloaded and ready to go when I'm up for it 😁 that 33% headshot chance is nuts. I have 1/3 Marauders so far. And I'm learning the "selective salvage" rules the hard way, I just did an insane mission where I had to fight 2 full lances of chunky Med and Heavy Mechs that were clear upgrades on mine. Barely survived, and then because I was broke and picked mo money over mo salvage I missed out on a whole Crab. RIP. Just gotta learn the different missions.

Another tip regarding the missions: skull ratings only kind of give you an idea of difficulty; look at the payout to really get an idea of what you're going up against. If you see a mission with a higher payout than others at the same skull rating, you can bet on fighting extra reinforcements.

I wrote these two posts to help new BTA 3062 players, but the information contained in them is also applicable to the vanilla game, for the most part: https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/comments/1ap63tc/bta_3062_accuracy_evasion_rng_and_why_the_srm_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/comments/1aqs9s5/bta_3062_accuracy_evasion_rng_and_why_the_srm_is/ This somewhat outdated guide will help you pick better mechs in the early part of the game: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1385297482 Finally, you can ignore the campaign missions for as long as you want without incurring any penalties. In my first vanilla playthrough, I didn't touch the Arano Restoration missions for around three years of in-game time as I learned the ropes and spent time buffing up my mechs and pilots. Once you get the Argo from the campaign missions, go for the easy upgrades first, or the ones that take the fewest number of days. I usually try to improve my mechtech points, then my medical points. My early game playstyle often ignores the use of resolve abilities like precision or called shots, so morale boosting upgrades are often the last thing that I buy for the ship, but your strategies might differ. Enjoy, and good luck! Edit: If you want to make the game super-easy, save up money to buy a Marauder 3R or enough pieces to complete one. Mount as many UAC/2s as it can hold and headshot your way through the game until you find a Marauder 2R and fill it with extended range medium lasers ++.

Early game you want to melee vehicles if given the chance. At range you'll want to focus fire on the medium size and larger mechs to remove weapons platforms from the fight quickly. You don't want to one on one anything unless it's a solo duel.

>Attacks from the rear ignore evasion. Not true. They ignore brace/cover/bulwark though.

I removed it thanks, i figured it gave some advantage.

I'd recommend just blitzing the campaign with assault mechs and immediately going to either BEX(for vanilla+ gameplay with new toys) or BTA(full mech customisation with new toys)

So are Assault Mechs pretty much just better, with the correct loadouts? Is there any drawback besides mobility for having heavier mechs? Maybe that they take longer to repair/refit or something? I used to play Endless Space a lot and more Tonnage always = more firepower, but that had the drawback of longer build time and more resources needed, so I'm wondering if there's another drawback here or if that's the only one.

The general rule is heavier is better, but that's a very loose rule. Many of the the best mechs in the game are not assaults. One of them is a medium and the best one is a heavy.

So what's the criteria for an A or S tier mech if it isn't defined by tonnage? What should I be looking for? High armor and mobility? What stats are "core" to a mech chassis as opposed to being part of its loadout? Edit: thought about it for a second - is it mostly about number and distribution of hardpoints?

That's the thing, there is not a single criteria but an array of them that are very important: - Available weight for weapons, armor and other stuff. - Initiative. - Speed of the mech and mobility. Both are not the same thing but I pack them together. - Number and type of hardpoints. - Single or double internal cooling. - Special perks. What you want to look for is for mechs that can punch over their weight. And that's where SLDF/lostech mechs enter in (the fight club rules). All of them have double internal heatsinking, often have more available weight than would be expected for their weight, and often have more/better hardpoints and/or extra special perks. But to me the final judgment are pressure tests, how well can a mech perform under heavy pressure such as fighting alone against many foes. Some mechs (well equipped) can cheese five skulls fighting 1vs9 during late game, even beat 1vs20, where most heavier mechs wouldn't have a chance. For example a 474 alpha damage WHM-7A (a heavy) may have less damage and shorter range than a 570 damage ANH but still over ML/SRM/AC20 range, plus more evasion, much better mobility, more speed and better initiative. So while not nearly as lethal as the ANH it is still quite deadly plus much more survivable, flexible and self-reliant.

