Just got the game from the Paradox's sale...

[Casko]

Which makes me want to ask you all, what are some Do and Don't for a newbie who just started the game? Should I restart fights if I misplay or get damaged needlessly? And what are some good basic builds /Mechs I should aim for when starting out. As well as some other newbie just started tips and tricks one might be good to know off.

 

[Timaeus]

Greetings!

I hope you enjoy your stay in these parts. Some much more knowledgeable of the game systems peeps will be along to help out with even more info, but first and foremost some tips I can give.

• First, move out of the starting area of campaign as soon as feasible. It sounds, like "duh" advice, but seriously while the starting area is designed to help the player continue to get a feel for the mechanics in a somewhat safe environment, it's also an area that gives out very poor mission rewards. Move on, and start taking risks.
• Second, in the first mission post 3 years later where you get a full lance to command, there's a guy called Decker in a Spider. It's not a horrible thing if he dies, but see how long you can have him last. A big tip early on for this, until you can move him into more sturdy scout, is doing your best to not let him get into positions that can overwhelm him. Honestly this tips goes for all your mechwarriors too, even when in sturdier 'mechs, but he's the easiest to have killed off initially.
• Third, Cicadas are...not good. It's not tracked as an item in the base game, but its engine weight is waaaay too much for its size. Because of this it does go fast, but has very little payload for weapons. Other 'mechs are better.
• Fourth, Bulwark is your friend. Percent damage reduction is very nice. Just don't necessarily let the enemies punch you.
• Fifth, don't be afraid to run non-heat neutral 'mechs. Balancing heat, armor, and firepower is key to successful 'mech builds, and completing contracts.
• Sixth, this community is a wealth of knowledge of the game. Feel free to ask questions.

Hope these help, and enjoy!

 

[Spartakus]

Welcome to the party.
I would not recommend restarting fights, you can just repair the damage in some time. Of course if you'll get damaged really bad, so that you can no longer tqake missions or even lose your early mechs permanently it's propably better to load a save game.
I can't talk about good builds as I hate to heavily customize my mechs, but there are some mechs that are excellent choices in stock configuration. In the early game look out for any medium mechs except cicadas. Also Firestarters, Jenners and Javelins (laser variant) ar great mechs that remain viable well within the late game.
For newbie tips on gameplay I strongly recommend learning about how initiative works and how to manipulate it using the resolve actions and reserving. No, seriously, reserving is the single most powerful tool in your inventory. When you master those the game will become so laughably easy that you'll mod the AI to be able to reserve as well.
Also, here are two basic tips from the thread in my signature:

Tip - Keeping Dekker alive:

you'll often face situations like this one:
View attachment 369661
It is the Spiders turn, the enemy will activate first in the next phase. The Shadow Hawk is damaged. It is tempting to use the Spider offensively and try to kill the Shadow Hawk. Don't do this. Not if you want to keep your light mechs. Even a badly damaged Shadow Hawk can kill most lights with a single punch. Or cripple them with an Alpha Strike.

Now in this special situation you could use the aforementioned precicion strike with the spider to lower the SHD's initiative and gang up on it. But if you can't kill it your Spider will pay the price. The smart move is to sprint or jump away into safety and let the better armored lancemates take the damage.

Tip: How to use a skirmisher:
View attachment 369671
It has reserved past all enemy mechs. Now it can jump behind the target, alpha in it's back and immediately jump back into safety before the enemy can react. Thanks to Ace Pilot it can even shoot twice although the Firestarter in this picture is too hot to do that. In a cooler environment and without previous heat that's a devestating maneuver.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

Greetings and welcome to the community!

I like to refer new comers to a guide made by one of the developers. Ecks Guide is great for learning the ropes and how the game works. See the link below...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1365402907

I'm not 100% sure the guide is up to date with the latest patches, so it may have an inconsistency, but overall it should be solid. I think it will help you out.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

As for my tips. Opinions may vary but in early game especially I like to stay mobile. I try to make sure I am moving in or into cover, or jumping into cover (especially with light mechs). Anything to keep them hard to hit and with damage reduction buffs.

I also like looking at the mechs in the Mechlab and seeing if they are a bit weak in the armor department. Many mechs are relatively lightly armored and can be improved. It may cost a heatsink or a jump jet or two, but that extra armor can make a difference. I tend to keep rear armor about stock, but I also try not to let the enemy get behind me.

With practice and playing a lot of this stuff will come to you. If you get a bit confused or are having difficulty, feel free to ask us and we will try and help.

 

[Divine Decoy]

TIP: Always try to take max armor to start with to keep pilots alive. Armor repair is free in this game (unlike Mechwarrior 5) but structure and stuff isn't. If a Mech has armor in every location its a perfect run.

Also consider getting a 6th pilot to train up encase of injuries

Yes refer to the Ecks guide

 

[Casko]

thanks for the helpful comments you all. really helpful for me

Also I saw a comment before the whole forum issues about keeping Pirates happy, or not going against them too often, if somebody could, is there some reason for this?

 

[Rubidium]

thanks for the helpful comments you all. really helpful for me

Also I saw a comment before the whole forum issues about keeping Pirates happy, or not going against them too often, if somebody could, is there some reason for this?

There's a random event where they offer you a pass to get access to the Black Market, which has better gear than the regular stores, but the prices depend on your relationship with the pirates. It's not critical unless you want to min-max things.

 

[Jade_Rook]

The pirates have really good gear on the black market. Not essential, but it can be helpful.

