Early Pre-Campaign Strategy

[Grieferbastard]

Honestly I recommend moving the main story ahead fast. A couple missions in you'll end up with a Treb and a Cent and a huge, huge increase in available missions. Then you can set the main campaign aside and just merc it up without having to spend 6 weeks defiling a face-punching Centurion with LRMs. AC10, 3xsrm4, 2xml. Alpha, brawl, alpha. Similar Shad build but JJs and drop 1 ML and a srm4 to an SRM2, or use a ac5. Then Blackjack with AC20 and 2 MLs and a Treb and it's just days and days of exploding mech goodness.

Also the Jenner, early on. Backstabbing machine and it can 1 alpha turret generators.

Love this game so much. SO MUCH.

 

[Matt044]

I wouldn't recommend getting Guts on every pilot. Your LRM boat captain doesn't need it much, if you run a scout mech that pilot won't need it much (if he takes more than one hit hes probably already exploded) e.t.c.

If you wanted to play through the game with 6-7 pilots I guess Guts makes sense.. You'll have less downtime per pilot and on long story missions there is less risk of death. Guts wastes one of the two lvl1 specialisations though. I'd rather pay for more pilots and have them combat specialised than have a cheaper bill but sacrifice their mission potential for reduced campaign downtime.

I don't know how this will pay off for me in the late campaign.. but I've got 8 pilots so far and will get more as I need them. The upkeep is trivial and I'm loving the mission flexibility I get from their different skills.

 

[Panpiper]

I wouldn't recommend getting Guts on every pilot. Your LRM boat captain doesn't need it much, if you run a scout mech that pilot won't need it much (if he takes more than one hit hes probably already exploded) e.t.c.

Later in the game when you have specialized your lance properly and know how to use it, your fire support mechs will indeed come under fire less often. Early in the game, it is frequently every pilot for themselves in terms of what the enemy focuses on. And even later on, your fire support mechs most emphatically can and will be flanked. Go read the threads talking about pilot fatalities, there are loads of them, especially for the poor sot doomed to pilot the scout mech early on. It takes three half skull missions to get everyone to level four. It will not only keep them alive in the worst cases, it will help speed their healing when they just take a single hit or two as well.

... Guts wastes one of the two lvl1 specialisations though.

This is absolutely false. The extra hit point comes at level four. The Bulwark specialization comes at level five. Moreover, if you have already gotten the two specializations you wanted, you can raise any and all skills to level five and past it, you just don't get the 'specialization skill'.

 

[Matt044]

This is absolutely false. The extra hit point comes at level four. The Bulwark specialization comes at level five. Moreover, if you have already gotten the two specializations you wanted, you can raise any and all skill to level five and past it, you just don't get the 'specialization skill'.

Great point, I thought you were advocating specialising Bulwark, my bad

 

[Bandus]

@Panpiper - I've been using your guide for the early campaign, which has been working great! Thank you for taking the time to write it!

Regarding the Centurion, I've been grinding out these half skull missions and making sure to take an assassination mission whenever possible, however, I have never seen a Centurion yet. How rare were they in your experience?

 

[Panpiper]

@Panpiper - I've been using your guide for the early campaign, which has been working great! Thank you for taking the time to write it!

Regarding the Centurion, I've been grinding out these half skull missions and making sure to take an assassination mission whenever possible, however, I have never seen a Centurion yet. How rare were they in your experience?

You are most welcome.

I do not recall seeing a Centurion before I did the first story mission. That is not to say they don't appear, there is a lot of luck whenever an RNG (Random Number Generator) is involved. A Kintaro or Trebuchet can fill in for an LRM boat in the mean time, or just don't have one at all.

LRM boats are however really useful in some situations, like you've sensor scanned an SRM carrier and a demolisher on the other side of the mountain. You can just kill them with zero risk to you rmechs by lobbing missiles over the top. Make sure you have enough ammo though. Ten or twelve salvoes is not enough.

 

[Bandus]

Ah ha! I haven't done the first story mission yet which probably explains why I haven't seen any. I did see a Kintaro once though! I think I'll go ahead and do the 1st campaign mission in that case.

One minor suggestion if I may? In my reading of your guide, I noted:

Going into the first few campaign quest missions with a proper LRM boat instead of a nearly useless Spider will make life a heck of a lot easier and keep repair bills to a minimum.

My interpretation of that made me think it was best to get a Centurion before even doing the first story mission. I may have just read it too literally, but perhaps some clarification would help to prevent future misinterpretations?

Thank you again!

Edit: Also, I've found setting funding to "Spartan" helps to save a bit more money and the ill effects are minimal as morale can regularly gained on the battlefield.

 

[Tsar_Bomba]

An argument against an all salvage slider is if you brutalize the enemy you can end up with less than 6 salvage items and that will be a very sad payday.

 

[Bodha]

An argument against an all salvage slider is if you brutalize the enemy you can end up with less than 6 salvage items and that will be a very sad payday.

Havent had that that problem yet. I would say any time Ive taken pick 3 salvage Ive had at least 3 enemy mechs so even if I only had 1 salvage each I would still be able to pick a mech part with each pick.

