Sandbox

New Player Guide

This isn't meant to be a complete guide to everything about BTA. It's meant to provide training wheels for new players as they try to do sick jumps off the learning curve and a helmet for when that inevitably goes wrong.

Differences from Vanilla

• Permanent Evasion: Evasion can no longer be reduced by firing at targets. This applies to both the player and the opfor. Only sensor lock and stability loss reduce evasion, though there are many more options to increase your accuracy.
• Sprinting: You can now fire after sprinting, albeit with an accuracy penalty.
• Pilot Behaviors: Pilots can panic, leading to them ejecting and can suffer from dynamic injuries with different effects, including bleedouts (this kills the pilot... eventually). They can also be sent into battle with injuries, with obvious risks.
• Positioning: Height matters, conferring a bonus to hit targets below you and a penalty to hit targets above you.
• Size Delta: Larger 'mechs have difficulty hitting smaller 'mechs and smaller 'mechs have a bonus to hit larger ones. This confers a +/- bonus/penalty per 15 ton difference between the two 'mechs shooting at one another, to a maximum of +/- 5 bonus/penalty to accuracy.
• Precision Strikes: When using the morale ability Precision Strikes no longer allows targeting of individual components, instead conferring a significant bonus to hit chances. Called shots to specific components can be re-enabled by the rank 8 Gunnery skill Precision Master or by equipping certain Fire Control Systems on 'mechs.
• Melee: A great many changes, but in brief: kicking and charging are now options. All weapons that are not AOE or that have a minimum range can fire in melee, but are limited by where on the mech they are. Weapons on arms cannot be used when punching, weapons on the legs cannot be used while kicking (yes, that's a thing) and no weapons fire on a charge.
• ECM: ECM no longer makes you "invisible" and instead provides flat bonuses in an area. Alongside Guardian ECM there are a variety of options that confer defense, view range and sensor bonuses. These are those circles you will see under some 'mechs.
• Mech Engineer: There are many, MANY more options available to you. Read the text carefully, but in brief:
  • XL engines free up weight but kill the 'mech if a side torso is lost
  • Core sizes determine how fast you can go and how many internal or required external heat sinks you need. Small engines require you to mount external heatsinks (but are free, weight-wise).
  • Heat sink kits of various types must match the heat sinks you are trying to use
  • Armor types have weight and armor related effects but cost "dynamic slots" that are redistributed automatically around the 'mech
• Reworked skills: See them here.
• Vehicles are scary but have significant weak spots that can be exploited. There will be an entire section dedicated to this, don't worry.

Starting a New Career

Quick prep: on a new install, load the Skirmish mech bay - this is required to load all assets properly.

Difficulty settings

There are a few bits to your starting settings that can ease your journey. I recommend these because as much as many people may want a tougher economic game, that often gets in the way of really coming to grips with the game's changed tactics and strategies - you can't figure out how you want to use heavies if you can never afford to get there. If you find you don't enjoy some of these options you can always change these later on in game:

