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Obviously you can be lucky and your PPC nails that cockpit but getting those 50 dmg there can be quite tricky, however every knockdown and tiniest of bullet that hits the cockpit injures the pilot and after 3-5 he is dead (3-4 most often, haven't encountered 5 yet but the enemy mechwarriors are like yours so it is possible).
So you are looking to shoot many small projectiles. MGs, LRMs mainly.
I use a centaurion that has 1x LRM 20, 1x LRM 15 both with + stability dmg and a normal LRM 5.
One salvo will cap out the knockdown bar, however LRMs cannot knock down so whatever next stability hit comes (melee, autocannon, ppc) knocks him over. That is your first injury on the pilot right there.
Now you can either bring a firestarter loaded with 6 mgs up to his head and call the shot on the head to have 2-5% per bullet chance to graze it or you let him stand up and repeat the process with the missiles 3 times.
Happy hunting.
Netted me the dragon on the first pass in the story mission without even trying.
Random headshot, knockdown, knockdown - mine.
edit: Additionally blowing off side torso also guarantees an injury
HOWEVER, if you want 3 pieces of a mech, load up on missles and go for lots of knockdowns. They do pilot injuries. Any LRM or SRM system with +stab damage is automaticaly better than any other buff you might get. SECOND BEST is critical chance to fish for those ammo boxes and cause torso explosions.
Understand what causes damage to a pilot and understnd how to stack it without overlap!
head hit: 1 damage (unless you hit with gauss or AC/20 in which case congrats on the 1 shot kill).
Side-torso destruction: 1 damage.
Ammo explosion: 1 damage. DOES NOT stack with side-torse explosion if the ammo was in the side-torse (where the AI usualy has it).
Leg destruction: 1 damage from the automatic knockdown.
Knockdown: 1 damage. DO NOT ever destroy a leg on a mech already close to falling down. You waste the instability bar. Save that dmaged leg to use for back to back knockdowns after he gets up.
Ideal salvage plan for intact mech: knockdown the mech with instability using missles (due to their random hit location per projectile nature, they have less chance to outright blow a section BUT have a high chance to damage most sections.
Once target is prone, call shot both side-torsos with high damage single hit weapons. BE CAREFULL, extra damage done to a destroyed section eventualy ends up in the CT and can destroy a mech before you kill the pilot. Arms and legs flow into the side-torso on their side, and the side-torse excess damage goes to the center torso.
After the target gets up, target it's most damaged leg with a called shot from morale to knock it down again imediately. either you just got the 4th wound and the mech, OR you get the chance to explode his remaining side-torso for the final wound. Positioning is key, try to be on the flank you are trying to explode.
If the enemy has 5 wounds it gets tricky ... by now he should have 4 wounds and be a popsicle with 1 leg the CT and the head left. Either you get lucky in the process and one rocket scores a random head hit (which is another benefit they have) or you now have to very carefully knock down the mech again without destroying the last leg or the CT. Mostly don't bother at this point and leg it for 2 salvage pieces. Better than nothing.
EDIT: to emphasise the effectiveness of missles, just finished a mission where I took a JM6-A via the knockdown and torso shot ( my only intended target) but also a trebuchet, an orion and a hunckback via random lucky headshots from rockets+knockdown. Though notably outside of the JM6 all pilots had 3 wounds not 4.
I managed to stomp out a cockpit during the closed Beta testing some of us Backers got to toy with and just last night stomped out the cockpit of a Shadowhawk. You don't get to choose where the melee strike hits on a downed Mech like you can with direct fire, it's RNG and placement of you vs the downed Mech. If you can be more on the side of the head of the Mech, chances are better... but still RNG.
Not going to lie, each of my mechs have a LRM++ (+2 stb) since LRMs don't do much damage, and can knocked down even the heaviest mech, I can easily Incompasitate the Enemy without beign scared that a Target is going to blow up from a bad shot.
I got a King Crab, Victor, Battlemaster, Zeus, and Tons of Heavy mechs doing this method.
Bad thing is that my team gets some off damage since these LRM mechs may not have kill potential. So fights are a bit more dragged on at times and I get some structural damage.
I would agree with this, LRM 70 stalker will get 2 mechs to knockdown ready each turn, then they just need a little push to finish the job
i tried this a few times, I always put the fire starter in a dumb place and get it shot too much lol.
Called shot mastery with SRMs does the trick though.
Knock 'em down. Melee attacks are good for stability damage in the very early game. Try to hit from healthy flanks to avoid core damage while knocking down. Pop the side torsos with called shots, being careful not to hit harder than you need to because excess damage transfers to the core. Sometimes blowing an arm to blow a torso will result in less damage to a core. If they're not dead yet at a knockdown and two torso pops, blow a leg when they get back up (same excess damage caveat). If that doesn't kill them, it's not the early game anymore. When called shots get more frequent it's often beter to let them get back up rather than take shots at a fallen opponent since you have more control over where a missed shot will hit when you attack from a given facing (flanks usually).
Late game:
LRM boat with 4 large LRMs +++. Use it to knock mechs down. Spread the stability damage around. Full salvo if they're braced or only one 20 or 2 15s if they're not braced. You want one of these for all strategies. The free called shots and pilot damage from knockdows with low penetration is huge.
For mech/general-salvage/lethal-headshots-are-fun: Front-liners with double-Kali Yama + or ++ AC/10s. They pop heads without excess carry-through to the core and have considerable range over the 20s. They also leave more room for SRMs which have a great chance of getting in head shots when you don't get lucky with the lethal shots. Make called shots to the head from the flanks. If the mechs start getting fragile, revert to early game tactics and go for leg/torso pops, whatever you can get without killing the core. s/mLasers and flamers in the mix are helpful for more delicate surgery when cores are at risk.
For mech only salvage: SRM boats with like 20+ SRMs are also not bad at popping heads but tend to pop a lot more parts before it happens. This tends to reduce weapons/gear in the final salvage but you still get a ton of mech salvage with much higher odds of mech salvage in the non-priority rolls.
Weapons/Gear only: De-leginate for fun/profit. You already have all the DFA mods you'll never need.
All of the things strategy: Mostly pure knockdown LRM-boat team but lose an LRM for jumpjets for evading more. Takes longer, but boy can those assault parts weather some LRMs if you use just enough while you knock the pilots around like their mechs are a drink mixer. Maybe have one gunner for kiling tanks/turrets or give each mech a PPC++ (stability 30) for more focused fire and two large LRMS. I'd rather kill faster personally but this should work well on missions where it's likely to be all/mostly mechs like battles and assassinations.
Other considerations:
* I haven't bothered de-critting my builds but crit weapons aren't necessarily a good thing since they often cause chain reaction ammo explosions and are more likely to destroy weapons/gear (I believe weapons in popped parts still have a chance to be in salvage). LRM boats are important for stab damage, not crit so the right ++es might work better. I personally find chain reaction ammo kills amusing enough to be worth the salvage cost.
* Be aware of where the ammo is at. If the idiots have ammo in the core, a couple knockdows might be more ideal than blowing torsos that also have ammo in them.
* Indirect missile fire is much more likely to land hits on heads arms, and torsos, I believe. If they're squishy in a core or leg you don't want popped yet, move your LRM boat behind an obstacle.
* Don't forget their often pristine back armor when you need just one more knockdown but everything is in the red/hanging by a thread and they're unsteady.