Skills and Abilities

Skills and abilities provide tangible battlefield effects and help specialize your pilot in a specific role. Skill tree trait bonuses (e.g. +Accuracy% from Gunnery) are shown as a cumulative bonus rather than their individual increase to save you having to add it all up yourself.

Skills

Level	XP Cost	Total XP	Gunnery	Piloting	Guts	Tactics
1	-	-	+1% ranged hit chance 10% unjam chance	+2.5% melee hit chance	-5.0% chance to die when incapacitated 3 maximum health	+2% resolve generation
2	100	100	+2% ranged hit chance 20% unjam chance	+5.0% melee hit chance	-10.0% chance to die when incapacitated	+4% resolve generation
3	400	500	+3% ranged hit chance 30% unjam chance	+7.5% melee hit chance	-15.0% chance to die when incapacitated	+6% resolve generation
4	900	1,400	+4% ranged hit chance -15% jam chance 40% unjam chance 15% Chance for +15% stab. dmg	+10.0% melee hit chance +0.1 sprint multiplier	-20.0% chance to die when incapacitated 4 maximum injuries	-1 indirect fire penalty +8% resolve generation
5	1,600	3,000	+5% ranged hit chance -1 recoil 50% unjam chance Ability: Multitarget or Battlelord or Intensify Firepower	+12.5% melee hit chance Ability: Sure Movement or Phantom or Sideslip	-25.0% chance to die when incapacitated +1 punch hit Ability: Bulwark or Shielded Stance or Redundant Components	+3 accuracy in min. range +10% resolve generation Ability: Sensor Lock or Target Prediction or Target Painting
6	2,500	5,500	+6% ranged hit chance 60% unjam chance	+15.0% melee hit chance +1 hit defense +3 melee defense	-30.0% chance to die when incapacitated +3% Heat Efficiency	Called shot bonus +12% resolve generation
7	3,600	9,100	+7% ranged hit chance -2 recoil 70% unjam chance	+17.5% melee hit chance +0.2 sprint multiplier	-35.0% chance to die when incapacitated 5 maximum injuries	-2 indirect fire penalty +14% resolve generation
8	4,900	14,000	+8% ranged hit chance 80% unjam chance Ability: Precision Master or Energy/Ballistic/Missile Master or Perfect Targeting	+20.0% melee hit chance Ability: Ace Pilot or Invisible Target or Street Racer	-40.0% chance to die when incapacitated Ability: Juggernaut or Brawler or Brute Force	+6 accuracy in min. range +16% resolve generation Ability: Master Tactician or Knife Fighter or Sensor Sweep
9	6,400	20,400	+9% ranged hit chance -62.5% jam chance 90% unjam chance 15% Chance for +15% dmg	+22.5% melee hit chance +2 unsteady threshold	-45.0% chance to die when incapacitated +6% Heat Efficiency	Called shot mastery +18% resolve generation
10	8,100	28,500	+10% ranged hit chance 100% unjam chance Ability: Stone Cold or Overwhelming Aggression	+25.0% melee hit chance +3 hit defense +6 melee defense Ability: Lightfoot or Spotter	-50.0% chance to die when incapacitated 6 maximum injuries Ability: Defensive Formation or Hull Down	-3 indirect fire penalty +20% resolve generation Ability: Eagle Eye or Command and Control

Abilities

A list of abilities in BTA. Some provide passive "always-on" bonuses and others must be activated during battle.

Mech Pilot Abilities

These abilities are primarily available to Mech (M) and Mech/Vehicle (MV) pilots. Vehicle (V) pilots have access to: Multi-Target, Precision Master, Sure Movement, Ace Pilot, Shielded Stance, Sensor Lock, and Master Tactician as detailed in this FAQ post.