1. Reduced Argo costs: does what it says on the tin. Helpful for getting the basics out of the way early like increased drop size, mech bays and medic/morale points
2. Friendly Fire: For your first career it's strongly recommended that you set this to either Enemies Only or Disabled until you understand how godawful your initial accuracy is. When set to All you will at some point core one of your own 'mechs by accident unless you are very careful.
3. Starting Planet: Affects what you're going to start with and what you're likely to fight. Safe bets are Steiner and Davion but any of the "standard" starts are good (except, arguably, for Arano, which is slightly harder). Please note the Funsies start and any other labelled as "Hard" are not kidding around. Only play them if you want a considerable challenge. For the complete lists of what 'mechs you can get in each start click here.
4. Parts for Assembly: 3-5 is reasonable. Anything beyond that and you're going to be limiting yourself of the chance to try out rarer 'mechs.
5. Mech Recovery: chance to reclaim the ruined metal corpse of your mech. Leave as standard.
6. Contract/Salvage: Self-explanatory. Leave as standard.
7. Commander Experience: Worthwhile to bump this up to 10000 so you have at least one pilot with good accuracy right from the start. Leave it at 7000 or drop it down in later careers.
8. Advanced MechWarriors: The likelihood of seeing those crazy pilots you can never hire because your rep is too low in the hiring halls.
9. Pilots per system: Self-explanatory. Leave as standard.
10. MechWarrior Progression/Exponent/Multiplier: Complicated math. Leaving it as standard is fine.
11. Lethality: This is lethality in regards to headshots and nothing else. Leave as normal.
12. Starting money: Definitely worth bumping up as a newbie.
13. Mechbay C-bills: Complicated math. Leaving it as standard is fine.
14. Shop Selling Prices/Scrap Return: I actually recommend turning scrap as low as it can go and bumping selling prices up a bit. This encourages you to be careful and strategic in what you salvage and build - scrapping stuff turns into a real option of last resort. "Oh crap I'm about to go bankrupt" sort of things. If left at 15% for both there is no functional difference between selling or scrapping a 'mech.
15. Mech Maintenance: Large cost increase. Leave as Easy.

Commander Generation

There are a few new things going on here. The first is largely fluff but also dictates some changes to your starting stats, the second also adjusts your stats but more notably confers a unique minor boost to your Commander which you can check by hovering your mouse over the orange text in the bar to the right

• Aerospace Pilot: gives the Commander a +5% sprint speed boost.
• Bounty Hunter: gives the Commander a +1% chance to hit headshots.
• Officer Trainee: gives the Commander bonus +2 resolve whenever resolve is gained (similar to how Comms Suites work).
• Offroad Racer: gives the Commander +30 to their unsteady threshold.
• Offworld Smuggler: gives the Commander a permanent +10% increase to their sensor range.
• Special Operative: gives the Commander +2 accuracy when firing at maximum range.

The third, however, confers significant bonuses.

• Pioneering Comrades: Grants BTA crew. Strong crew members with unique skills. Kinda OP, but a very good choice starting out. Also, pay your respects. Some are more difficult to use than others. They have special skills which can be found in their respective pilot pages, in their in-game bios and in the buffs section of the combat UI.
• Life Savings: Does what it says on the tin. Cash money and morale.
• Great Reputation: Increase your base MRB score. Your worst choice. You're not ready.
• Upengined Dropship: While on the surface of it the increase in speed is minor it DOES pay out eventually in saved transport costs and it's worth noting it unlocks and Argo upgrade you can't get anywhere else. Tech points are super useful early on as well and you get a free extra pilot which is nice.
• Ancestral Mech: You get a free light 'mech based on your origin location. This is given on the third in-game day. Note that with your Heavy Metal crate, this will put you over capacity, so be aware of that when making your choice. Also, don't... uh, don't select this option with the Deep Periphery ancestry.
• Radio Crowd: Another set of pilots, this time unique voice actors. See if you can recognize them! This may not seem like the best option, but when you're getting stomped, a worried whine from a creaky-voiced old man is hilariously uplifting.
• Original Adventurers: You get the original pilots you started with in the Vanilla adventure, now with upgraded portraits! If you lose Dekker this time, it's on you (it's always been on you).

Your portrait options are expanded, as are your voice options. Have fun.

First Days

Note: if this is your first time loading, with the Skirmish 'mech bay workaround, your game will likely chug at this point. This is normal. Tough it out or save and exit if you like.

The first thing that is going to happen is that you're going to get a big ol' crate of free spare parts. You might need them. You might end up selling them. Shut up and take them. At this point, open up your 'mech bay and take a look at what 'mechs you got on generation. This might influence your selection skills. For example, if you have a 'mech with an active probe, you might forego a second pilot with Sensor Lock/Target Prediction.

