Gain 3 of 3 salvageparts by one mechkill

[Gamble]

I know a lot of the Gamers have find this out, but this is for all of them who are new at the game or don't noticed this.

At the beginning I explain my thoughts, in the later part thick titled "So you gain three parts by one kill." explained how you get 3 of 3 parts, scroll down if you want the easy explaination.

Base is the "Surgical Extraction" achievment.
Not all of the following informations are fix, some of them are suppotions.

The following I replicated several times purposefully, and every time i get three salvage parts. You can use the informations below to expand the following way for enemy pilots with 4 or more health, at the moment enemys with 4 health is the highest i can verify. I believe 5 is possible too, but it will be really hard to incap the pilot.



First, don't kill the Mech.
Only kill the Mechwarrior inside.

At the moment i can't verify that destroying only one leg giving only two salvage parts. Sometimes i have two parts sometimes three, if i destroy one leg during try to extract the pilot. I explain it by saying that destroying the side torsos, without directly destroying the arms, somehow affects the amount of salvage parts.

Remember above, you need to kill the pilot without destroying the mech. To produce a "Pilot incapacitated" or i call it above killed or extracted the pilot, you need to injure the enemy mechwarrior.

Ways i find out how to injure the pilot:
- destroy a side torso (easiest way)
- knockdown the mech by enough stability damage (don't destroy a leg if you can avoid it, read above)
- ammo explotion (difficult and not ever helpful, it damage and could destroy the CT)
- hitting the head (at the moment i don't know a easy way for a most probably hit at the head)

If you have other theories about the salvage mechanic (which are the salvage parts, which will be destroyed by what and so on) or know other ways to injure the pilot, share it with me.

New
[QUOTE
IIRC, you, or the AI, can only get wounded once per attack.
So even if you inflict both RT, LT, and ammo explosion, it is still only one injury. The max you can inflict is thus 2, one for the attack, and one for the potential knockdown, as that is counted as a separate thing.[/QUOTE]
thanks @Herbert West New ended

So you gain three parts by one kill.
- destroy one side torso
- destroy the other side torso
- knock the mech down by stability damage, several times if needed
- if you have much luck, do a head hit or provokate an ammo explosion
- destroy the head (by @TheWackyWombat)

Most of the time destroy the side torsos and knock down the mech will be enough to incap the pilot. If the enemy has 4 health or more, you need more knockdowns or some head hits.


I hope this will help someone to get easy the mechs they wanted.
One of the best experiences in the game are moments you get your first heavy and assault mech.

 

[TheWackyWombat]

All your points seem fairly sensible, I just want to point out that a headshot WILL get you 3 salvage.

The rules are:
Inc by CT explosion (easiest kill) - 1 Salvage
Inc by taking legs off (med kill) - 2 Salvage
Inc by taking out pilot (no matter what method) - 3 Salvage

I find it kinda funny that taking out the pilot gets you 3... I find headshots almost impossible to get, so to take out the pilot I usually end up taking out 2 side torsos + 1 leg, which wrecks the mech much worse then just taking the legs out.

 

[Dheran]

My first Heavy was Jaeger-S and it was awful...

 

[Jack Frost]

It's kinda like how to properly butcher a pig to get the most usable parts.

 

[Promethian]

take out the pilot I usually end up taking out 2 side torsos + 1 leg, which wrecks the mech much worse then just taking the legs out.

It is true that you wreck more of the mech but its also dramatically harder to do. In this case I think its a case of gameplay trumping realism thus rewarding the more difficult task.

 

[Gamble]

All your points seem fairly sensible, I just want to point out that a headshot WILL get you 3 salvage.

I only managed two headshots so far. First time of this mechtyp was 3 enemys on field, so i can't verify it. Second time i only become two parts, causing in this i believe headshot-kill don't guarantee 3 parts.

Sorry if my suppotions are not all right, but its only suppotions.