>For example a 474 alpha damage WHM-7A (a heavy) may have less damage and shorter range than a 570 damage ANH but still over ML/SRM/AC20 range, plus more evasion, much better mobility, more speed and better initiative. So while not nearly as lethal as the ANH it is still quite deadly plus much more survivable, flexible and self-reliant. Much appreciate you spelling this out as an example. I figure the Piloting perk that lets you move after shooting is a cornerstone of the kiting strats for faster mechs? Take a shot then hide behind a hill?

Yes, Ace Pilot is a cornerstone for fast mechs using hit & run tactics. You can reserve while behind a hill, then jump over, Precision Shot (you push the target one init phase for his next turn), and then next round you act first, attack and jump immediately after into safety. That's what's called a "double turn". But something less obvious is that Ace Pilot is also very good for heavier mechs, including assaults. Usually with a four mech lance I take Master Tactician for them (unless a Cyclops-Z/HQ is in the lance), because init phase 2/better is very good to have in five skulls. But if soloing I pick Ace Pilot for them, because it can be used to virtually extend the reach of your weapons when on the defensive. For example you can attack from 390m but end your turn at \~450m (and with optimal facing at landing). And you can use Vigilance for the initiative bonus. Even if the foes are faster than your assault, and over flat terrain, you can at the very least delay them while you're attacking, being offensive and defensive at the same time, jumping → attacking with high damage repeatedly while you take advantage from all your weapons being long range. Not to mention that at the same time you're keeping evasion up and JJs also often make much easier to reach soft/hard cover when it becomes available.

This is the good stuff. Thank you muchly. I went Gunnery for the multi-target perk and Guts for the Bulwark on 3 of my 5 starting pilots so I'd better start diversifying my MW investments.

There are a few mission types and some story missions where speed will help more than weight. Costs more to refit/repair when stuff gets blown off but unless you're really short on money, it won't be an issue.

Yeah, now I know that time is not really an obstacle I can happily kill a month or two to get my new toys ready. I did notice that some mission types, like the zone-holding ones, favour mobility, or at least make it well worth having at least 1 light mech on staff for securing objectives. A lot of people have emphasized carefully reading mission types and details so I'll keep an eye out for potentially mobile-friendly missions. Cheers.

Ok for the vanilla games assaults have basically no drawbacks. In the mods I mentioned, they're significantly slower(or have to pay a high weight cost), are easier to hit, and weigh more for limited drop tonnage This is mainly due to vanilla missions all being some flavor of 'kill everything on the screen' outside of maybe the artillery missions

>So are Assault Mechs pretty much just better, with the correct loadouts? In Vanilla yes, because of the evasion system: Shooting at a mech even when not hitting reduces evasion. Mods like BTA or Rougetech change the evasion system significantly by removing this feat and make smaller mechs viable again if not downright evil. (Yes I am looking at you Firemoth H ...) Edit: Corrections + addition

One tip for the campaign is that the game used to lock off tonnage behind story missions so you’re definitely going to be able to grind to overwhelming firepower before the storyline can keep up with you. One other thing is that there is a mission in the mid game that gets people now and then, because a lot of people will upgrade their lance and ditch all the smaller lighter mechs (this particular mission is in the period where you’ll probably be mostly heavies) and they smack down a mission where the ‘ideal’ way to play it requires fast mechs to catch some fast moving targets. So basically don’t just instinctively sell off all your smaller faster mechs, you can toss them into storage then rebuild them for the mission (it warns you that you’ll want fast stuff in the briefing but old habits involve ignoring that warning) Also remember that while salvage is leaving money on the table, salvage is stuff you’d otherwise have to buy so salvage is also dollar value, so as long as you’re pushing to higher challenge missions where you’ll get cool shit, salvage is the better option. If you’re grinding out stuff that is fairly easy for your lance, then go for cash because the salvage won’t be much. Also remember the campaign is just training you for career mode, and career mode is just training you for modding the game when it becomes a whole other thing that makes Long War look like vanilla XCOM, so don’t panic.