Other tips:

You have the option to EJECT pilots if they are about to be destroyed or to WITHDRAW from a mission if it looks like the repairs will cost more than the payment. Part of the fun is recovering from a bad mission, and you probably will have some early on. If you find yourself in an area where the missions are too hard, you can try retreating back to easier systems. I had to do that in my first campaign.

 

[Wayward Son 5]

Excellent advice so far!
I'll second the advice to keep mobile, especially in the early game. Evasion on light mechs is a powerful thing, and can keep you viable on missions where the numbers say you should be overwhelmed. Jumping behind cover can save a mech from a crippling attack, and combined with cautious use of Reserve you can end up with some powerful strikes on your opponents.
On your first playthrough or two, go with default game settings. They were set there for a balanced game, and were set well in my opinion. Once you've got a feel for the game in default, then you can start tweaking settings for more challenging campaigns and careers. (Higher difficulty gives higher scores in career mode, but are, naturally, harder to complete.)
Don't worry about hiring too many mechwarriors at first. They each cost you on monthly salary, and you only really need 4 at any single job. That said, having a couple backups lets you run more missions before needing to advance the clock to heal injured mechwarriors. Find your own best balance.
Finally, in the campaign the priority missions pay REALLY well, but are usually a little tougher than advertised and advance the plot. They can be a real boon when your mech repairs are about to bankrupt you.

 

[Casko]

Thanks! Really appreciate all this

Right. One More thing. Are the story missions timed? or can I keep holding back on them to grind abit, or just spend some time repairing my mechs? or is there some nonstandard game overs if you do not do them in time?

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

Thanks! Really appreciate all this

Right. One More thing. Are the story missions timed? or can I keep holding back on them to grind abit, or just spend some time repairing my mechs? or is there some nonstandard game overs if you do not do them in time?

In the Campaign, You can grind as long as you need to. The story missions will stay there until you play them.

 

[KDubya]

I'd suggest doing some Skirmish battles to see how things work and what doesn't work without worrying about affecting your campaign.. With the mechlab you can even tinker with making new builds to see what you can do with a given mech chassis.

Lots of us were in the Beta and got hundreds of hours in skirmish battles to learn the game.

I'd also recommend checking out Eck's guide on tactics.

Also remember this is not Xcom where one bad mission will cascade into a failed campaign. The game is designed to allow you to live with your consequences and recover which makes it a lot more fun and immersive. Save the metal not the meat.

 

[Kharille]

I'm mostly on my 2nd playthrough. Got a 3rd playthrough started where I want to get along with one of the factions but 2nd playthrough is more fun with a lot of the best hardware. Don't worry how you play it. I am sure I abused the save option first time, 2nd time round I withdraw or evacuate more often. Yes, the death of a mechwarrior can be traumatic but until that happened that memorial wall was damned empty....

I might deliberately populate that for fun now that I think about it....

 

[ntw]

Most importantly I'd suggest - play the game how you want to!

Personally I never reload and retry a mission I fail, I find it much more satisfying to try and recover.

Other general advice - the basic Mech designs are generally sub-optimal. As others have said you can never go wrong with adding more armour, and I like to adapt Mechs to fit specialist roles or at the very least fit weapons which have similar ranges (e.g. the default Shadow Hawk is very much a "jack-of-all-trades, mater of none"). So I'll design a fire support mech with loads of LRMs, a Sniper with AC2's or AC5's or PPCs, a close range model with SRMs and MLasers, etc...

 

[stjobe]

As others have said you can never go wrong with adding more armour

The best part? Removing things and adding armour takes no time, so you can do it even before your first mission (e.g. I often remove the SRM-4 + ammo from any Jenner I get in my starting lineup, Commando 1B's lose the SRM-2 + ammo, and so on). The gained tonnage is used for more armour, and it makes a pretty large difference in those first few missions when your MechWarriors are all rookies.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

Another thing too is sometimes mechs can come with a little too much ammo. I try to make sure I have about 12+ turns worth of shots/salvos of ammo.

For instance, I think the Centurion A might have 2 tons of LRM ammo, but in my experiences, really only needs 1 ton to last a mission. Freeing up that one ton is crucial to adding additiinal armor to the relatively low stock armor Centurion A.

It works both ways too. Some Mechs come a little under ammo'd as well. If I remember right, I think the Hunchback 4G and/or the Enforcer might need an additional ton of ammo too.

 

[Jade_Rook]

Personally, I find 10 turns of ammo is sufficient for most fights. I do occasionally run out, but by then the battle is usually about over (or I need to give serious thought to running).

The Hunchback has 10 shots stock, which I consider just enough, especially for an AC/20. Low range and high recoil mean it probably won't be firing as often as an LRM boat.

The Enforcer only has 8, which is a bit light.

The stock Centurion fires have two tons of LRM ammo which is double what it needs (but I don't think the armor is that bad ). Personally, I like switching the AC/10 for an AC/5 and 20 LRM tubes. Makes a nice, early support mech.

I am a bit of a contrarian with my builds. I don't consider max armor, heat neutral, or jump jets necessary on my builds. That said, armor is an easy add and it really does help with repairs.

 

[Spartakus]

Don't listen to all those Frankenmech builders. You are missing out on all the fun of fielding a Mech that truly sucks. The only thing you should always do in the mechlab is moving ammo out of the center torso.

Snark aside, play the way that is the most fun to you as it is the only right way to play. But I seriously recommend that you try out stock mechs, or at the very least keeping armor untouched.

 

[Jade_Rook]

Playing stock is all well and good until you get a SHD-2D which has great base stats, but an absolutely horrible stock loadout.