Which is a nice segue into your next task, which is evaluating your pilots. As stated, you should aim to have two pilots with Sensor Lock or Target Prediction. These will be critical to your early game because your accuracy is going to be terrible. Sensor locks still stack (with each other and Target Prediction), but Target Prediction does not stack with itself. Two sensor locks are fine, two target predictions aren't great, though you can roll them sequentially for an ongoing buff. If you lack two pilots with sensor-type skills, spec your commander into one. This might seem like a waste early on, but later on in the tree Master Tactician still ain't bad and Knife Fighter is fun or you can rush the Training Module 2 Argo upgrade in order to unlock the ability to re-spec your pilots.

If you DO have two pilots with sensor-type skills, go nuts. Getting to piloting 6 ASAP is advisable because that +1 hit defense is love, is life. Your commander is also the only pilot who can kinda get away with low Guts, but that's going to suck regardless. There's something to be said on running high Gunnery, especially if you have extra Commander XP and you rolled a good Heavy Metal crate, so consider waiting to make your choices until you know the full extent of your 'mech list.

Advance time. On the second day, you will receive an invite to BTA Live Fire exercises. If this is your absolute first time through, go through them. If this is your Nth time through having gotten stomped all thorough-like consider going through them.

Following the live exercises, the Heavy Metal crate drops. Yes, it's actually random what you get and has an extended drop table. If you're seeing repeated drops of the same mech, welcome to BTA! We are all helpless before the baleful eye of RNGesus.

Day three brings your Ancestral 'Mech if you chose one. You're almost ready to kick a 'mech in the crotch!

Now check out the biome of the system you started in. Are you on a lunar, desert or Martian world? Get the hell off it. You have enough going on without learning new heat management. Save that for, like, month 3 or something. Go find a different world (POSSIBLY not a half-skull world - still doing testing theory that half skulls are more vehicle-prone and thereby strictly more difficult for new players). If you do decide to fly off to another world, remember to start any refits and engineering before you take off and check the store for rare gear/ammunition. Engineering should prioritize MechTech points and bays when you first start - once you feel more comfortable with career progression feel free to branch out. Some refits to consider: replacing any autocannons with UAC/LBX versions if you got a crate with those in them, stripping large lasers and PPCs off lightly armored mechs and replacing them with armor and smaller lasers and, if you have an SRM boat, buying inferno ammo from the store if it's available.

Actual Advice

General Gameplay

Movement

With permanent evasion, the game slightly favours lighter mechs that can move. Obviously Bulwark and Cover are still great, but lighter mechs are much, much more viable than they were in the vanilla game. As a rule, sprint for max evasion pips every turn unless you can keep a majority of them and stay in cover. 8 pips good, 6 pips and cover good, 5 pips and cover... ennnnh?

Situations where you're confident in killing the last target may allow for just moving for better positioning and accuracy, but early on, keep those pips up. You'll be safer and learn more.

Sprinting reduces your accuracy by -2 and jumping reduces it by -3. The jump penalty can be moderated by using it to take high ground, which confers a bonus based on how high you are compared to your target (and negatives for the opposite). This means that early on, you really need to get your Kenobi on and take that high ground. Take the high ground and bait the enemy towards you. At the very least equalize the heights.

Positioning continues to matter in BTA, with all the same tricks you learned in vanilla, but with a new caveat: obstructed targets get damage reduction to certain parts of their bodies. 'Mechs take 50% less damage to their legs when LOS is obstructed (look veeerrry closely at the spot where your targeting line changes color. See that eye? that means obstructed) and vehicles take the same to all parts, minus the turret. Quad mechs (yes, BTA has those) take 75% less damage. All of this benefits the opfor as well as yourself, so pay attention.

Shooting

A major change to shooting in BTA is the ability to change firing modes and ammo types. Click the ammo to switch between ammo types you have equipped and click the x2 or firing mode to switch between, well, firing modes. Note that weapons with rapid fire modes have jam chances that usually take over at 50% of their max firing rate. Clearing a jam is complicated math based on your Gunnery skill - when low it can feel like forever before your UAC10 clears, alas.