@TheWackyWombat i have edited my post above

@Dheran my first heavy was a Quickdraw, my first assault a Banshee. I hope soon i will find a king crab

 

[Dheran]

My 2 Eurocents about getting 3 parts of a 'mech:

• Early game you meet a lot of 25% armour opponents. Trying to go for a 3-parter the usual way (side torsos + leg) usually ends up in getting CT cored instead due to random damage going into CT a lot of the time. I would argue that early game it is better to go for both legs kill instead. You can do that without using called shot by attacking the 'mech from side arcs, your shots have high probability to go into leg from the side.
• As soon as you're out of starting systems, hunt shops for LRMs with +Stability damage and boat them on one 'mech. I recommend Centurion - you get it for free, it has 3 missile hardpoints and a lot of tonnage to play with. Stability damage enhanced LRMs are key in getting knockdowns on heavy+ or fully armoured mediums.
  You get knockdowns faster this way, than if concentrating fire on the leg. Additionally, the risk of accidentally killing the 'mech is lower than with called shot (if it is not stripped of armour that is).

 

[Herbert West]

ends up in getting CT cored instead due to random damage going into CT a lot of the time.

There is, IIRC, also overflow damage.

Let's say you target a RT with 10 structure left, and fire two MLAS at it. The second one fully, and the first one may partially transfer damage to the CT, after the RT is toast.

 

[BunglingLummox]

Can confirm, headshots are three salvage. @TheWackyWombat has the right of it.

 

[Dheran]

There is, IIRC, also overflow damage.

Let's say you target a RT with 10 structure left, and fire two MLAS at it. The second one fully, and the first one may partially transfer damage to the CT, after the RT is toast.

Yes, there is. Which makes the called shot method even more difficult. Especially at the beginning, where one extra Medium Laser hit makes it a CT destruction instead of RT/LT destruction.

Additional tidbit of information - game limits the amount of wounds you can get from different sources. Say you get a head hit and side torso destroyed in one attack - the enemy will only be wounded once.
Basing on my observations, the separately counted sources of pilot wounds are:

• Heat hits and torso destructions
• Ammo explosions
• Knockdowns

So if you have stripped of armour the location where enemy 'mech has ammo in, you can rake it with +Crit missile fire for pilot wounds with bonus firework show included.

 

[Herbert West]

IIRC, you, or the AI, can only get wounded once per attack.
So even if you inflict both RT, LT, and ammo explosion, it is still only one injury. The max you can inflict is thus 2, one for the attack, and one for the potential knockdown, as that is counted as a separate thing.

 

[Gamble]

Can confirm, headshots are three salvage. @TheWackyWombat has the right of it.

thanks @BunglingLummox @TheWackyWombat
i will edit one more time my first post.

There is, IIRC, also overflow damage.

Let's say you target a RT with 10 structure left, and fire two MLAS at it. The second one fully, and the first one may partially transfer damage to the CT, after the RT is toast.

thanks @Herbert West this was new for me

 

[Gamble]

one more time edited

thanks @Herbert West
i forgotten to write this

 

[Santjago]

So you extract / kill the pilot without destroying the mech.
- destroy one side torso
- destroy the other side torso
- knock the mech down by stability damage, several times if needed
- if you have much luck, do a head hit or provokate an ammo explosion
- maybe destroy the head (by @TheWackyWombat)

