FINANCIAL ADVICE
Don't ever buy any of the morale increasing ship upgrades ever. Even though it's tough... do the +1 morale monthly budget early on. I's like a difference between 250k and 360k. Late game 110k is nothing. Keep buying the Morale bumps and between that and random events you will hit the cap pretty easy. Then you don't have all those upkeep costs for the morale facilities. You do lose some random event options this way though. 3rd mech bay is also kinda not needed. You can have three full lances ready to go with 2 bays. Basically a lot of the ship upgrades just bloat your monthly budget. But selling a single assault is good for a month and then some even with full upgrades.
If you chase the story missions about as quickly as the pop up, then you never have to worry about finances until the campaign is finished. Go full salvage forever. On the missions you don't get mech parts pick rare equipment. Once you have a few decent mechs rare equipment is often much more useful anyways.
LANCE COMPOSTION
Light mechs are... dangerous to those who operate them.
Medium mechs are cool when you first get more of them. M-laser hunchback, Centurion AL, and kintaro were my favorites.
Heavy mechs do work for a long time. Thunderbolt 5ss is really solid. Orions and blackknights are also great. Grasshoppers make great bruisers/ scouts as well
Assaults... Atlas, Battlemaster, highlander each great. Stalkers are the knockdown kings with +stability damage LRMS. Actually LRMS are basically cheating.
I never got a King Crab.
I went two outrider bruisers and two lancers in each mission. For random missions Sprint up until enemy contact. I would look at where I thought the reinforcements were hiding and rush that first. Then jump brace my way forward hugging terrain with bruisers. LRM boat and sniper hides behind terrain. I would initiate with one bruiser doing a jump brace forward to see the enemy. LRM boat splits fire between two targets. This gets two unsteady mechs. Sniper knocks em both down. Last bruiser picks one and cores it. Sometimes I would DFA a mech next round to quickly set up another knock down/ maybe get lucky with a head kick. Basically I would just core the shit out of stuff unless there was a mech I wanted. There I would just keep knocking them down and maybe blow a torso. The heavier the mech weight class the easier it is to get full salvage for it.
WEAPONS and LOADOUT
M lasers and SRM 4s are the most heat/ weight efficient sources of damage. They also are the least concentrated. You can still do lots of good damage with them. But it tends to work better if you approach from an angle that pares down the possible shot locations for you like the side or back. concentrating damage into a single part is the fastest way to kill a mech.
AC 20 is amazing for ATLAS bruisers or crazy centurion pilots. Its really hard to make it work and still have decent armor otherwise. AC10 is a decent but not overly amazing substitute.
AC5 is a great sniper
PPC is another great sniper
Sniper weapons are there as support to LRMs for knockdowns, but probably could just be replaced by more LRMs, but that gets boring.
Stability damage is the primary method of setting up a mech to be killed. LRMS with +Stability damage are extremely powerful to the point of game breaking.
LRM10 is bad for weight to damage ratio. LRM 15 and 20 are preffered.
SRM6 is devastating when paired with +damage and good angles and is great for taking those last few hp off a part.
Don't factor support weapons into your heat profile. You will only use them in a balls out up close ALPHA strike or during a melee attack where heat doesn't matter. Sustained fire at range is the only time your heat profile means anything.
When creating a weapon load out, try to maximize your hardpoints with M lasers, and SRMS, OR Pick 1-3 long range sniper weapons with some LRMS OR Max LRMS with little armor OR with a heavier mech do an AC20/10 with m lasers and srms. Those seem to be the most effective weapon profiles.
Place ammo in your legs. Unless the enemy is attacking from below, the legs are the last thing to go. This greatly reduces the chances of a crit blowing the ammo store and taking out a part. Split up heat sinks and jump jets across multiple parts except for arms to maintain as much mech function as possible for as long as possible. MAX your armor and Always take jump jets. The tactical advantage to blocking LOS is amazing and extra evasion is always good.
SALVAGE
If you have a mech you are trying to get and the core is damaged a lot. do a precision shot on a L or R torso with a single shot high damage weapon. It's all or nothing that way. Also attacking from the back if there is still armor that is another way to avoid accidentally coring it. With multiple weapons like lots of m lasers or SRMS look at the % chance of hitting any particular spot, then multiply your total damage by that percentage to snipe off just that part. 50% chance on a part with 100 hp/ armor needs about 200 damage plus some extra for misses for example. Look at the core % and multiply that by your total damage to see if it survives with an extra shot or two spilling over from the exploding torso or leg into the core. It gets fuzzy quick but you can really increase your salvage success rate by sniping off both R and L torsos. I would do a melee and then single AC5 or 2/ SRM shot knock down combo a couple times as the best way though but with mediums and some heavies... stuff gets borked quick.