Speaking of UACs, note that because of refire penalties on autocannons and similar weapons, you take penalties on accuracy when firing autocannons on subsequent turns. This mechanic was present in vanilla, but less accuracy variables, and vanilla's... fudging of accuracy made it really easy to ignore, aside from like, AC20s. Early on in BTA it you will likely find it useful to take a break between rounds firing autocannons.

Targeting, while nerfed with the changes of precision strike, is still incredibly important in BTA. When you do get a called shot off, right click the mech and hover over the parts in the top drop-down to identify what gear is where. You'll eventually internalize like "what mechs have XL engines" with enough play but it's useful to find out where the ammo is, so you can target or avoid the fireworks associated with those. That outline also gives you the armor and structure totals for each part, letting you determine how much fire based on your hit percentage to direct at, say, a leg that you want to lop off.

Salvage

NOTE: There are some combinations of parts-to-salvage and damaged parts that give wonky results and sometimes things just go wrong in game. All numbers provided below are based on 5 parts salvage and are verified where possible but please understand it's not an exact science 100% of the time and sometimes Unity just decides that memory sector can go fuck itself and you too.

Salvage works much like vanilla, but given all the new shiny 'mechs lying around, you might be tempted to try and focus on getting some that interest you. That's a sane idea.

Generally, the same ideas apply in vanilla - always take max salvage (except in duels). Legging and headshots are best, and prioritize parts over gear. But there are some new elements as well.

• The big ones are XL engines. You can blow out a side torso, which destroys the engine but you get a majority of parts. Note: this will not work with Clan XL engines.
• In addition to kneecapping and headshotting, you have two more high-salvage options:
  • Ejecting: basically a self-headshot, a 'mech with an ejected pilot with all limbs intact will result in max salvage. Forcing pilots to panic is a fantastic early game source of new additions to your 'mech bay.
  • Engine crit-out: an engine has three crit "wounds." If you manage to crit the engine three times without coring the 'mech, it leaves max salvage (assuming you didn't blow off any limbs). Note that sometimes you will see "CRIT X3." These count as 1 crit. Sorry, engine makes the rules, not me.
• In cases where there are some extremely high priority pieces of gear on "offer" or where you don't have many salvage picks, you may want to prioritize gear over 'mech parts. Instead of trying to save parts, core the 'mech. You get 1 piece of the mech and all of its (undestroyed and not on destroyed parts) gear. If you really want to manipulate your loot pool you can pick all the arms and torsos off a mech to make sure it eventually only gives you 1 part and 0 gear.
• You can construct 'mechs out of related variants - HBK-4G, HBK-4J, and HBK-4N can all be used to build a Hunchback. The one built is the one with the majority of parts. Note that some 'mechs may "appear" the same as others, but are in different weight classes - Centurian-9s and -10s are good examples. These cannot be used to build each other.

Dealing with Vehicles

Vehicles, in general, have elevated armor and reduced structure compared to 'mechs. The lighter ones also move ridiculously quickly and the heavier assault vehicles mount an absolutely withering amount of firepower.

There are several options available to you for dealing with them, however.

1. Vehicles take 1.8x from melee. This, plus your expanded melee options, like double kicks from the Guts tree and the sheer damage output from charging, makes for effective removal of medium and lighter vehicles.
2. Vehicles don't take heat damage, but take that damage as direct damage, doubled. Inferno SRMs, mortars and plasma weaponry as well as traditional flamers work really well here, as is trapping them in burning forests as they take damage when starting in a on-fire tile.
3. Thunder, aka FASCAM, ammo is good for trapping vehicles as they will try to avoid the mines it lays. Does reasonable damage if they don't.
4. Vehicle line of sight is limited compared to 'mechs - their height matters. This makes taking down assault vehicles potentially easier because of their slow speed. Stick a rock between them and your lance and sensor locks and indirect fire can ruin their day, even when they show up in a 1.5 skull mission.
5. Piercing weapons are an option but require you to boat them in large numbers in order to have immediate effects.