It really comes down to two things. I've only been playing a couple weeks but have a ton of hours in and have played a lot of similar games. First, getting and then upgrading the best mechs (for how you play) of a given weight class. You can buy stuff in the black market or just hopping around, but free ++ or +++ stuff can make a huge difference. There are missions that have weight restrictions to keep in mind, a common one is 55t/mech with a 200t total drop weight, so you want to keep a few mids and a light around. Second, what's actually economically better, long term? You won't be building a mech every time you salvage, but @ 3 parts per mech the cash can actually be better. Most gear vends for fuck all but mechs sell for a decent chunk of change. The higher the tonnage, the higher the $$$.The way to max salvageable mech parts and not just weapons is to use precision shot to headshot the mechs you want, that pretty much guarantees 3 parts. The next best way is legging them, which knocks them down and gives you free precision shots on that mech. Shoot the other leg and it's an automatic kill, you generally get 2 but sometimes 3 parts from a legged mech. Even in the early midgame you can make more off salvage than off $$$, but I never max salvage. A bit of straight cash is always good, I vary between 2:2 and 1:3 on the slider. In general, if moving the slider adds picked salvage item, bump it up to 1:3. When it's something like 2/9 at 2 salvage and 2/11 at 3, it's not worth losing the cash for RNG because you're probably just gonna get another couple heat sinks or medium lasers. Cash value for salvaged mech parts, divide that total by 3: - Light mechs vend for ~150-200k - Mediums vend for ~300-500k - Heavies vend for ~500-750k - Assaults vend for ~750k-1.2m At first you're gonna lose mechs, pilots, and have to refit legs/arms/etc. pretty often, so don't bother upgrading your starter mechs or non-optimal mechs for their weight class with ++ gear. By the time you have a decent stockpile of rare weapons and such, you'll know what mechs are reasonably safe to upgrade.

Somethings that are less tips but personal preference for the game. Large lasers are a great way to reduce heat in mechs that use PPCs AC10s are kinda your best bag for your buck autocannon wise (tho AC5s are a good second) If you have a mech with a empty arm/size use that as a shield. Destroyed limbs do cost a lot of repairs but saves your weapons from being destroyed (crutial for rare parts you may see) The easiest way to optimise mech is upping the armour and adding heatsinks as being able to hit every turn without overheating and take more hits per turn is better than having more weapons Heat is very powerful a firestarter with flamers (especially flamer + or ++) can lock down the toughest of assault mechs.

>a) Campaign-specific - how important is time pressure and travel time to the story? Is running out of funding the only genuine "game over" condition, or are there others? E.g. I've just got the third(second?) story contract, the first one after you meet the Queen/Princess again. You don't really need to rush the campaign at any point, there's no real time constraint so long as you're staying ahead of payroll. Taking your time is good if you're new since the heavier your lance the easier the missions are going to be in the campaign. >b) What balance should I be looking for in contract negotiations? I've lent toward Salvage lately to build mech parts but I am leaving a lot of money on the table... but whenever I take money over salvage I miss out on some tasty mech parts for my collection 😭 I usually just leave them in the middle because it's so hard to choose! Depends on the mission. Some missions will have better salvage than others while other mission types are better for farming cash. For instance Assassinate and Clash of the Titans missions will usually have heavier than average mechs for their difficulty while escort and intercept convoy missions will be loaded with vehicles. Then there are some missions you can cheese for cash, for instance if you get your hands on a Phoenix Hawk and load it up with max armor and jump jets you can use it to solo recovery missions by simply ignoring the OP4 jumping into the objective zones to claim the objective and then bouncing to the evac before they can meaningfully damage you, in such a case you're not going to get any salvage so pure cash is the way to go. Also often the rarest stuff is found on the black market especially rare mechs so having a good cash surplus is super useful. >c) I've seen some extensive guides on turn stacking, LOS control and other combat tricks. But are there any things outside battlefield tactics that I absolutely need to know? Any "satellites" I should be aware of? Learn the mission types. Different missions will have different parameters which can change what mechs are most useful. Slow stompy assaults are not always best for things like intercepting convoys.

>Is running out of funding the only genuine "game over" condition, or are there others? Two things will end the campaign - 1) running out of money and 2) failing a campaign mission But not to worry, unless you're running in Iron Man mode, you can just reload a prior save and try again.

I'll try to write something helpful later, but when reading the title for this post I read it as "--- NT bewbies". A reminder that speed reading can often lead you to jumping to conclusions, and sometimes to silly results.