 

[Haven_Games]

I got myself a Kintaro from 1 assassination mission (RNGessus be praised!). Does this sound like a reasonable loadout for an LRM boat?
2 x LRM10
1 x LRM5
3 x LRM10 ammo (14 full salvos)
2 x M Laser
1 x SRM4
1 x SRM4 ammo (25 salvos)

that went ~3 or 4 tons over the standard loadout, so that got paid in armor... I felt like keeping some of the standard range loadout would be prudent.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[Tsar_Bomba]

Havent had that that problem yet. I would say any time Ive taken pick 3 salvage Ive had at least 3 enemy mechs so even if I only had 1 salvage each I would still be able to pick a mech part with each pick.

Some of the early games have only vehicles. You don't know which ones until you're in it. If you pick all salvage you'll get screwed.

 

[Panpiper]

My interpretation of that made me think it was best to get a Centurion before even doing the first story mission. I may have just read it too literally, but perhaps some clarification would help to prevent future misinterpretations?

You are right. I added a whole other paragraph to make it more clear.

 

[Haven_Games]

During this early game play, many people get used to checking the 'contracts' page for what to do next. This is fine, that is what it is for, but it is not the only way to get work. You can also open the 'navigation' page and jump to a planet of your choice. There will be a completely new set of contracts at that planet, all of them at an average difficulty similar to the difficulty of the planet (number of skulls).

Later at one point, after you do a couple of story missions, you will find yourself orbiting a planet you've never been to before. If while there, you do what you are used to and 'only' check the contracts page to see what to do next, you will be presented with two and a half skull missions, FAR harder than you are used to! DO NOT DO THEM! You are not ready! You may technically win, but you will take FAR too much damage for it to be worth it. Instead open the navigation page and travel to a planet with one skull missions or whatever you can realistically handle.

Is this still true? I just finished the second mission (now on argus) and I followed the advice and ran back to Detroit and Belerophon, and neither of them had contracts. Darius only has from higher-level contracts.

Seems like I have to go to a system (travel from Detroit to Belerophon), check contracts, and there are some of that difficulty rating in another system (back in DETROIT! I was just there!!)..

 

[Madoushi]

Don't storyline missions come on some kind of fixed timer? If you spend too long slowly levelling up on side missions, won't the main story get away from you?

 

[Panpiper]

Don't storyline missions come on some kind of fixed timer? If you spend too long slowly levelling up on side missions, won't the main story get away from you?

There is no timer at all on the story missions. That may not be 'realistic', but it does make for more pleasant game play.

Is this still true? I just finished the second mission (now on argus) and I followed the advice and ran back to Detroit and Belerophon, and neither of them had contracts. Darius only has from higher-level contracts.

Actually I don't know for sure about this. Maybe I should fix that to be more clear. I didn't actually do any missions on those starter planets after getting the Argo. Instead I've mostly done a circuit between three stars just above them; Joppa, Cluff's Stand, and Liu's Memory, as the first two especially have relatively decent shops. Joppa actually sometimes has Highlander parts! They typically have two skull missions which I found sufficiently challenging in the beginning but not overwhelmingly difficult. It helps to read the other tips threads and follow their advice though. Joppa is an airless moon however, so if you intend to do missions there often, it helps to have relatively cool running mechs. (I do, and on planets where they might otherwise run 'too' cool, it means I can jump around a lot more.)

 

[Madoushi]

There is no timer at all on the story missions. That may not be 'realistic', but it does make for more pleasant game play.

I thought I read in a Dev interview that Story missions come up and if you don't do them when they're available, the Restoration fails and that eventually Santiago's faction will start offering you missions.

Is that not the case? Or do you have to actively engage in and fail the story missions for that to happen?

 

[Haven_Games]

Thanks! TBH, I haven't read through all of the other links. I foung this one to be so detailed and easy to follow. Thanks for the tip on Joppa. Mine run around 5 ticks average... we'll see how the hold up

update: Confirmed, arrived at Chuff's and had 2 on-world contracts available.

 

[gord96]

Thanks for this guide. Very helpful so far! I'm 9 hours in and yet to do the first story mission. just having fun grinding out half skull missions.

Do these missions go away once I start doing the story? I can probably handle one skull now.

Thanks again!

 

[Wissenschaft]

My early game build before I do the argo mission:

ShadowHawk - build it like a Wolverine. Ac/5 + 1 ML + 1 SRM 4 + SRM 2
Blackjack - AC/5 + 4 ML + 4 heat sinks
Vindicator and Spider are fine the way they are.

Early missions I'm looking for a better light mech. I want either a Panther for PPC snipping or a Jenner/Firestarter with 4 ML and more armor.

 

[DanDanikov]

Regarding assassination missions, I've found that sometimes your salvage ability is still pretty anemic, e.g. 1/6 max or so.

However, if you take out just the target alone then evac (an actual assassination!) your chances of rolling the other two pieces of salvage are that much higher. Even if the bodyguard are tanks, each kill means weapons and ammo being rolled against instead of that salvage, so you want to be surgical.