In general though, the big problem people face with vehicles is prioritization. That little Packrat is absolutely irritating and when its Large Laser hits it can hurt, but it is likely a lower priority than the slower vehicles, even a junky Hunter. So long as you're properly protecting your facings, save your shots until you can safely mass enough fire to land hits through its 8 evasion + defense bonuses. A Mortar carrier with Mortar 8s? Kill that thing 'now'. Carriers, except for some laser carriers still, uh, carry the full weight of their threat from vanilla.

There's an upside to vehicles as well. They are gear piñatas. Specialty ammo types, artillery pieces and even some Angel ECM are available early on in your career from vehicles that are likely to spawn early on.

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Old Stuff w/ Notations

Reminder Add categories to things that use the same slot e.g. Category:Cockpits Category:Structure Category:Armor Category:Sensors A Category:Sensors B and maybe gear categories: Category:ECM Category:TTS Category:Probes

Actuators

Leg Actuators

Hip Actuators (Stable Hip)

Upper Leg Actuators (Speedy Upper Leg)

Lower Leg Actuators (Lower Leg Jackrabbit (Pitban), Lower Leg Kangaroo++ (Pitban), Lower Leg Kung Fu (Maltex), Lower Leg MMA+ (Maltex), Lower Leg Muay Thai++ (Maltex), Lower Leg Wallaby+ (Pitban), Speedy Lower Leg (Generic))

Foot Actuators (Foot Axe+ (Earthwerks), Foot Epsilon (Rawlings), Foot Omega++ (Rawlings), Foot Omicron+ (Rawlings), Foot Roundhouse++ (Earthwerks), Foot Scissor (Earthwerks), Speedy Foot (Generic))

Arm Actuators

Shoulder Actuators (Shoulder Blitz (Kallon), Shoulder Onslaught+ (Kallon), Shoulder Tackle++ (Kallon))

Upper Arm Actuators (Upper Arm Block (Hellespont), Upper Arm Hinder+ (Hellespont), Upper Arm Impede++ (Hellespont))

Lower Arm Actuators (Lower Arm (Generic), Lower Arm Behemoth+ (Friedhof), Lower Arm Colossus++ (Friedhof), Lower Arm Cronus+++ (Friedhof), Lower Arm Gargantuan++ (Friedhof), Lower Arm Heracles+ (Friedhof), Lower Arm Perseus (Friedhof), Lower Arm Theseus (Friedhof), OmniPod Lower Arm (Generic))

Hand Actuators (Hand (Generic), Hand Alpha+++ (Coventry), Hand B20+ (Coventry), Hand B40++ (Coventry), Hand B60++ (Coventry), Hand X55 (Coventry), Hand X65 (Coventry), Hand X75+ (Coventry), OmniPod Hand (Generic))

Armor

Clan Standard

Ferro-Fibrous (IS and Clan)

Ferro-Lamellor

Hardened Armor

Heavy Armor Plating

Heavy Ferro

Light Ferro

Primitive Armor

Reactive Plating

Reflective Coating

Retro Light Plating

Stealth Armor (Regular and BA)

Ultra Ferro (FedSuns faction store exclusive)

Cockpit

Advanced Command Module (Cyclops exclusive)

Armored Cowl (Armored Cowl, Armored Cowl+, Armored Cowl++)

Battle Computer (Cyclops exclusive)

Bracing Cockpit (Taurian Concordat faction store exclusive)

Command Console

DNI Cockpit

Primitive Cockpit

Small Cockpit

Torso Mount Cockpit (Dark Mirage)

Torso Direct Neural Interface Cockpit (Dark Mirage)

