There are quite a lot of mechs, but there are some far better than others, and there are some far worse than others. This guide will tell you which ones to get, and which ones to sell.
1. Current Weapon Balance In This Game (as of 2020 1.9.1 Patch).
It is impossible to talk about the mech's performance without weapon balance in HBS Battletech game.
Forget about the table top balance, since HBS pretty much changed a lot of values here and there, and they added a thing called stability damage, which is loosely related from roll when a mech is taken more than 100 damage (20 from tabletop). Here are quick summary.
1) Normal PPCs are way too hot and limited thanks to nerfs on numbers and the nature of the game where long-range combat is rarely effective.
2) HBS buffed ballistic weapons, with ammo explosion far less common since all empty critical spaces are now acting as pads.
3) HBS kind of nerfed missile weapons' raw damage but gave them immense stability damage.
4) With all of visibility changes and maps themselves, range advantage is shockingly small.
5) This game uses hardpoint system, which was invented in MW4 era and used by MWO and now this game. Thus there are hard limit on customization on mechs' weaponry unlike MW3 and older games.
Consider the fact that the fastest and the most reliable way to kill a mech in a game is...
1) Knock the mech down with weapons with high stability damage.
2) Use free precision fire to destroy center torso.
3) Keep doing this since a player is always outnumbered by 1:2 or even 1:3 if you got a bad roll on a mission difficulty.
These three requirements mean that you need a heat efficient weapon that does a lot of damage to quickly destroy knocked down mech's center torso.
Energy:
The biggest issue for all energy weapons with exception of PPC is that they have ZERO stability damage. They do not contribute knocking down a mech, which makes them highly undesirable when you want to knock down enemy mechs. However, unlike missiles which now have complicated mechanics, energy weapon can reliably focus-fire well with precision-strike, very well-suited for a finisher job mechs which are supposed to have very high alpha damage to kill downed mechs. Try grab ER Medium lasers and pulse lasers as many as possible.
PPC can be still somewhat usable on light mechs and lighter medium mechs which do not have enough tonnage for anything other than energy weapons, and can utilize internal heat dissipation values (-30). Good example of mechs that can be used with PPC are Panther and Vindicator.
It's a bit different for Snub PPC, which is essentially en energy version of LBX cannons, which is better than LBX cannons themselves. While standard ones is about as sub-par as normal PPC, enhanced versions such as +10 damage or stability damage is exceptionally strong because the damage applies to each shot. It means +10 damage Snub PPC actually does total of 50 additional damage to the target. +10 stability damage alone gives total of 75 stability damage, which is just 5 damage shy from normal LRM20, with 4 tons less and no need for ammo. It is highly recommend to look for those enhanced Snub PPCs for your light and medium mechs.
Ballistic:
With introduction of UAC, Ballistic is the best weapon as of 1.9.1. They are very good weapons against vehicles, and can instantly kill some of lighter mechs and/or cripple mechs if luck is involved.
LBX versions usually have far better values than standard ACs, but the catch is LBXs are shotguns, which acts more like LRMs rather than pinpoint ballistic. LBX-2 suffers least from this huge drawback, but the problem of heavier LBXs is that they have to compete with LRMs for their job. With LRMs can do indirect fire and have more range, LBXs are unfortunately not really good choices for your mechs. LBX-2 is exception and it acts like a better version of AC-2.
But the real deal is UACs. They fire twice, and the enhance versions usually have negative tonnage advantage, which makes them lighter than normal ACs. Only issue is rather massive refire penalty for heavier UACs. After firing UAC for couple of times, the accuracy decreases so much that you have no choice but not fire every 3rd or 4th shot. But lighter UAC does not suffer much from refire penalty, thus making UAC-2 and UAC-5 exceptionally strong weapons. Even with refire penalty UAC-10 and UAC-20 are generally much better than normal AC-10 and AC-20 regardless.
Missiles:
They were the best weapons in this game before the intorduction of UACs. SRMs give you both very high raw damage AND very high stability damage. However, now SRMs don't do well for precision strike because for each shot they lose precision strike hit chance bonus, cutting down overall alpha damage about 10~25%, which is actually significant. For tonnage, heat and damage involved, UACs match SRMs, with better range.
LRMs' damage is rather deceiving, due to its forced spread damage nature that does not bring pinpoint damage, but the LRMs' role is not for damage dealer; they are for dealing stability damage to knock down mechs and remove evasion charges by making target into 'unsteady' status. LRM's rules are so crucial against heavier mechs which have huge stability health. It is always wise to grab any +stability damage variants as many as you can. Even with the introduction of LBX, with indirect fire, LRMs are still better choice for stability damage.
Support:
The hardpoints for small lasers, machineguns, and flamers. They were actually quite powerful, but then they got a huge nerf bat on 1.1. Small Laser is a bit hot now, and flamers just do not have enough ammo for single player missions, Machineguns got the least nerf because precision strike penalty does not matter much at close distance, but it is still nerf regardless.
They really need to be boated to be useful, thus look for mechs with a lot of support hardpoints are very valuable.
Conclusion.
1) Lasers : Good for finisher and maybe generalist, but with lack of stability damage hurt.
2) ACs : Most powerful with UACs. Can do both raw and stability damage, but all of them are direct fire.
3) SRMs : Second vest for generalist with high damage, still effective for finisher.
4) LRMs : All about stability damage. Dedicated role.
With all of balance situations, your typical lance composition would be...
1) 2 LRM boats. Primary weapons : LRMs + some side weapons.
2) One high-alpha finisher. Primary weapons : UACs, Lasers, SRMs + some LRMs.
3) One generalist. Primary weapons : UACs, (Snub-PPC), SRMs, Lasers, LRMs.
(weapon choices are ranged from best to worst).
LRM boats are... LRMs. High alpha finisher should have a lot of lasers and maybe some SRMs to reliably focus fire knock down mechs, and one generalist mechs that should have some stability damage in case two LRM boats failed to knock down the target completely.