The easiest way is:
- For the first, lay all your SRM and LRM on him (without called shots of course). You'll knock him down and, with some luck, even could cause him a head hit. And due to overall inaccuracy of rockets his CT would be almost undamaged.
- While he is knocked out you need to flank him to achieve better angles and better chances to hit side locations - arm, leg and side torso. Choose what you want but remember that your primary target is side torso. Especially if it contains some ammo. As for arm, you can destroy it if something dangerous there like AC/20, and if there is no time to destroy a side torso, but in most cases it is not necessary - just focus on the side torso. Math your shots carefully to avoid damaging of CT.
- If your lance still has some firepower, try to destroy other ST or do some damage to leg. You don't need to destroy a leg completely - just do major damage to it.
- So, during one turn you can hit enemy pilot up to six (! - head hit, knockdown, both ST and ammo explosion in each ST) times, or at least twice (and he lost part of his weapons). Then let him to get up.
- Focus on his leg damaged at previous round with precise shot. You'll knock him down again easily.
- Flank him again and destroy remaining ST if you didn't it before.
- If you caused only four hits this way (2x knockdowns, 2x ST) and the pilot still live, try to dump him again carefully damaging last leg and CT via rockets. Or try to load a saved game and repeat to get some more luck.

And of course you can always take your best tactician and just smash an enemy head with precise shot by any heavy weapon.

 

[Zeusbunnyears]

I’ve been able to get a full thunderbolt by shooting an arm off then getting a center torso explosion. I thought I should have gotten only 2 with an arm missing, but you can remove an arm and then core the mech.

 

[RolandDT]

I can confirm it is possible to gain 3 pieces of salvage from the following:
- Destroying the head
- Destroying both legs

I will not say it is guaranteed either way, but it is certainly possible (confirmed headshot in the Jailbreak mission on a Quickdraw, and confirmed dual legs on a Highlander in a side mission).

 

[Dheran]

IIRC, you, or the AI, can only get wounded once per attack.
So even if you inflict both RT, LT, and ammo explosion, it is still only one injury. The max you can inflict is thus 2, one for the attack, and one for the potential knockdown, as that is counted as a separate thing.

Not sure about ammo explosions being counted into 1 damage per attack. I had a couple of situations, where the pilot was killed and I could not figure why, as the wounds did not add up.

 

[Dheran]

The easiest way is:
- For the first, lay all your SRM and LRM on him (without called shots of course). You'll knock him down and, with some luck, even could cause him a head hit. And due to overall inaccuracy of rockets his CT would be almost undamaged.
- While he is knocked out you need to flank him to achieve better angles and better chances to hit side locations - arm, leg and side torso. Choose what you want but remember that your primary target is side torso. Especially if it contains some ammo. As for arm, you can destroy it if something dangerous there like AC/20, and if there is no time to destroy a side torso, but in most cases it is not necessary - just focus on the side torso. Math your shots carefully to avoid damaging of CT.
- If your lance still has some firepower, try to destroy other ST or do some damage to leg. You don't need to destroy a leg completely - just do major damage to it.
- So, during one turn you can hit enemy pilot up to six (! - head hit, knockdown, both ST and ammo explosion in each ST) times, or at least twice (and he lost part of his weapons). Then let him to get up.
- Focus on his leg damaged at previous round with precise shot. You'll knock him down again easily.
- Flank him again and destroy remaining ST if you didn't it before.
- If you caused only four hits this way (2x knockdowns, 2x ST) and the pilot still live, try to dump him again carefully damaging last leg and CT via rockets. Or try to load a saved game and repeat to get some more luck.

And of course you can always take your best tactician and just smash an enemy head with precise shot by any heavy weapon.

When the enemy is knocked down, flanking has no effect. I mean which ever arc you choose, you fire as if firing at front arc. I find it easier to go for the torso when the enemy is up actually - by shooting from a side arc. Side arc is especially effective if using missiles.

 

[Gamble]

Most time if the enemy mech is knocking down, its the last injure i need to incap the pilot.

 

[Zeusbunnyears]

When the enemy is knocked down, flanking has no effect. I mean which ever arc you choose, you fire as if firing at front arc. I find it easier to go for the torso when the enemy is up actually - by shooting from a side arc. Side arc is especially effective if using missiles.

See I’ve found that it’s easier to hit a certain spot from directional facing. YMMV but if you can maneuver to the top of the mech when it’s down, you can generally get some good head crits.