How to get an Atlas and other assault mechs.

[Dirty Filthy Scrublord]

Please bare in mind I have done this just on one play through so far.
Right then, how did I get an Atlas and a Banshee by week 134???
Step one do enough story missions to get the Argo, then get yourself to either Taurus or New Vandenburg(top right of the starmap).....then you take on the mission you can comfortably manage at your starting planet of choice, but you take maximum c-bills and no salvage because you will need every c-bill you can get your hands on. Once you have done the missions that are viable, you then jump to the other of the two planets and repeat the cycle......but here`s the "trick"...check the shop every time you arrive at the planet and a random selection of mechs can be for sale, either as part salvage or sometimes as a complete mech, you may have to sell off some of your spare equipment or even a mech to afford the assault mechs when they appear, but boy oh boy is it worth it.
Try taking an Atlas out as your "tank" mech and watch as it soaks up the damage while dishing it out too, leaving your other three medium/heavy mechs to bring the pain!!!
Hope this helps you guys and girls in getting one or more of the big boys without having to actually kill it first.

[MinenSpecht]

Imho it is easier to get some capellan standing by doing 1-3 missions for free. Get into Taurian space anf salvage some along with som stalkers by playing missions against davion.

[Chris The Imp]

Or instead of wasting money... Just go one place and back, doesn't have it? Reload, try again, reload, etc.

[Isha]

Originally posted by Dirty Filthy Scrublord:

Please bare in mind I have done this just on one play through so far.
Right then, how did I get an Atlas and a Banshee by week 134???
Step one do enough story missions to get the Argo, then get yourself to either Taurus or New Vandenburg(top right of the starmap).....then you take on the mission you can comfortably manage at your starting planet of choice, but you take maximum c-bills and no salvage because you will need every c-bill you can get your hands on. Once you have done the missions that are viable, you then jump to the other of the two planets and repeat the cycle......but here`s the "trick"...check the shop every time you arrive at the planet and a random selection of mechs can be for sale, either as part salvage or sometimes as a complete mech, you may have to sell off some of your spare equipment or even a mech to afford the assault mechs when they appear, but boy oh boy is it worth it.
Try taking an Atlas out as your "tank" mech and watch as it soaks up the damage while dishing it out too, leaving your other three medium/heavy mechs to bring the pain!!!
Hope this helps you guys and girls in getting one or more of the big boys without having to actually kill it first.

Good tip. I just picked up 2/3 of a BNC-3M at New Vandenburg.

The contracts in this sector seem easier and pay better too.

[darthcuda]

Originally posted by MinenSpecht:

Imho it is easier to get some capellan standing by doing 1-3 missions for free. Get into Taurian space anf salvage some along with som stalkers by playing missions against davion.

Is there a particular planet to do this on? Also does it have to be a difficult mission (like 3.5 stars or higher).

The best I have beaten so far was 3.5 but it was a fluke I got 2 groups of 4 light mechs and they were not together so it was 4 v 4 twice. Not too good for salvage when you just fight light mechs.

[Pherdnut]

Don't buy mech salvage at shops unless you're rich and just need that one stupid part to complete one you've had trouble finding. You can get 3 salvage any time you kill a pilot. Pilots are injured via:

* (I believe) extreme heat - possibly misreporting of ammo explosion
* Ammo explosions in core or in part next to core - caused by extreme heat and sometimes hits to a part with ammo
* Destroying R/L torso pieces - excess damage transfers to core so careful not to overdo it.
* Knockdowns - through stability damage or popping a leg
* Head hits (SRMs and machine guns have best chances)
* Head kills (head hit that actually destroys the head in one shot - kills pilot - awesome when it's at full health)

Also popping both legs disables a mech. I think 2 salvage is likely but you might also get 1 or 3. So deleg

Also look for missions where mechs are likely to be "poorly maintained." Tends to mean they'll be higher quality than they would be for the difficulty so easier to take out but you have to take more care in using just enough to pop those R/L torso parts. Pirates/smugglers with a heavy mech(s) and missions about old mechwarriors renewing old fights.

[RodHull]

Really would feel like cheesing the game to me, I like that I earned my 2 king crabs, 1 atlus and 3 highlanders in open combat personally.

[Grey Buddhist]

I have heard that as the story progresses, bigger (better) mechs become available.
From my experience (on my second play thru), I have finished the Argo mission and have been doing nothing but 2 (and sometimes 2.5) skull contracts for money and the heavies mechs I have seen so far are:

Black Knight (75 tons)
Orion (75 tons)

Mediums are coming out the woodwork, but for heavies I have only seen the above from battles.

I have been staying in the 3 Arano planets only, and I have only taken Battle contracts. I have noticed that when you get a contract regarding older mech designs, take it. It usually has the 'better' mechs for your current time ingame.

I have not seen any Assaults yet in battles or stores. I believe there is always a 'chance' that a store (better chance on certain planets) will have a special mech (or mech part). On my first playthru I found 1 piece to a normal Highlander....of course I finished the whole story without once getting any other Highlander parts for that one.

There are mods you can get that help star league weapons/gear show up more often (still not every time) and also mods that have more/different star league weapons/gear ingame. I have not tried those.

[Chameleon_Silk]

ammo explosion only causes pilot injury because its blown off a torso peice, if you place ammo in an arm and it blows up it will splash to torso but not kill the peice and thus shouldn't cause injury.

the good news is that almost (all?) stock variants place ammo in torso parts.

take for example a blackjack, if you puncture front CT there is a real big chance you will core because it has ammo in the CT (really bad design flaw)

[Lack of Stuff]

Atlas D parts have a chance of showing up on any planet with the tags. Planets with more "Special Slots" will give you a better shot at getting them to spawn.

planet_industry_manufacturing
planet_civ_innersphere
planet_industry_rich
planet_industry_research