Skill Tree	Level	Icon	Abilitiy	Description
Gunnery	Level 5		Multitarget	ACTION: Fire weapons at up to three separate targets within this 'Mech's current firing arc.
			Battlelord	ACTION: Supercharge your mech for a turn, dealing 15% greater damage and hitting with +2 accuracy for the turn. Generates an extra 30 heat this turn. 4 turn cooldown. Costs 20 Resolve to use.
	Level 8		Precision Master	PASSIVE: Attacks with a single weapon ignore COVER and GUARDED on the target. Additionally, enables called shots on targets.
			Energy Master	PASSIVE: Grants a 10% damage bonus and +1 accuracy to attacks with energy weapons.
			Ballistic Master	PASSIVE: Grants a 10% damage bonus and +1 accuracy to attacks with ballistic weapons.
			Missile Master	PASSIVE: Grants a 10% damage bonus and +1 accuracy to attacks with missile weapons.
			Battle Armor Master	PASSIVE: Grants a 10% damage bonus and +1 accuracy to attacks with battle armor weapons.
			Artillery Master	PASSIVE: Grants a 10% damage bonus and +1 accuracy to attacks with artillery weapons.
	Level 10		Stone Cold	ACTION: Supercharge your cooling system for a turn, gaining +60 heat dissipation for the turn, at the cost of responsiveness in the controls. Your initiative is reduced by 2 for 2 turns. 4 turn cooldown. Costs 20 Resolve to use.
Piloting	Level 5		Sure Movement	PASSIVE: 'Mechs piloted by this MechWarrior gain one bonus Evasion charge after moving (can exceed the unit's maximum). If the move is not a sprint, jump, or charge to melee, the 'Mech also gains ENTRENCHED (50% stability damage reduction). Finally, the unit also gains 5% damage reduction against Area-of-Effect attacks.
			Phantom	ACTION: Blur your 'Mech's sensor signature such that you gain +2 evasive charges from movement for two turns. 4 turn cooldown. Costs 20 Resolve to use.
	Level 8		Ace Pilot	PASSIVE: A 'Mech piloted by this MechWarrior can move after shooting if it has not moved yet.
			Invisible Target	PASSIVE: This pilot's evasive charges are immune to being removed by sensor lock effects. Additionally, pilot gets +2 defense at all times.
	Level 10		Lightfoot	PASSIVE: Superior piloting skill lets you use waypoint movement to plot a perfect path during a sprint as well as ignore land mines.
Guts	Level 5		Bulwark	PASSIVE: Gain a flat 15% damage reduction against normal attacks at all times as well as 10% damage reduction against Area-of-Effect attacks. These stack with damage reduction from Brace and from cover sources.
			Shielded Stance	ACTION: Activate in order to gain a flat 50% damage reduction regardless of cover or positioning as well as gaining 1 initiative. The DR lasts until your next turn, initiative only applies next turn. 4 turn cooldown. Costs 20 Resolve to use.
	Level 8		Juggernaut	PASSIVE: Successful Melee attacks knock your target back one Initiative Phase. Braces after Melee and DFA. Also grants one extra attack using physical weapons such as Hatchets, Maces, and Swords.
			Brawler	PASSIVE: Grants a 35% damage bonus to kicks, punches, and DFAs. Reduces self-damage from DFAs by 50%. Grants one extra punch attack.
	Level 10		Defensive Formation	ACTION: Activate in order to gain a flat 20% damage reduction regardless of cover or positioning for all friendly units. The DR lasts for 2 turns. 6 turn cooldown. Costs 20 Resolve to use.
Tactics	Level 5		Sensor Lock	ACTION: Select a target within sensor range to reveal it until the end of the current round and remove two of its EVASIVE charges. The target also gains +2 SENSORS IMPAIRED effect. Using Sensor Lock ends your turn.
			Target Prediction	ACTION: Advanced heuristics provide your lancemates with +2 accuracy for the remainder of this turn. Does not affect this unit. 4 turn cooldown. Costs 30 Resolve to use.
	Level 8		Master Tactician	PASSIVE: 'Mechs piloted by this MechWarrior gain +2 Initiative, and remove one bar of stability damage when Reserving.
			Knife Fighter	PASSIVE: Gain a +33% boost to all support weapon short and medium range brackets as well as +10% damage with support weapons.
			Bombardier	PASSIVE: Gain a +33% boost to all bomb bay weapon range brackets as well as +10% damage with bomb bay weapons.
	Level 10		Eagle Eye	PASSIVE: Gain a +25% boost to sensors, sight, all weapon long and max range brackets, and a 2.5% Called Shot bonus.

Vehicle Pilot Abilities

These abilities are available to Vehicle (V) and Mech/Vehicle (M/V) pilots.

