Be bright, go light

[Pharnabaze]

For the beginners, who might have some trouble with the randomness of the game. It might be tempting to arm your wanzer to the teeth. However, it is advisable to keep a high "mob" (mobility=evasion) stat for your avant-garde (Melee and Short wanzers).

While you need to upgrade your front-liners, by specializing them and giving them only one weapon, you're making them less susceptible to being hit by the enemy. Sometimes it's better to only keep one weapon (and shield) and having your backliners (/long range specialists) recharge your ammo if need be. A high mobility will also affect your movement stat: the higher it is, the easier it will be to surround your opponents and to make them harmless (due to the AP mechanic).

The back-liners will be needing only one upgrade: namely the body part (in order to boost their engine's output). If you keep some basic parts on them, like the Zephir V, they'll be able to become a walking arsenal. You might want to consider giving them some levels in "Short" proficiency, as they are severely lacking in skills.

Finally, don't forget to equip multiple skills on each pilot, as each time they activate, they basically give you an extra attack.

You can find some excellent guides on gamefaqs by Legendoflegaia, that will allow you to better grasp how the game truly works.

[MjKorz]

Only works in the early stage of the game when backpacks have low capacity of 1-2 slots. In the middle and endgame, having extra 4-6 Repair-2s or missile/rocket ammo on your back is better than mobility as long as you can keep a comfortable movement value of 8, which you can.

Another thing to note is that you literally CAN'T stack mobility well throughout most of the game (barring the very early and very late game), if you actually play the arena and win the endgame weapons early. These weapons have very high weight and will massively reduce the mobility of your mechs that will have trouble catching up in terms of body power to support that weight. Now, you may choose not to use higher tier weapons earlier than they're available in the shops, but then you're missing out on a lot of damage output and in a game where mechs are squishy, damage output is king.

[Pharnabaze]

Very true. I read your earlier post on how to unlock the weapons in the arena. If you chose to go heavy, mobility is useless. And indeed, having the first strike advantage is the most effective way to play the game.

However, if you don't plan to grind the arena and if you want to enjoy a more "balanced" way of playing the game, while taking advantage of the terrain the unintuitive light build is fun, even if it requires more logistics and placement.

When I played on PSX, I completely underestimated mobility. To each his own I guess.

Any builds, you might want to share with other players?

[MjKorz]

Originally posted by Pharnabaze:

Any builds, you might want to share with other players?

I play this game as a "purist", so you probably won't like my "builds". I don't make Frankenmechs, just stick to pure models for aesthetic reasons.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3248239184

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3248239289

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3248239354

Early in the game when all you have are low-capacity item backpacks and pitiful 25% restoring Repair-1s, I use powerpacks on frontliners and item backpacks on long range mechs. I equip firearm-wielding frontliners with dual weapons to attack the weakest armor type, when the enemy has a non-N type armor. Alternatively, firearm-wielders can be switched to carry backpacks with more rocket/missile ammo for the "artillery" mechs, because the early repairs are pitiful. Melee users stay with powerpacks in the early game, they shouldn't be carrying rocket/missile ammo, because mobility and evasion are more crucial for them due to their delayed attacks vs ranged.

Once you get far enough into the game and can obtain 3+ capacity backpacks and access to Repair-2s, that's where I switch all my mechs to item backpacks so that they can carry a mix of Repair-2 and ammo of all types. This is also the part of the game where I remove the second firearm from frontliners and equip everyone according to the same formula: 1 weapon + 1 shield on the opposite arm (can be on the same, the benefits for each arm are actually quite arguable) + item backpack. And that's how I stay until the end of the game.

The most important part about weight is that you should always try to maintain a movement value of 8 for all frontliners, which will translate into a movement range of 4 squares on most maps (there will be some maps where your movement range will get cut by forests and such). That 1 difference between MV8 and MV7 might not seem a lot at first glance, but in practice it will cut your movement range from 4 squares to 3 on most maps and can hurt bad due to not being able to reach your target when trying to focus fire properly and the inconvenience adds up over multiple turns.

When it comes to choice of firearms, early on machineguns and to a lesser degree shotguns will appear as unmatched kings (especially when matched with the Dash skill that allows these weapons to ignore the worthless enemy legs), because flamers, rifles, bazookas and cannons require specialized skills to really shine. Once you get access to Lucky, Super Lucky (exclusive to Sayuri), Lethal Shot, Sniper (exclusive to Ash) skills, rifles become extremely deadly. Bazookas too, but when used at short range they're essentially less reliable rifles due to their lower base chance to hit. Bazookas and cannons suffer from lower chance to hit when attacking from a 2 square distance so it's advisable to use the Best Position skill when using them in general. Cannons become extremely deadly when you have large capacity backpacks to feed them ammo as well as the Speed and High Speed (exclusive to Amia) skills that increase the number of projectiles fired, because cannons have the highest damage per projectile from all burst weapons (this applies to flamers too to a slightly lesser degree).