Additional Info
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lbJj-yOgFc1sXgW7Cjcn_gzE1-VPiIOV-bV4tlUgOdU/edit#gid=1245211847
You can quickly look at the spreadsheet and realize what's going on the weapon balance. It is good to remember that numbers from this spreadsheet does not account stability damage.
2. Mech's Speed, Available Tonnage, Initiative, And Hardpoints.
Well, faster a mech can move, it has less tonnage available. Really simple.
The problem is this issue is far more severe than everyone would think.
Quickdraw is a 60 ton mech, and Vindicator is a 45 ton mech. However, there is only 0.5 availabe tonnage difference between two despite the fact that Quickdraw weights 15 tons more! It gets far worse after you use additional tonnage on armor.
Yes, Quickdraw actually moves more distance than Vindicator does. And yes, because since it is a 60 ton mech, Quickdraw can put more armors than Vindicator (but also make available tonnage problem worse), but you really have to consider whether fast movement and a bit more armor are really worth for losing so much tonnage.
The truth is, unless we are talking about light mechs and melee mechs, speed hardly matters (yes, you can ignore Escort missions if you want) in many situations, while additional armor is still worth it.
And then the initiative issue destroys these fast-moving heavy mechs. While they can move fast, they STILL have lower initiative compared to lighter mechs, which limits tactical choices available to them.
That being said, it does not mean speed is completely worthless. Higher speed mechs can position far better than slower mechs, allowing those mechs to flank the targets.
Finally, unlike traditional TT, this game follows hardpoint system which was invented during MW4 era. Basically, there are some limits on what weapons could be placed on which part of the mech. This creates a lot of interesting choices, strengths and weaknesses on each individual mech.
For instance, a mech that has all the weapons on arm really can't shield (that is, showing only side of the mech so the enemy cannot hit center torso directly) because it will lose weapons on the arm.
Some have weird hardpoint locations, such as Shadowhawk's missile port on head. It means you cannot put bigger missile weapons such as SRM6, while other mechs such as Griffin, while having same 3 missile hardpoints, does not suffer this issue.
More interesting is probably ballistic locations for Atlas and King Crab. For Atlas, both B locations are on a single side torso, this restricts the size of weapons you can put if you are going to use both hardpoints. Also very vulnerable against a human player, since he/she will try to get rid of that ballistic side torso asap.
But then, unlike King Crab, Atlas can shield, while King Crab, with each AC20 on each arms, will lose a lot of firepower if it tries to shield and loses an arm in process.
Finally, all mechs have basic 10 heatsinks which are embedded and not shown on the mech lab. The lostech versions of the mechs are configured with double heatsinks. It means instead of normal -30 heat generation, those lostech versions have initial -60 heat generation, making those mechs incredibly valuable.
In conclusion, you want to find some balance between available tonnage and speed with initiative issue in mind, as well as hardpoint locations.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fnaqQv8nnYpy9gtQm75-D6fmYfNJ5u3OALSIe8ckOuo
This is a comprehensive spreadsheet for mechs, and so much more. But for now, we are focusing on mechs. The spreadsheet has information for all mechs for its available tonnage and other information.
3. Too Light To Assault.
In this game, light mechs are rather lackluster compared to heavier mechs. This game is NOT Mechwarrior Online.
It would be so much better if evasion mechanic is stronger. At least now there are missions with limited tonnage and stuffs, but the majority of missions still have no limit on tonnage and no negative consequence for bringing heaviest mechs possible.
With no missions elements favoring low tonnage loadouts, light mechs hugely underperform most of the time, with exception of some certain main missions which have some sort of time limit on certain objectives.
Of course, there are exceptions, such as Firestarter. But the mech's strength is mostly from having a lot of support hardpoints, not the strength as an light mech.
Even worse in 1.1, light mechs have the smallest stability health compared to heavier mechs. Assault mechs have twice more stability health compared to light mechs. Most of the case, light mechs are simply not competitive against heavier mechs.
You really want to ditch lighter mechs and deploy heavier mechs as much as possible. It is very highly recommend to ditch THAT Spider and Locust at the start of the game. The best way is keep playing main campaign until Argo mission where you get a free Centurion (without weapons though), which is one of the best medium mechs thanks to its immense available tonnage and excellent weapon hardpoints.
Speaking of ditching mechs.....
4. DO NOT SCRAP. DO SELL.
Yes you get MORE money if you don't scrap unneeded mechs.
1) Store the mech first.
2) Go to Store, go to sell.
3) Sell that stored mech.
You will get more money from selling the mech to the market than using scrap. There is absolutely no reason to not use selling over scraping.
5. Light Mechs.
1) Locust.
They are all fillers. You do not want to use them, even in the worst situation. This mech literally has only about 2.5 tons of available tonnage left if you decide to max out frontal armor. Just not worth it. All of them are not worth it at all.
Maybe 1V, which you can do 1ML + 3SL and do some backstabbing, but there are far better mechs with enough tonnage to get better weapons.
Verdict : Sell it.
2) Commando.
Still no. Well, definitely better than Locust, with 1B variant you can do 2 X SRM4 + 1 X SRM2, which is respectable firepower, but still these light mechs have almost no armor and will die quickly once enemy mechs focus fire on them.
Verdict : Sell it.
3) Spider.
NO. JUST. NO.
Verdict : Sell it.
4) Panther.
So finally a mech with some good tonnage. Of course it sacrifices speed, making the mech not-so-good choice for scouting, but at least it can pace with medium mechs no problem.
Stock setup is not so good because PPC and SRM has some serious range conflict. Either...
PPC + LRM10 for long range.
4 X ML + SRM6 for short range.
would be better than stock setting. You can completely remove armor from the left arm to do some tonnage saving. With frontal armor maxed out, you will get 14.5 ton of available tonnage.
Panther is indeed a usable mech, but you still want to go for a bigger tonnage mech if possible.
Verdict : Keep it til you get medium mechs.
5) Jenner.
Ah Jenner, it is a powerful mech, if you make it into paper. But with frontal armor maxed out, you can only get about 6 tons of available tonnage. Quite not enough.
