Best way to incapacitate pilot to get full salvage?

[MythTrip]

Review: 3 ways to kill a mech, each with own salvage result. Kill pilot = 3/3 salvage, take off both legs 2/3, and explode center torso (CT) = 1/3. What is best way to injure pilot? I thought explode torso and knockdowns were sure pilot injury. Any others? Any strategy for killing pilot only?

[Kexin]

Slam them with LRMs or SRMs for knock downs. When they're down, shoot left or right torso for pilot injury. Let them get up, shoot other LT/RT for pilot injury then knock them down again.

[wesnef]

Knock down with stability damage, blow off the side torsos one by one while it's lying down, let it stand up & blow off a leg to knock it down again. That'll do it for a 4-hit pilot.

For 5 & 6 hit pilots it's more annoying. Need to knock it down repeatedly with +stb damage weapons before blowing off the torsos & leg.

Needless to say, this is harder to do on light & medium mechs, because they die faster than you can do the pilot hits. And assault mechs will survive longer, but have more stability and probably have higher-hit pilots.

Precision-shooting at the head with a big weapon is a lottery.

[Lead Paintchips]

Knockdown juggling is my most reliable one. Another way is to cripple it's offensive capabilities by blowing off arms/non center torsos then running up a Firestarter/Grashopper loaded up with MG and unloading on them. Lots of little hits that won't tear off armor fast, but higher chance of getting a headshot.

[chefcook90]

I'm pretty sure exploding the CT gives more than just 1 piece of salvage, provided you destroy ONLY the CT.

And I know for a fact that I've gotten 3/3 before from blowing out both legs - it's how I got my Black Knight.

[Mistfox]

Er...chef, that is so wrong...

[chefcook90]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

Er...chef, that is so wrong...

Well, then my game must be bugged

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by chefcook90:

Originally posted by Mistfox:

Er...chef, that is so wrong...

Well, then my game must be bugged

If you saw what you did, then it must be.

[Ilovethesmellofnapalm]

SRM headshots work best for me. LRMs aren't that great: the targeting algorithm picks a spot (rarely the actual head given low probability) and the missiles "cluster" around there. SRMs on the other hand pick their targets on a "per missile" basis.

My strategy:
I use an LRM boat to max out stability damage
Then I use my SRM boat to headshot (if I miss at least I score a knockdown)
I then use the remaining 2 mechs for call shots on the head

Blowing off legs only gives you 2/3 salvage items. Its quite tediuos at high difficulties when you're hunting King Crab and Atlas mechs.

[gigamelon1981]

LRMS.
Called shot head. With like 60 missiles and 18% chance of hit, it will hit the head most of the time. In case they missed the head, knockdown will do. So it is 1 coin with 2 heads.
Looking for better missile setup hmm, is it possible for 100 missiles ?

Im looking for possibility for AC to destroy the head completely.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by gigamelon1981:

LRMS.
Called shot head. With like 60 missiles and 18% chance of hit, it will hit the head most of the time. In case they missed the head, knockdown will do. So it is 1 coin with 2 heads.
Looking for better missile setup hmm, is it possible for 100 missiles ?

Im looking for possibility for AC to destroy the head completely.

New patch, every missile after the first shot gets only half the probability to hit the same spot now, so 1st is 18%, 2nd is 9%, 3rd is 4.5% etc.

[MrMurLock]

Three-step strategy for me.
1) Blow off ONE leg. This will lessen the amount of stability damage needed to knockdown a mech.
2) LRM knockdowns. Use the least amount of LRMs per your judgment, the goal is to knockdown the enemy with the least damage to lessen accidental kills.
3) MG called shots. Use MGs to target the enemy head after knocking them down. Multiple small hits increases the chance of causing a pilot injury with negligable damage, lessening the chance of an unwanted kill.

[Mohrrunkel]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

Originally posted by gigamelon1981:

LRMS.
Called shot head. With like 60 missiles and 18% chance of hit, it will hit the head most of the time. In case they missed the head, knockdown will do. So it is 1 coin with 2 heads.
Looking for better missile setup hmm, is it possible for 100 missiles ?

Im looking for possibility for AC to destroy the head completely.

New patch, every missile after the first shot gets only half the probability to hit the same spot now, so 1st is 18%, 2nd is 9%, 3rd is 4.5% etc.

I got educated about that as well in the past, but LRM don't behave like that, as Ilovethesmellofnapalm said. 18% is for the first missile of an LRM battery and if you don't hit the head with that no other missile will, most of the time, since they cluster around the impact point of the first missile. What mistfox said only applies to SRMs and MGs.

[SeriousCCIE]

I sort of thought an intended kill nearly immediately is what one would want. Is the term "accidental kill" being used here to describe unwanted mech part damage causing the parts to get unintentionally blown off?

I agree with the other synopses that knockdowns and targeted shooting is a good means to increase salvage.

Often, my problem is that I chose a higher payout during the negotiations, due to shortage of funds or simply not expecting to find salvage that I ended up finding, and then I swim in a sea of awesomeness with limited selection capabilities.. and the RNG randomly assigns me a bunch of heatsinks.

The life of a mercenary can be tough.

[Lead Paintchips]

Originally posted by SeriousCCIE:

I sort of thought an intended kill nearly immediately is what one would want. Is the term "accidental kill" being used here to describe unwanted mech part damage causing the parts to get unintentionally blown off?

I agree with the other synopses that knockdowns and targeted shooting is a good means to increase salvage.

Often, my problem is that I chose a higher payout during the negotiations, due to shortage of funds or simply not expecting to find salvage that I ended up finding, and then I swim in a sea of awesomeness with limited selection capabilities.. and the RNG randomly assigns me a bunch of heatsinks.

The life of a mercenary can be tough.

accidental kill is (I'm assuming) when you blow off the legs or blow out the CT. I haven't confirmed it, but I'm assuming that the more parts you blow off, the less junk that you get.


One thing that I learned quickly is that grab max salvage, or at least 3 choice salvage, so that in case you do get that full mech salvage, you can snap it up. If you already have that chassis, then you can throw it into storage then sell it in the shop for more cash than scrapping it.

[Nuclear Kangaroo]

Originally posted by chefcook90:

I'm pretty sure exploding the CT gives more than just 1 piece of salvage, provided you destroy ONLY the CT.

And I know for a fact that I've gotten 3/3 before from blowing out both legs - it's how I got my Black Knight.

not really it works like this

- dead pilot gives you full salvage
- if you destroy both legs you get 2 salvage
- if you destroy the CT you get 1 salvage