Skill Tree	Level	Icon	Abilitiy	Description
Gunnery	Level 5		Intensify Firepower	ACTION: Cannot be used if you have moved this turn. Intentionally pillbox this tank, losing all ability to move this turn. In exchange, gain +30% damage this turn. 4 turn cooldown. Costs 30 resolve.
	Level 8		Perfect Targeting	PASSIVE: This unit ignores two enemy evasion at all times.
	Level 10		Overwhelming Aggression	PASSIVE: All damage dealt is increased by 10%.
Piloting	Level 5		Sideslip	ACTIVE: For a single turn, this unit ignores terrain bonuses and penalties as well as landmines this turn.Permits hovers to move through trees. Has a 3 turn cooldown. Costs 10 resolve.
	Level 8		Brute Force	ACTIVE: Supercharge this tank's movement, gaining 60 meters of speed at the cost of damage to the tank's structure equal to 10% of its current structure value. 3 turn cooldown. Costs 20 resolve.
	Level 10		Spotter	ACTIVE: This unit uses targeting and spotting systems to transmit better movement paths to an allied unit, granting that unit increased movement speed (+60 meters) for a turn. Spotter has a 500 meter range. 4 turn cooldown. Costs 40 resolve.
Guts	Level 5		Redundant Components	PASSIVE: Reduces incoming critical damage chance by 50%.
	Level 8		Street Racer	PASSIVE: This unit takes 20% less damage at all times.
	Level 10		Hull Down	ACTION: Cannot be used if you have moved this turn. Intentionally pillbox this tank, losing all ability to move for this turn and the next turn. In exchange, take 90% reduced damage from all sources until the end of your next turn. 4 turn cooldown. Costs 30 resolve.
Tactics	Level 5		Target Painting	ACTION: This unit uses a high-power targeting laser to paint an enemy target instead of firing weapons this turn. Allied units gain a +3 hit chance against that target for 2 turns. Target Painting has a 500 meter range. Does not stack with TAG equipment. 4 turn cooldown. Costs 30 resolve.
	Level 8		Sensor Sweep	ACTION: Perform an AoE Sensor Lock on all enemies within a radius of 350 meters. 5 round cooldown. Costs 60 resolve. Using Sensor Sweep ends your turn.
	Level 10		Command and Control	PASSIVE: Using special on-board command and control electronics, this unit serves as a lance master, gaining +1 initiative, +10% sensor and sight range, and +1 resolve generation for itself in combat.

Universal Abilities

These abilities are available to all pilots: Mech (M) Vehicle (V) and Mech/Vehicle (MV) pilots.

Universal	Level 1		First Aid	ACTION: Use this Ability to reduce pilot bleed rate for 3 turns. Costs 15 resolve. Must be activated before moving.
			Emergency Vent	ACTION: Performs an emergency coolant dump, venting 100 heat (in addition to your normal cooling) in a single action. Must be used before movement and consumes the unit's entire turn. Costs 15 resolve.
			Careful Maneuvres	ACTION: Reduces movement extremely heavily, bringing it to a crawl, but allows the unit to ignore all pathing and terrain restrictions for the turn in order to unstick itself from bad terrain.

NPC Abilities

These abilities are only available to NPC pilots. Currently only the B Team pilots and the VIP have access to these in their associated missions (like B-Team and Training Day).

NPC	Level 1		Training Wheels	ACTION: Focus attention for a turn, gaining +1 to weapon accuracy and +5% to weapon damage for the turn. 2 turn cooldown.

Roles

Depending on which specialized skill (level 8) and which primary skill (level 5) a pilot has selected determines the pilot's title. This is purely cosmetic, and has no function on gameplay; though it can still be useful, as it clues in what skills an enemy has and may help you guess at their tactics and underlying statistics.

Skill	-	Gunnery 8	Piloting 8	Guts 8	Tactics 8
Gunnery 5	Gunner	-	Flanker	Gladiator	Striker
Piloting 5	Pilot	Skirmisher	-	Brawler	Scout
Guts 5	Defender	Lancer	Outrider	-	Vanguard
Tactics 5	Tactician	Sharpshooter	Recon	Sentinel	-

XP Per Level

The following table details how much XP is required to level up at each skill level.

Skill Level	XP	Total XP
1->2	100	100
2->3	400	500
3->4	900	1400
4->5	1600	3000
5->6	2500	5500
6->7	3600	9100
7->8	4900	14000
8->9	6400	20400
9->10	8100	28500

Revostae's Example Pilot Skill Builds

Preamble

These builds are not to be taken as the be-all-end-all of what constitutes good skill builds. They are suggestions, and were created from the standpoint of primarily using lots of clan weaponry and FCS Location Designator. While generally lighter/smaller than their Inner Sphere counterparts, they also typically have shorter range. The Tactics tree helps make up for that shortcoming, which is one reason why I think it's so good. If all of your LRM boats run IS LRMs you might like to spec them Gunnery, for example, if the range increase is negligible to you. For cLRMs though the range increase is huge. Being able to make called shots is extremely important, strongly consider the Precision Master Gunnery build if you do not have access to FCS Location Designator.