The trick is either going for full lasers (4 X ML) or full missiles. You can put 2 X SRM6 and two tons of ammo by striping all arm armors and additional striping on other places. Or you can go 2 X SRM4 and get some more armor and jumpjets.
I have to say 2 X SRM6 is very powerful, for an light mech.
Verdict : Keep it til you get medium mechs.
6) Firestarter.
A very extremely useful mech with 6 support hardpoints. It also has 6 energy hardpoints and 2 ballistic hardpoints, but they are not really important factors. It is not like you can utilize those two ballistic hardpoints on a 35ton mech with 3025 IS tech weapons.
Right now the best setup would be the mix of machineguns and small lasers. Unless you are making this for multiplayer, you will find flamers' fuel is too short.
This is really a good mech, and for some main campagin objectives, you really want to have at least one.
Verdict : Get it.
7) Urbanmech.
UUUURRRRBBBIIIIEEE!
The urbie!
....
It is good. The movement is indeed that of assaults, but it has the armor of medium. It is an usable mech. It is really a stop-gap in case you fail to find a proper medium mechs.... but you get that Centurion for free if you progress main missions.
Verdict : It's the Urbie. The Urbie. You should have at least one, regardless how bad/good this mech is.
8) Flea.
So the DLC mechs in general have 'quirks' and for Flea it has defensive one. It has +2 Hit Defense, making it a bit more tankier than other light mechs. But still it is just a 20 ton mech so it will die very quick as soon as it loses evasion charges.
FLE-15 variant looks good with 5 support hardpoints, but the problem is it simply does not have enough tonnage to actually utilize them unlike Firestarter.
Verdict : Sell it.
9) Javelin.
It is a better version of Jenner. It loses some speed but for that it obtains more armor and more usable tonnage while 5 tons lighter than Jenner. It means you can pull off 2 X SRM6 build with a bit more possible tweaking. But yeah, that energy-only version should be avoided.
Verdict : Keep it til you get medium mechs except 10F which you should just sell it right away.
10) Raven.
The problem is that ECM is rather meh with current implementation, and sensor lock simply cripples an ECM mech way too easily. Area Sensor Lock is just.... well, not very good with such low range. Still 3X can do some heavy damage with its two missile hardpoints.
You will get one for free if you do a specific mission. I'd say just give one of major powers for favor points.
Verdict : Sell it for 1X, keep it for 3X
6. Medium Mechs 1/2.
1) Cicada.
So, just how bad is Cicada? This is what you need to know:
You cannot max out frontal armor on 2A variant. It is not possible. Even if you put zero armor on backside.
3C is a bit better and almost as fast as 2A, still it has only 5 tons of available tonnage after maxing out frontal armor.
Just. NO.
Verdict : Sell it. I mean you should try to NOT get a fragment on this mech. Seriously.
2) Vindicator.
A straight upgrade from Panther, with similar setup. By being slower, this mech can have similar available tonnage compared to heavier medium mechs.
Once again recommended setups are basically enlarged versions of Panther's. Either PPC + LRMs as a stability damage dealer, or medium lasers with SRMs as a finisher. Both choices are strong, but with a bit slower speed Vindicator would be a bit more useful as a stability damage dealer rather than shorter range setup.
Verdict : Keep it.
3) Blackjack.
Oh yes, very first mech you will ever control, as this is your main character's mech.
Fortunately, this mech is quite powerful thanks to large available tonnage, as same as Vindicator's.
Stock setup is already powerful and surprisingly balanced. While AC2 is lackluster, it still works well with medium lasers. Only problem is their minimum range issue. In shorter range, AC2's accuracy goes down, in longer range, medium lasers' accuracy goes down. But this can be overcome by spending some experience points on pilot customization.
Of course, the stock setup is not fully optimized though. You can get rid of AC2s and put a single AC5 or two large lasers instead. With just three jumpjects, four heatsinks and maxed out frontal armor, you get a very powerful finisher. I recommend 2 X LL + 2 X ML build.
Verdict : Keep it.
4) Trebuchet.
Once again big engine problem hurts this mech. In order to have high speed, this mech is left with less available tonnage than both Vindicator and Blackjack.
LRMs are therefore bad for this mech due to lack of tonnage, but you can use it as an LRM boat if you truly do not have any medium mechs that have more than 1 missile hardpoint. But with such movement speed, you should use it as SRM + Lasers.
....but I still think you should just sell it.
Verdict : Sell it.
5) Hunchback.
So, among with Centurion and Enforcer, Hunchbacks have the largest available tonnage for all medium mechs, a.k.a "trooper" mechs. Pretty much all other 55 ton mechs to 60 ton heavy mechs have lesser availabe tonnage compared to these three. Which makes them really, really strong.
4P is pure energy variant, and 4G has that iconic AC20 on its right side torso. Considering heat issues, both of them actually end up having similar alpha strike damage (8 X ML vs UAC20 + 2 X ML) The problem is that medium lasers do zero stability damage, while (U)AC20 does.
4G is extremely powerful and you should get it if possible. 4P is ok... since large available tonnage allows you to put a lot of heatsinks, but once again without stability damage, the mech is relatively weak, but you can still use it as a decent finisher.... only because it has so much available tonnage to put many heatsinks.
Verdict for both variants : Get it.
6) Centurion.
If you finish the Argo mission, you will get an A variant without any weapons equipped.
And this particular variant is the best medium mech you can ever get. This mech pretty much has everything; lasers, missiles, and one ballistic. Perfect hardpoints for this game. And with being one of the three mechs with the largest available tonnage, you really, really want this particular variant.
You can do 3 X SRM6 + 2 X ML which does incredible raw damage AND stability damage, or (U)AC20 + ML/missiles for huge pinpoint raw damage AND stability damage, or you can use it as LRM boat with extremely powerful LRM 20 + LRM 15 + LRM 5 setup, with four tons of ammo if you do some armor stripping. It's total of LRM 40, 2/3 of LRM power from an 85 ton assault mech Stalker. With + and ++ variant, you can pretty much put any mech from zero stability damage to unsteady state with one full alpha salvo.