SRMS seem to roll chance to hit the head once per missle but wont hit more than once per salvo. LRMS roll once per salvo. All other weapons roll once per shot. Doing multiple types of pilot damage in a single barrage doesn't seem to incur more damage, disregarding knockdown damage. So a hit to the head AND blowing up a Torso section. Or blowing up a Torso section AND the ammo within it will only do one pilot damage if done in a single attack. Getting a crit on a part can cause any ammo inside to explode, which will blow the part it;s stored in and cause pilot damage.
Shooting a mech from an elevated position increases chances to hit the head, and from a lower position to hit the legs. From the side will get arms and torso sides if at the same elevation Arms torsos and head if shooting from above, arms legs and torsos if shooting from below with a small chance at hitting the core. Back is core and torso sides against back armor. Font is distributed among all parts against front armor but has the highest natural chance to hit the head.
Destroying a leg will cause a knockdown no matter if the mech was unsteady or not. Destroying both legs destroys the mech and gives 2 salvage. Kliing a pilot with at least the core and 1 leg still intact will give 3 salvage. Coring a mech gives 1 salvage.
KNOCKDOWNS
Knocking over a mech is a minimum of two attacks, one to fill the gauge and pass the unsteady threshold, and one to tip it over. When doing stability damage focus on attacks that fill the bar first. A mechs unsteady threshold is indicated as a small white triangle on their stability bar. Once this is passed during a round that mech loses all evasion charges. However the stability bar still needs to be filled to cause a knockdown. A mech that loses a leg starts with one stability damage bar always filled even if they are braced. Bracing reduces stability damage received.
The AI tends to stand up fallen mechs first within a phase. Gets those free called shots off quick before they get up if you happen to be in the same phase. Better option is to reserve until they move then knock them down and core them in one go.
Knocking over assaults can still be useful but only if it has already taken it's turn, which can be tough to control. But knocking over is only done for one of two reasons, to inflict pilot damage, to set up free precision shots. So it's usually employed on the last mech standing that you are trying to salvage, or you are coring the shit out of something to put it down. If you are just trying to core something just pick the mech that already went and kill it. Quickly dispatching enemies is the only way to survive 9 vs 4 assault battles.
DFA is great to use when your mechs legs are in good shape and were fully armored to begin with. You can basically safely get away with 1 per match depending on remaining forces. Its a concentrated attack which is much more devastating than dispersed fire like SRMS or lots of M lasers. And it's sure to fill a stability damage bar. So a stiff breeze will knock over a mech after that.
DEFENSE
Max your armor. Really. Only shave a little bit off, keep your back heavily armored too, especially late game. You will be outnumbered and possibly surrounded and it gives you another side to absorb damage with.
Ejecting is great for saving your pilots while still finishing a mission. It will destroy the head and any head components the mech might have had. Withdrawing can save time and money in repairs and injuries. I am stubborn and rarely do either.
Sprinting into trees is great. Jumping and bracing is great to draw fire when limiting other options. Face damaged sides away from enemy. Be very cautious in melee range, melee damage is concentrated damage and can destroy parts fast. Bulwark is really powerful. Bulwark AND the extra Evasive charge skill makes for some very durable pilots. Bruisers can alternate Alpha strikes with melee. I go light on heat sinks, usually enough to get 4-5 bars not counting support weapon slots.
Lots of enemy mechs do not have jump jets, use terrain to choose when to engage them. I always equip jump jets. Always Move max distance for evasion pips. Anything less is dangerous but sometimes necessary. Jumping will typically generate an extra evasion pip compared to moving except when sprinting with a high pilot skill. jumping also generates heat. Taking a turn to Brace to remove stability damage and heat can be a life saver. Using the valor ability is basically cheating as you can run in and melee and still have guard or sprint and guard. Rotate the mech that is up front getting beat on with ones hanging in the back line. Sometimes bringing that sniper forward to take some shots is the best way to keep everyone vertical. Once a hole is opened up in a mechs armor the AI will focus fire it. Use terrain to block LOS and reengage whenever possible. If your mechs are in a good position and have full evasion pips and or bulwark/ guard or full evasion and cover, reserve your turn and let the enemy wiff and do reduced damage... then respond to the enemy movements and concentrate fire to remove threats quickly.
CONTACT
When making contact with the enemy you have a brief window where you can still issue orders to the whole lance. If you wait too long only the mech that moved forward and made contact will have traveled. Here I usually just force everyone to sprint forward to keep them close and get evasion.
Touching the yellow cross that indicates the location of a mech lance with your sensor ring will generally activate those enemies. In most high end random missions there is a reinforcement force that is a bigger pain than the main force. Hunt the map for their most likely spot and go there first. Once they are activated the main force will make it's way to you. If you are quick you can usually be wrapping up combat there before they fully show up.
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