There are many viable pilot skill builds to use but I find that these are the ones that serve me the best.

Standard Damage Dealer Build (Tactics/Gunnery)

Base Build

+ + +

The "I like initiative and/or want my weapons to shoot further build". My go to for anything that's not extreme range and wants to put out damage. LRM boats, ATM boats, anything that isn't insane range (like artillery or Arrow IV, they have enough range so don't need the benefits from tactics, spec those into gunnery for more damage). This build lets ATM boats shoot HE and STD ammo out so far you basically never need to bring ER ammo, which means bigger damage a lot of the time than on a Gunnery build because you can use much harder hitting ammo. More turns spent shooting is more damage done for other weapons as well. Personally, I'm convinced the Tactics tree is the best tree in the game for damage dealers that aren't boating artillery.

Support Weapon Focused Variation

+ + +

Support weapon boats can take Knife Fighter over Master Tactician for some extra punch and extra accuracy in close and medium range bands.

Close Range/Brawling Variation (More Defense Focused)

OR + + + OR

Closer range builds can consider swapping out Battlelord to either Sure Movement (Piloting Tree) or Bulwark (Guts Tree) depending on the speed/evasiveness of their mech. Can also swap Target Prediction to Sensor Lock if your pilot often finds themselves unable to fire due to being out of range or line of sight. It at least gives you a useful ability you can use to help your other mechs put out some damage.

Scouting/Fast Interceptor (Piloting/Tactics)

Base Build

+ + +

My standard Scouting/Fast Interceptor build focused on staying alive and going fast. Sensor Lock as support for your heavy hitters (reveal out-of-line-of-sight targets, reduce evasion, etc.), this build is not designed to be used by primary damage dealers so you care less about their damage in general. Sure Movement over Phantom because I want the boost every turn and I run enough evasion boosters to get very high evasion regardless.

Target Prediction Variation

+ + +

Replace Sensor Lock with Target Prediction if you already have a bunch of sensor lockers, generally I don't run more than 2 sensor lockers but YMMV.

Extreme Range Damage Dealer (Gunnery/Guts)

Base Build

+ OR OR + +

Long/extreme range damage dealer build. Used primarily on AC/2, ER PPC, Gauss, Sniper Arty, Long Tom, or Arrow IV boats. Maximizes damage and cooling (especially nice on low initiative PPC or artillery boats) with a nice survivability boost for staying in cover. Pretty self explanatory, this tree is very straightforward. Take the mastery skill for the weapon type you intend to use of course.

Precision Master Variation

+ + +

Use this variation if you do not yet have access to FCS Location Designator cockpit equipment that allows you to target specific enemy locations with the precise shot ability. This is extremely important for quickly taking out/disabling enemies or to have a better chance at getting ideal salvage. Either run FCS Location Designator or get this!

Sure Movement Variation

+ OR OR + +

Replace Bulwark with Sure Movement if you are running a faster mech and/or like to focus on evasion over damage reduction.

Target Prediction Variation

+ OR OR + +

If you're fairly certain the pilot will almost never be shot at you can instead opt for some team accuracy boosting utility from Target Prediction and forego the defensive bonuses. This is a good option for Artillery mechs that can fire indirectly from far away.

Melee/Tank (Guts/Tactics)

Base Build

+ OR + +

Guts Primary builds are basically for melee focused MechWarriors. Pick Juggernaut for a 2nd melee weapon (hatchet/mace/lance/sword) attack or pick Brawler to get pure bonus damage depending on what you intend to do. I took sensor lock as the secondary tree skill because it's useful if you're stuck out of range you can still contribute every turn as you should be in sensor range.

Sure Movement Variation

+ OR + +

Switch out Sensor Lock and take Sure Movement if you would rather be extra defense focused. The extra evasion and lowered stability damage taken can be helpful to give you a boost in survivability although it does leave you often with nothing to do on a turn besides move if you don't also have a number of ranged weapons. This is why typically I prefer Sensor Lock.