Seriously, you want CN9-A. And it is highly probable you will use this mech until some good Assault mechs appear.
Unlike A variant, AL has no ballistic hardpoints, instead four laser hardpoints and two missiles, which makes the mech relatively weak, but still better than others. The best use of AL would be 2 X LRM20, which is heavier than LRM 20 + LRM 15 + LRM 5 setup. This makes AL not as strong as A unfortunately. 2 X Large Lasers + 2 X Medium lasers are also very effective as a finisher with long range.
Verdict for both variants : Get it.
7) Enforcer.
Twisted version of Centurion CN9-AL, Enforcer has a ballistic hardpoint, but it has zero missile hardpoints.
However, good thing is there are big, big ballistic weapons called (U)AC10 and (U)AC20, which alleviates hardpoint number issue for ballistic hardpoints. Just like Hunchback, you'd really want to get UACs since there is no missile for additional stability damage needed unlike Centurion.
Of course, with generous amount of energy hardpoints, Enforcer can be also used as a finisher with multiple medium lasers, with enough tonnage for heatsinks.
Verdict: Get it.
8) Kintaro.
Well, you can guess with its whooping 5 missile hardpoints, but I have to say Kintaro is one of the best medium mechs available. Sadly, it does not have a lot of available tonnage like trooper mechs (Centurion, Hunchback, Enforcer), which limits choices.
Yes, it has 5 missile hardpoints, but you don't want to put too heavy ones there, it will be very hot, with very limited ammo and little armor if you go too big. Best bet is just using SRM4s, which are extremely heat-efficient among SRM family.
Verdict: Get it.
9) Griffin, Wolverine, Shadowhawk.
Why did I list all three here? Because they are essentially all interchangeable. If you look at the hardpoints, speed and available tonnage, they are literally same mechs, just with minor differences below:
-Both Griffin variants do not have ballistic hardpoints.
-Wolverine has ballistic hardpoints on its arm.
-Shadowhawk's infamous head missile hardpoint, and its strong melee (85 compared to 70 from other two), which CAN make some difference since it can easily kills vehicles with melee.
Those three are really skirmisher mechs, which can pretty much max out armor, put a lot of jumpjects with respectable firepower. They are not hard hitters like trooper mechs, but they can tank and distract enemies while your Hunchback tries to core them with its AC20.
That said, with proper pilot skills, they function better than lights as scouts.
I have to say, despite that head missile hardpoint, Shadowhawk is probably the best of three with its powerful melee attack, and both variants have all three missile hardpoints for 2 X SRM6 + 1 X SRM4 + ML. But Griffin comes really close with non-weird missile hardpoints that would allow reinforced cockpits to protect pilots from head damage.
Main campaign spoiler:
You will be able to play with Griffin 2N, which is a lostech version with ER PPC. Unfortunately, ER PPC is a worse version of normal PPC in this game. But, the mech is an Lostech version with massive initial -60 heat per turn, which allows you to use that ER PPC without any problems. With this it is probably the best skirmisher mech you can obtain. It will be obtainable from places like black markets.
Verdict for both Shadowhawks: Get it.
Verdict for Griffin 1N: Keep it.
Verdict for Wolverine 6R: Keep it.
Verdict for Griffin 2N: Protect it with your life.
Verdict for rest of them: Sell it.
7. Medium Mechs 2/2.
10) Assassin.
The quirks given to this mech is unfortunately a bit flawed. With ignoring some evasion it should be good for killing light mechs, and with enough speed that seems appropriate....
...But it simply does not have enough firepower. It is a 40 ton mech, with relatively large engine with just 14 usable tons. What actually kills an light mech is completely removing its evasion bonus, not trying to ignore some of it. If this bonus is applied to entire lance (well, that would be too OP I guess) then this mech is probably the ultimate light mech killer, but it only applies to itself.
21 is probably better version with four missile hardpoints. You can still use it as hard-hitting SRM boat and it works that way well.
Verdict for Assassin 21: Keep it.
Verdict for Assassin 101: Sell it.
11) Vulcan.
That 90m bonus range for support weapon makes Vulcan an logical upgrade from Firestarter.... except it has only four support hardpoints for 2T while Firestarter has 6. Not to mention you lose 1 initiative as a medium mech. But that 90m DOES make big difference. You can safely sell off 5T.
With +10 melee defense it is also durable against mechs that try to melee. The best usage for Vulcan would be equip it with flamers and make targets overheat. AI usually orders overheated mech to melee the target, and for that this quirks works well.
...Of course, except with limited ammo you really cannot use flamers well on singleplayer.
Verdict for Assassin 2T: Keep it.
Verdict for Assassin 5T: Sell it.
12) Hatchetman.
Just like some of melee-oriented mechs (Dragon, Shadowhawk, Banshee), except the mech is truly made for melee. You can put all melee mods so that it hits like a truck, or you can put some weapons and use it as a normal mech with strong melee damage just like Shadowhawk, either works to certain degree.
Obviously 3X is far better choice than 3F with additional hardpoints.
Verdict for Hatchetman 3X: Keep it.
Verdict for Hatchetman 3F: Sell it.
13) Phoenixhawk.
It is not as good as you'd think. So the playstyle is always jumping around and shoot, since it has 20% damage boost when the mech has jumped. It also has jump distance boost.
The problem is jumpjet does make a lot of heat, and Phoenixhawk, with just 20 tons of usable space, does not have enough tonnage to carry all the heatsinks and jumpjets cool the mech.
Fortunately, it has an lostech version (1B). It has additional 8 usable tons and tons of energy and support hardpoints, which makes it insanely powerful and have enough cooling power to continuously use jumpjets. Of course, you are not really going to salvage it from the battlefield though.
Verdict for Phoenixhawk 1B: Get it.
Verdict for oithers: Sell it.
14) Crab.
The mech is all about energy. ALL energy. Once again it has an lostech variant (27B) and of course it is super duper powerful. But it is still a boring, simple mech.