When it comes to long range mechs, the choice between missiles and rockets is not trivial: missiles are better against harder to hit targets like enemy mechs, but rockets are better against easy to hit targets like vehicles, tanks and weapon platforms. In the endgame, weapon platforms with high defense values and N-type armor take very little damage from missiles unless you proc some damage skill like Lucky or Critical, rockets are definitely better in this scenario.

And melee is always good, just load up on First, Feint, Lucky and whatever Super skill your melee specialist has. Melee seems to never hit legs which is amazing since enemy legs are just an extra layer of armor for any other weapon.

That's pretty much all tactical advice I can give simply from playing the game.

[Pharnabaze]

Great stuff. Thank you for having taken the time to reply in such a detailed manner. As there's not much going on on the forum, it's always a pleasure to be able to learn something new. I'm sure that pure beginners as well as more advanced players will appreciate your post.

The game does indeed change quite a bit from the beginning to the end. One effective build during one phase might not work as well during another.

Right now I'm swimming around mission 14, but I'll give it a go for the sake of variety.

Personally, I always struggle with my choice of skills in the Front Mission games. Some seem very good, but in the end, they are far too situational and lower the damage output in the end (hit&go for instance). I really liked when Stun punch kicked in (FM3), but it is far too unreliable.

In any case, ti's always a pleasure to meet someone that analyses games in depth and that cares to share.

[Shirayuki Mizore]

On higher difficulties the enemies do so much damage that the most efficient and safe way to handle them is to give everyone backpack full of Restore2 and just heal each other. Mobility is not big deal and not worth losing/having much less these items

Slightly better evasion/mobility will not save you from having your limbs being tear apart every single encounter. Movement is not important either, you are supposed to stick together, for strong AP regeneration and strong AP drain for the enemy, no running away.

- Short is still a king. You can't go wrong by giving everyone shotguns and machine guns (preferably both, shotguns can easier decimate weak limbs and machine guns can target certain air enemies that shotguns can not)
- Long kinda feel useless. Missiles/Rockets/GL are weak and Bazookas are missing all the time and has low ammo.
- Melee can surprisingly be very powerful. I had dedicated full melee wanzer in my group and it was really brutal on the enemies during (quite common) skill chains. Sometimes even starting and ending the wanzer existence (or both its limb) in a single encounter. The problem is the damage received will be very high (and it was dual shield + high mobility setup) because enemy will attack you first so a lot of healing was needed.

[REhorror]

I honestly go full on machine guns now, full on dakka.

Originally posted by Pharnabaze:

Great stuff. Thank you for having taken the time to reply in such a detailed manner. As there's not much going on on the forum, it's always a pleasure to be able to learn something new. I'm sure that pure beginners as well as more advanced players will appreciate your post.

The game does indeed change quite a bit from the beginning to the end. One effective build during one phase might not work as well during another.

Right now I'm swimming around mission 14, but I'll give it a go for the sake of variety.

Personally, I always struggle with my choice of skills in the Front Mission games. Some seem very good, but in the end, they are far too situational and lower the damage output in the end (hit&go for instance). I really liked when Stun punch kicked in (FM3), but it is far too unreliable.

In any case, ti's always a pleasure to meet someone that analyses games in depth and that cares to share.

I'm usually not the guy who goes on full analysis but Short skills are very chainable and complement each other, it works for everything but especially strong against Wanzer.

Melee is very good against tanks or mobile armor enemy because it always hits the head/body part, but would need First skill to make sure you don't get shot-up when you charge the enemy.

Long is mostly support for now, the shoulder Autocannon at 1-2 range is the best because it has 3 ammo (usually more than the missile) and you can use it to focus fire enemy when your Shortchads surround the enemy.

This game's strategy follows the classic bread and butter, divide and conquer.

[Pharnabaze]

Glad to see you all participating in the discussion.

I might add a couple of basic tips:

1) Even if you have a Long range specialist, getting 5ish levels in Short is a good idea, as it will increase the number of skills you have drastically. By the time you get an Autocannon with 3 ammo (or the Missile launcher Ibis), your Longs will start doing some decent damage (through chaining skills).

2) Have one of your units become a jack of all trade (with Short or Fight as a primary skill). His global level will be higher, than his peers. Therefore, he will face higher leveled pilots in the Arena. Thus giving him potentially far better rewards (cf. the Arena guide on gamefaqs describes the reward tiers).

3) Ash or Thomas should become your "destroyer". If you manage to ramp up their honor stat to 150ish by midgame, you'll get the very useful "Surrender" skill, that will allow you to get better rewards.

All in all, it can still be useful to have one or two damage sponges with high mobility to absorb the impact of the enemy units that attack first. As you said very correctly "divide and conquer". is the bread and butter of this game. Placing, funneling, and surrounding are the complementary steps.

To summarize a basic exchange: Longs one-two shot weak units or soften up targets, that you want to attack. Melee is there to take the hit and counterattack. Then Shorts finish them off. When there are only two enemy units left, you can merrily surround them, to drain them of their AP.

Personally, I love Melee, as they don't target the legs. An armless Wanzer is nearly always helpless. Thus it can be used to level up your weaker units.