Fire Control Systems (FCS Apollo, FCS Artemis IV, FCS Adv. TC, Multi-trac FCS, Location Designator FCS (Called Shot FCS))

Cooling

E-Cooling (+1/+2/+3/+4/+5/+6)

Exchangers (Exchanger, Exchanger+, Exchanger++) (Include formula)

Heat Sink Kits (cDHS, Laser, DHS, Proto DHS, BA)

Heat Sinks (SHS, DHS, Clan DHS, Laser Heat Sink)

Heat Banks (Heat Bank, Improved Heat Bank, Bulk Heat Bank)

Engines

Compact Engine

Fuel Cell Engine

I.C. Engine

Jury-Rigged XL Engine

LAM Engine

Light Fusion Engine

Primitive Engine

XL Engine (IS and Clan)

XXL Engine (IS and Clan)

Engine Cores (050-400)

Gyros

Gyro Compact

Gyro Defense (Defense, Defense+, Defense++)

Gyro Melee (Melee, Melee+, Melee++)

Gyro Stability (Stability, Stability+, Stability++)

Gyro XL

Gyro+++

OmniMech

Melee Weapons

Backhoe (Excavator exclusive)

Chainsaw (Crosscut exclusive)

Claws (Claw, Digger Claw, Industrial Claw]]

Crane

Dual Saws (Crosscut exclusive)

Hatchet

Lance (Valkyrie II exclusive)

Mace

Retractable Blade

Spikes (Kick only weapon?)

Sword

Sensors A (Top Sensor Slot)

Rangefinder (Rangefinder, Rangefinder+, Rangefinder++, Rangefinder+++) (Occupies top sensor slot)

Sensors B (Bottom Sensor Slot)

Comms Suite (Comms Suite, Comms Suite+, Comms Suite++, Comms Suite+++) (Occupies bottom sensor slot)

TTS

TTS Ballistic (Ballistic, Ballistic+, Ballistic Evasion+, Ballistic Evasion++)

TTS Energy (Energy, Energy+, Energy Evasion+, Energy Evasion++)

TTS Indirect (Indirect, Indirect+, Indirect++)

TTS Missile (Missile, Missile+, Missile Evasion+, Missile Evasion++)

Structure

Cobbled Endo-Steel (C)

Composite

Reinforced (Unique to Loader Kings and CGR-1R1)

Endo-Composite

Endo-Steel (IS and Clan)

Miscellaneous

Ambient Targeting System (Takes up cockpit + Sensors A+B slots)

Avionics (LAM only)

CASE (CASE, CASE II, Clan CASE II)

Cockpit SLIC (Takes up cockpit, Sensors B and bottom life support slots)

M.A.S.C. (MASC and Clan MASC)

PPC Capacitor

Shields (Small Shield and Medium Shield (M Shield Valkyrie II exclusive))

Stealth Field (Takes up Sensors A+B slots)

Supercharger (Regular and BA)

T.S.M. (TSM and Prototype TSM)

Electronic Warfare (ECM/Probes)

Active Probes (BAP, Clan Active Probe, Clan Light Active Probe, Boosted BAP, Bloodhound AP)

C3 (C3 Slave, C3 Master, C3i)

ECM (Guardian ECM, Clan Guardian ECM, Angel ECM, EWS (Electronic Warfare Suite (Called Warfare Suite in game)), Experimental EWAR Suite, ECM Equipment (Proto EWS), BA ECM)

Null Signature System (Not compatible with Stealth Armor)

Jump Jets

Jump Jets (Standard 10t-55t/Heavy 60t-85t/Assault 90t-100t) NOTE: Super heavies cannot mount jump jets

Improved Jump Jets (Standard 10t-55t/Heavy 60t-85t/Assault 90t-100t) NOTE: Super heavies cannot mount jump jets

Jump Turbines (LAM JJs: Standard 10t-55t/Heavy 60t-85t)