There is something NOT boring though. If you do "Steel Beast" Flashpoint mission, you will get a Crab with ballistic hardpoint (BSC-27). Of course the issue is with just 26.5 usable tons, it can't carry big guns well like trooper medium mechs.
Verdict for Crab 27B: Get it.
Verdict for Crab 20: Keep it.
Verdict for BSC-27: KEEP IT. It is an unique mech and you are not going to get it anywhere after the mission.
8. Heavy Mechs 1/2.
1) Dragon.
Do not trust Yang's words, it is terrible. There is a reason why you can easily get its fragments after a certain main campaign mission is completed.
Because it is truly terrible, because basically the mech is almost entirely consisted of a big engine to move faster.
Big engine = low available tonnage. And both Dragon and Quickdraw went extreme for this case.
...
Well, NOT that terrible because it has a very interesting aspect; super duper 90 points melee punch.
...
Well, Shadowhawk DOES can do 85 point melee punch, and as being a 55 ton mech it can have almost same armor as Dragon and higher initiative, and moves at the same speed.
...
Yeah, just sell it.
Verdict: Sell it.
2) Quickdraw.
Most likely very first heavy mech you will ever encounter (you will know why), and there is a reason why it is chosen as the first heavy mech.
Because they are even worse than Dragon I mentioned above.
I mean, at least Dragon has that super duper 90 points melee punch, but Quickdraw actually has the LOWEST melee damage (55). Both variants for Quickdraw are truly irredeemable.
Well, you CAN do something with 4G variant with two missile hardpoints, but very low available tonnage completely cripples this mech. You can try medium laser build, but there are better medium mechs for such build as well.
As enemies, they actually carry a lot of firepower ( 2x LRM15 and 4 Mediums), which hurt a lot. But they have paper armor, even at 100% condition thanks to low tonnage. Hit them and they will die very fast.
Verdict: Sell it.
3) Jagermech.
Finally, we are behind those terrible 60 ton mechs, and moving into usable mechs, and pretty much rest of heavy mechs are usable to amazing thanks to large available tonnage.
Now, one thing that you must realize is Jagermech has almost all of its firepower on its arms. You can't shield with this mech unless you are willing to lose half of the mech's firepower in no time.
However, it pretty much overcome that problem with really, really good hardpoints and arm-mount weapons' bonus (+5% to hit).
Both available variants are extremely powerful; you will feel missions will be much easier if you manage to get one of them relatively early.
For A variant, you can go either super hard punching 4 X SRM6 or go for same LRM build from Centurion (LRM20 + LRM15 + LRM5), or more LRMs if you are willing to sacrifice armor... but I don't recommend to do it.
For S variant, 3 X AC5 is probably the most dominant build. It's insanely powerful and insanely cool unlike PPC... you get the idea. Because AC2 is rather bad, 4 X AC2 are not recommended however.
Or you can go a boomstick with AC20 or dual AC10 with less armor. It has so many choices that are usable.
As enemies, Jagermech basically has no armor; only 480 total, even worse than Quickdraw. But they truly have immense firepower, so you really want to kill them asap.
Verdict for both variants: Get it.
4) Catapult.
So, Catapult is perhaps one of the most recognizable mechs from Battletech/Mechwarrior/Mechcommander games. And they are all famous for being a missile boat.
Unfortunately, this C1 variant does not do enough missile justice with just 1 missile hardpoint on each missile pods (arm). Really only use is 2 X LRM20, but LRM20 is heavier than LRM15 + LRM5 combo. Hence Catapult loses some tohnnage.
You will have a bit better luck with just going laser builds instead, with three large lasers and one medium lasers will give you very powerful focus fire damage. Good thing is that you can trim armors from arms to put 1 more heatsink or two.
Now, the interesting one is probably K2. It is actually a good variant if you build it right. So here is a interesting story. The reason why K2 is good is.... essentially combination of how PGI shaped the mech in MWO and how HBS implemented hardpoints and jumpjets.
Those two ballistic hardpoints on side torsos of K2 are, if we follow HBS implementations, should be just support hardpoints because in MWO machineguns use ballistic hardpoints, and those two hardpoints are really for machineguns. But, for some reason, K2's ballistic hardpoints are still there in this game, and instead HBS just put additional support hardpoints, not removing ballistic hardpoints.
In lore K2 variant does not have jumpjet thus K2 does not have jumpjets in MWO, but in HBS, by following TT more closely, you can put jumpjects on pretty much all mechs, thus allowing K2 to have jumpjets.
And these two ballistic hardpoints save K2 because in current Balance, PPCs are basically unusable. They are way too hot, even with just 2 and a lot of heatsinks.
Thus you have no choice but transform K2 into a ballistic mech with these two ballistic hardpoints. 2 X AC5 may seems a bit weak but still give respectable firepower. You can TRY put one PPC on that build, but then it just becomes really, really hot. What you can do is shave some more armors from its arms, and put 2 X AC10 instead, which brings a lot of firepower.
Or you can do same thing with C1 with lasers, except the problem is you can't trim arm armors (because each arm has that energy hardpoint) so ironically energy variant K2 cannot put more heatsinks than missile variant C1. All hail to PGI's hardpoint inflation!
As enemies K2 has a fatal weakness; it has machinegun ammo in its center torso. If you just keep focusing on center torso, that ammo will explode, instantly kill the mech. Make sure you remove the ammo when you field one for yourself.
Verdict for both variants: get it.
5) Thunderbolt.
Thunderbolts may appear a bit more compared to others.... because it has three variants compared to just two from others, and they are quite good.
5SS is probably one of the mechs that definitely got a lot of boost from large laser buff. Well, what you can do is 2 X LL + 2 X ML + SRM6, which give you very reliable focus fire damage as well as increased combat range from those two large lasers. Or you can do 3 X LL + 2 X ML, giving up stability damage for more focus fire damage. But this will run a bit hotter.
5SE has 2 missile hardpoints, and with three support hardpoints and 5 energy hardpoints. You can go either typical 2 x LRM20 or try use SRMs and small lasers + medium lasers for heat-efficient close-range mech, or can copy exact same builds from 5SS.
5S is obviously best with available ballistic hardpoints. Huge AC with SRMs/lasers will be the ideal build. Idealy AC20 but you can try AC10 if you want bigger SRMs and/or lasers.
Verdict for all three variants: Get it.
6) Cataphract.
This rare 70ton mech is a basically upscaled version of Enforcer; no missile hardpoints, one ballistic and bunch of energy hardpoints. You can do upscaled version of Enforcer with a big UAC and bunch of lasers, 3 X LL + 2 X ML, or very simple yet effective 4 X LL. It barely has enough tonnage to support 4 large lasers, heatsinks and just one jumpjets with some armor triming.
The ECM one (0X) is very interesting. Unlike Raven, ECM is somewhat workable on this mech since it has enough firepower. The usable tonnage does take massive hit (only 33.5 tons) But still enough to take a large UAC and some lasers. Unfortunately the sensor lock cripples the mech just like Raven's case.
Verdict for both variants: Get it.
-continued-
9. Heavy Mechs 2/2.
-continued-
7) Grasshopper.
Yet another one variant only chassis. This time it is upscaled Firestarter. Most interesting is that it has a lot of support hardpoints. Too bad they got nerfed. Because medium lasers were also nerfed, now Small Lasers + Medium Lasers will be incredibly hot. It is better to use Machineguns + Medium Lasers instead.
If you do not need upscaled Firestarter, you can always use its tonnage and energy hardpoints with bunch of large lasers and medium lasers.
Verdict: Get it.
8) Blackknight.
Among with Orion, Blackknight has the largest free tonnage available for Heavy mech class. It means it has enough tonnage for large lasers and heatsinks to cool the mech down. It also has tons of energy hardpoints. It has an lostech version with -60 heat per turn, which makes it as the most powerful energy-focused heavy mech available in this game.
2 X LL + 5 X ML will give you immense focused firepower. You could go 3 X LL + 2 X ML, but then you lose about 35 damage compared to the former build. With the range still hardly matters, I'd say go for 2 X LL + 5 X ML.
Blackknight also does have a lot of support hardpoints, but that's Grasshopper's job if you ask me.
Verdict: Get it.
9) Orion.
The final, and the best heavy mech is here. It's the best heavy mech, with the largest free tonnage, with the heaviest armor as a 75 ton heavy mech in the class, missile hardpoints and ballistic hardpoint; both variants have everything they need to be amazing mechs.
V variant will be the better one thanks to 3 missile hardpoints, and you really just want one big gun instead of two smaller guns on K variant anyway. But each missile hardpoints of V variant are located on each arms, which makes shielding quite tricky for this mech. Well, at worst, V still can be used as an excellent LRM boat thanks to three missile hardpoints.
K variant is all about AC20 and a bunch of SRMs.
Orions are very powerful mechs with a lot of tonnage available as well as good hardpoints, but it does not mean they have same protection as Assault mechs. But they are good enough, and as a heavy mech they can initiate earlier than Assault mechs, which helps knockdown-to-kill strategy easier.
Verdict for both variants: Get it.
10) Rifleman.
Basically an lighter version of Jagermech, You lose 2.5 usable tons but gain quirks (100m+ view distance and -2 recoil/range penalty). Well, Those are REALLY strong quirks thus making Rifleman better version of Jagermech....
....Which is quite absurd lore-wise, because Jagermech is supposed to be a replacement for Rifleman, which is an older design. But just like Mechwarrior Online, Rifleman is once again beating Jagermech no problem.
Exception would be a missile variant because it has no missile variant. 4D is a pure energy variant, and honestly it is not that great. While it has a lot of usable tonnage, it is still a 60 ton mech in the end. Try get Blackknight or Warhammer for a better laserboat.
Verdict for Rifleman 3C: Get it.
Verdict for Rifleman 3N: Get it.
Verdict for Rifleman 4D: Sell it.
11) Archer.
As a missile boat, it is a straight upgrade from Catapult with quirks and added tonnage. +75% SRM stability damage is not something you can laugh about with 2S variant. Just like Catapult's case, 2R is a weaker variant with just two missile hardpoints.
Verdict for Archer 2R: Get it.
Verdict for Archer 2S: Get it.
12) Warhammer.
Why?
WHHHYYYY????!?
WHHHHHHYYYY DOES 6R ONLY HAVE ONE BALLISTIC HARDPOINT?
It is just very disappointing decision, considering the fact that Catapult K2 was ok with two ballistic hardpoints but somehow 6R did not carry dual ballistic hardpoints from MWO. The result is that it has really weird combination. So.... one ballistic, one missile and four energy hardpoints. Warhammer does have +20% energy damage boost quirk, but for 6R it hardly makes sense with just four hardpoints anyway. Such a wasted oppounity here.
Either using UAC20 or Gauss rifle on one side and LRMs on other side, making it lighter lostech Highlander would be logical choice for the mech build.
6D is decent laserboat with the quirks, but 7A takes the cake as an lostech version with -60 heat advantage.
Verdict for Warhammer 6R: Keep it.
Verdict for Warhammer 6D: Get it.
Verdict for Warhammer 7A: Protect it with your life.
13) Marauder.
If you ask an experienced player "What is the best mech in this game?", about 80% of the answer will be Marauder. The reason is that Called Shot boost. With maxxed out tactics and gunnery, the chance for headshot using called shot is 35%. With sufficient firepower, it can somewhat reliably does heatshot every single turn, which makes the mech very powerful. Lance-wide 10% damage reduction is also great.
Though, I do have some reservations against Assaults. In unmodded game, An Atlas, Kingcrab, Annihilator and Bullshark also can pretty much one-shot most of mechs (including themselves) with called shot to the center torso because the firepower is just overwhelming. And unlike Marauder, the chance is so high that they do not rely on luck at all. Not to mention those mechs are also tankier than Marauder even with 10% damage reduction. If there is no tonnage limit or you do not need higher initiative, the reason to use Marauder instead of heavy assaults is a bit weak.
That said, it is safe to say Marauder is THE BEST HEAVY MECH CHASSIS in this game. Oh yeah, even further, there is an lostech variant (2R) on top of all of these quirks, which makes it the best mech in the game period.
Verdict for all Marauder variants: Just buy get it.
9. Assault Mechs 1/2.
1) Awesome.
Yes, it does have whooping 120 melee damage, only surpressed by Banshee and heavier mechs, but problem is it is too slow to be used as a melee mech, so forget about it.
This mech is a really only single assault mech that can do well as a pure laserboat, Only other mech that can come close is Stalker with 6 energy hardpoints with a bit more tonnage, but in reality it will do less dps and alpha damage because Stalker has to use 5 X LL + 1 X ML instead of Awesome's 4 X LL + 3 X ML. Stalker actually ends up with less damage and hotter with less heatsinks with additional weight from one more large laser. There is actually another mech which has immense tonnage with 6 energy hardpoints (see Atlas), but that one could have some other builds.
And, seriously, Stalker is best served with LRMs.
Other mechs such as Banshee and Battlemaster do not have enough tonnage to put heatsinks, so they are actually worse despite the fact that they are heavier mechs. Too big engine problems.
So yes, if you get rid of PPCs for good and embrace large lasers, Awesome is extremely powerful finisher, with 4 X LL + 3 X ML for 8Q variant. we are talking about 235 alpha damage, with 160 damage to distant targets. It is purely powered by newly buffed large lasers.
If you really need stability damage, then you can do like 1 PPC + 3 X LL + 2 X ML, but you will find it will be suddenly so much hotter. And there is 8T variant with missile hardpoints anyway.
With missiles, 8T variant can give you cooler setup with mix of SRMs and lasers. But then you are giving up focus fire damage for precision strike. With just 2 missile hardpoints, 8T are not an ideal LRM boat.
Verdict for both variants: get it.
2) Victor.
Basically tonnage-wise they are Orions, with a bit more armor, one less initiative as an Assault mech. Not sure that is good compromise. Victors suffer same problem as low tonnage heavy mechs... just a bit less extent.
9B has interesting three ballistic hardpoints, which you can use it as 3 X AC5... just like 65ton Jagermech.
Verdict for both variants: keep it.
3) Zeus.
Take a Victor, remove some missile pods and add 4 energy hardpoints, and you get Zeus. Basically slightly worse version of Victor depend on the setup. It would be better if medium lasers were not nerfed, but with the nerf, you would not see much tonnage savings from using lasers due to need of additional heatsinks.
Good thing is as a single variant, you won't be seeing this mech often.
Verdict: Sell it.
4) Battlemaster.
in MWO, Battlemaster is a very good mech because its hardpoints are quite high that you can peek and shoot very easily.
But in this game, physical locations do not matter. With energy weapons being really bad, Battlemeaster is sadly just a better version of Zeus with more energy hardpoints available.
It still moves quite fast, and medium laser spam can be powerful... but way too many heatsinks would be used to cool down the mech. With fast movement, however you can use it as an Assault scout mech... if you need one. Problem is medium lasers are further nerfed now this mech is too hot to be useful at this point.
At least as a 85ton mech, it can use ligher Jumpjet H instead of 2ton Jumpjet A, unlike Banshee.
OH I almost forgot. It DOES have ballistic hardpoints, if you really want to have a big gun on this mech. As well as just one missile hardpoint, but you can forget about it.
This certainly makes Battlemaster a bit more better than other 'fast' assault mechs... but the problem is, despite it is probably the fast assault mech with the most available tonnage, which means,
1) No ballistic hardpoint usage.
2) Can't use large lasers effectively due to tonnage restriction.
At this point only reason why this mech does not demoted to "sell it" is because there is no better alternative for a scout Assault mech.
Verdict: Keep it.
5) Stalker.
Finally, some assault mechs with actual assult mech free tonnages. Stalker is indeed slow (just like rest of mechs below except Banshee) Assault mech that carry huge weapons, with tons of space available.
As we talked at Awesome section, you can forget about 6 energy hardpoints; the gist is four missile hardpoints, absolutely ideal for LRM15 for each hardpoints. You can do LRM20 + LRM10 instead of just four LRM15 if you like, with a bit less available tonnage since LRM 20 + 10 weights more than two LRM15.
If you really want an energyboat and still does not have Awesome, you can use Stalker with 5 X LL + 1 X ML, but it will run rather hot. You can do 4 X LL + 2 X ML, but now that is quite low dps and alpha damage as an slow assault mech.
Or, you could mix SRMs and MLs. Problem is there are better brawling mechs and Stalker's high tonnage should be used more wisely. But if you do not have enough Assault mechs, 4 X SRM6 and bunch of MLs do give scary firepower.
Anyway, grab it as soon as possible. Among with Highlander 733, it is the best LRM assault mech available in the game.
Verdict: Get it.
6) Highlander.
Very stable assault mech, with a lot of free tonnage available.
Continuing from Stalker; 733, with four missile hardpoints, is the best LRM assault among with Stalker. Now, despite the fact that it weights 5 ton more, 733 actually does not have more tonnage than Stalker for several reasons.
1) The difference in free tonnage is only 3 tons (75.5 vs 60.5)
2) From 90 ton mech, you have to use A variant for jumpjet, which weights two tons instead of one.
3) Highlander can put more armor.
They are basically same performing mechs for LRM boating purpose, with Highlander may be a bit more durable if you decide to sacrifice jumpjets, which I really do not recommend even for the LRM boat.
If you already have an Assault LRM boat, 733 still can use its single Ballistic hardpoint for brawling close-range mech. Grab an AC20 and put some SRMs, it will be good substitution for Atlas or King Crab, with just a bit less armor.
733P has two builds;
1) You can use it as triple LRM20, but just like LRM 20 + 10 build, it is not as effective as 4 X LRM15. So it is not as good as 733 for using as an LRM boat.
2) 3 X LL + 1 X ML + 2 X SRM6. Very powerful, versatile with bunch of stability damage with focus fire damage. You can adjust number of energy weapons and missile weapons for your like.
Main campaign spoiler:
Annnnnd we have 732B, a lostech version. Unlike disappointing Blackknight and Griffin ones, this particular Highlander is actually amazing out of the gate, with very little adjustment with weapons, and it will be freely given after that particular mission is over. It is one of two lostech mechs you can obtain from completing the campaign.
Now, I understand some spreadsheets for this game lists this mech as having same free tonnage as non-lostech variants, but it is not true. 732B has 5 more tons than other variants thanks to lostech. Which means it has more free available tonnage than non-lostech Atlas and King Crab! Well, only 0.5 ton, but you get the idea.
It is an extremely powerful mech, and other than some armor distribution adjustment, stock setup is actually really good and you really do not need to modify it much.
Verdict for 733: Get it.
Verdict for 733P: Get it.
Verdict for 732B: Protect it with your life.
-continued-
10. Assault Mechs 2/2.
7) Banshee.
OH here we go. The biggest engine rating in Battletech universe, for mechs, is 400. This mech has 380.
...
REALLY BIG ENGINE that is. The ignorable side effect is it only has 37.5 tons of available tonnage. For comparison, 65 ton Catapult has 39 tons of available tonnage.
...
Just kidding, this is not definitely an ignorable side effect.
You can use it as a pure melee mech at least. This is only possible because as a 95ton mech, Banshee has enormous amount of armor. With all of arm mods and leg mods, Banshee can do some serious punch. Thing is, even after 380 rated engine, it can only go as fast as 65 ton heavy mech, not to mention it suffers initiative problem...... These problems are quite hard to overcome.
Added 5/25: People also comment that Banshee can be equipped with a lot of support weapons... but as an assault weapon with the lowest initiative, I am not sure how effective it would be (Grasshopper is already borderline slow). And a problem with melee interaction is that those support weapons hardly focus well. It is always better to have one big punch that leftover damage would go to CT, than small lasers and machineguns firing everywhere. I still recommend to put arm/leg mods as much as possible for bigger melee/DFA damage.
Unless you are interested in weird builds such as these, I suggest to sell it asap.
Verdict for both variants: Sell it.
8) Atlas.
Perhaps Atlas is the one of the most well-known mechs. Maybe not as well-known as Clan's Mad Cat (Timber Wolf), but that skull-looking head and overall mech shape is quite something to be remembered. Among with King Crab, Atlas boasts a bit more durability (a bit more structure point, and about 30 points more armor), and with such hardpoint placement location, Atlas can do shielding a bit better than King Crab, without the fear of losing heavy ballistic weapons on the arms.
It's really a simple mech compared to King Crab (which have some interesting problems and tricks). Super durable, super heavy, super slow, and... super powerful.
We DO have an interesting variant though. Well, actually, this Atlas II cannot be considered as a variant of Atlas, rather it is a different mech. It just uses same model as Atlas.
Just like lostech Highlander, this Atlas has far bigger available tonnage than non-lostech Atlas; 78 tons. With 13 tons more than normal Atlas, you will feel space restrictions rather than tonnage restriction when you configure this mech.
Fill it with the biggest and the heaviest weapons you can deploy is all I can say, and yeah, while it indeed has more energy hardpoints, but until HBS actually balances this game, please don't go for energy-heavy build. It is simply waste of a mech. I guess you can go ridiculous 6 X LL, but if you punch your calculator a bit you will realise you are losing a lot of damage for just increased range, where in this game range is not that important. Oh and yeah, Large lasers have ZERO stability damage as well.
Now, during the mission, you really do not want to fire those ER Large Lasers. They are hotter than normal large lasers and you will find the mech gets hot rather fast. Keep using cooler AC20, missiles and medium pulses but try not to use ERLL often.
Verdict: Get it.
Verdict for II: Protect it with your life.
9. King Crab.
Another 100 ton Assault mech, with more focused on firepower. It definitely has more missile hardpoints, for instance, but it does not make an excellent LRM boat because all of those missile hardpoints are located on a single side torso, making it unable to put large size missile weapons. However, you can still do 4 X SRM6 which they alone are quite powerful.
Popular builds are either using that dual AC20, or 4 X SRM6 + 4 X MLs which are actually more powerful than dual AC20 among with far better heat management and more alpha strike damage.
Compare to Atlas, having ballistic hardpoint on each arms is a bit troublesome; if you try to shield your mech, your arm will be first to be gone from damage, among with the gun installed with it. At the same token, King Crab would not instantly lose a lot of firepower if it loses a certain torso; for Atlas it means both AC20 are gone, while for King Crab, you can still fire other AC20.
Other than that, it has same availabe tonnage as Atlas, with a bit less structure and armor. Very valuable mech no matter what.
Yes, at the very last campaign mission, it seems Victoria's King Crab is a special one. It is not even canon variant since none of them have medium pulse lasers. Unfortunately, you cannot get this mech, ever. It does not give you fragments.
Sometimes the game gets bugged and gives you the fragment. However, you cannot combine it with other normal King Crab fragment, therefore completely useless.
Verdict: Get it.
11. Conclusion.
And... that's it. Just want to say this mech guide is strictly single-player only. Multiplayer is all about SRMs, flamers and AC20 so act accordingly is all I can say about it.
12. Update history.
2/24/2025 :
1) The update after 7 years! Mostly cleaned a lot of grammar issues til Medium mech section.
6/25/2018 :
1) Initially updated for 1.1 balance.
6/17/2018 :
1) Preparing for (hopefully) upcoming patch.
5/29/2018 :
1) Fixed moar typos.
2) Jaegermech => Jagermech. Thanks @C4rter for pointing this out.
5/25/2018 :
1) Fixed insane amount of typos and grammar errors.
2) Add a bit more description for Thunderbolt.
3) Add some more updates and thoughts for Banshee.
4) Awesome as well.
5) And Battlemaster.
6) Moved up Hunchback 4P from "Sell it" to "Keep it". For a finisher it is not really a bad mech.
7) URBIE.
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