BATTLETECH Complete Guide & Campaign Walkthrough w/ Gameplay Mechanics and Tips (Iron Man Mode)

Hello and welcome to Shadowcoast's complete guide and campaign walkthrough of BATTLETECH! Each section will cover various subjects and later sections will provide links to my complete campaign should you ever feel the need to watch endless hours of BATTLETECH.

Please note: I'm running through this campaign in a self-imposed iron man mode. If we lose a Mech or a Mechwarrior... they're gone for good.

Section 1: General Gameplay Mechanics and Tips for Success

Section 2: Talent Trees and Managing your Mechwarriors

Section 3: Pre-Deployment: Tips on how to setup your lance

Section 4: Best Salvage Strategies

Section 5: Main Story Line [SPOILERS] - Up to Priority Mission Extraction

Section 6: Where to find certain Mechs and Mechwarriors

Section 7: Procedural (continuously generated) missions - broken out by mission type (WIP)

Section 8: Achievements and Commentary (WIP)

Also, appreciate a thumbs up and a favorite if you find the content helpful!

Note: Guide is a work in progress. Please post comments and help me make it better. I know YouTube videos might not be preferred so I try to combine high level commentary as well as the video with all the details so you can see outcomes and how things work.

Feel free to drop by on Twitch to watch live! Always appreciate suggestions and recommendations: https://www.twitch.tv/shadowcoast04

General Gameplay Mechanics and Tips for Success

The initial missions in BATTLETECH start off easy but become extremely difficult as you progress your primary campaign.

Here are a list of key concepts reviewed in the video in greater detail you should always remember as you play through:

1) Movement: keep moving to build Evasion Chevrons (EC's) in order to reduce probability of enemy fire from hitting you.

2) Cover: utilize cover such as forest or ridges and mountains to reduce damage and block enemy fire.

3) Moral: actively use your two moral moves (Precision Shot and Vigilance) and be sure to see who has moral boosts (High Spirited - blue symbol in top left Mechwarrior pane) which lowers the cost of these moves from 25 down to 10 moral.

Precision shot allows you to call/target a specific part of an enemy mech and increases your chance to hit.

Vigilance allows you to fire and gain guarded (50% reduction in damage). It also reduces stability damage.

4) Terrain: be sure to review terrain to make sure you have elevation advantages.

5) Talents: be sure to use talents/pilot abilities as you level up (ie. sensor lock which reveals enemies out of visual range and reduces two EC's on the enemy).

Hope you enjoy the video for additional details where I review armor and positioning and other key concepts.

As always, appreciate a thumbs up and a favorite!

Talent Trees and Managing your Mechwarriors

BATTLETECH goes well beyond XCOM in so many ways, one of which is the combination of customizing individual mechs as well as Mechwarriors. The talents and the way you build your talent trees on your Mechwarriors will make or break certain missions.

This section will be devoted on reviewing each skill tree and outline the benefits of each. I'll also provide my views on how to effectively manage your Mechwarriors and what variety of skills you'll want to be bringing into the battlefield.

Gunnery: Each point provides additional base hit chances )+2.5% base weapon hit) and impacts the focus of your weapons spread. Low gunnery means your weapons will hit all over the opposing Mech while high gunnery increases your chances your weapons all hit the same spot (ie. when using a Precision Strike higher gunnery means each of your weapons is more likely to hit the designated spot).

Talent 1: Multishot - allows you to pick multiple targets and assign weapons between the targets. Extremely useful if you only need 1-2 hits to finish off an enemy and want to focus the rest of your weapons on another enemy.

Tip: I heavily utilize multishot, espeically when I know I only need to do a little damage to an enemy to finish him/her off or if I want to remove an Evasion Chevron (EC) from another enemy (I'd send 1 weapon like a medium laser to the other enemy to remove an EC).

Tip: Level gunnery up to 4 for all Mechwarriors early on and to 5 after you've picked your first two specialties. You'll want decent gunnery for later missions (3 Skull+) to ensure precision strikes hit where they're supposed to hit (good way to focus fire off legs).

Talent 2: Breaching Shot -one of your weapons ignores Cover and Guarded on target enemy. This is a powerful passive ability that allows you to do consistent damage against enemies. During higher level missions (3+ skulls/Atlas mission, you will fight Heavy and Assault Mechs which will guard reducing your damage).

Tip: Make sure your Mechwarrior with Breaching Shot is in a Mech with a heavy damage dealing weapon like a Large Laser or AC 10 or 20. When you max out your heat, fire your highest damage dealing weapon to ensure it receives the passive breaching shot talent bonus.

Piloting: Each point provides various benefits as you progress through this tree. These include additional maximum Evasive Charges (EC's) you can generate, increased melee damage, additional unsteady threshold and additional distance you can sprint.

Talent 1: Evasive Movement - a passive attribute that allows you to generate an additional EC from movement actions (up to the maximum). Very important skill to have as you will always have at least 2 EC's assuming you move far enough to earn 1!

Talent 2: Ace Pilot - a passive ability that allows the Mechwarrior to move after shooting (assuming you have not moved yet). Again integral in the event you aren't able to leg or finish off that Mech. Great for scouts who can fire then run away.

Guts: Each point in Guts provides various benefits ranging from +health (increases the number of injuries your Mechwarrior can incur) to +overheat threshold (you can fire more weapons and take on more heat) to reductions in recoil penalties.

Talent 1: Bulwark - a passive attribute that allows you to gain Guarded (50% damage reduction) when remaining stationary (aka not moving at all). Great for tanks who are out in front and might be legged or for snipers who want to sit in that ideal spot and rain down on the enemy.

Talent 2: Juggernaut - a passive attribute that allows successful melee attacks to knock back the targeted enemy 1 Initiative Phase. Great to have on your front line brawlers who are running hot. Hit the enemy moving it back a phase then alpha once you've cooled off a bit before they can move again!

Tactics: Each point provides various benefits ranging from reduction in indirect fire penalties to decrease minimum range to called shot bonuses increasing your called shot % chance of hitting a certain part of the enemy Mech.

Talent 1: Sensor Lock - an action (you can sensor lock or attack, not both) that reveals a target within sensor range and removes two of it's EC's. This is a MUST HAVE skill on one of your Mechwarriors during any engagement. It allows you to revel incoming enemies and rain down Long Range Missiles (assuming you have some) before the enemy can get into range to hit you.

Talent 2: Master Tactician - this passive attribute increases the Mechwarrior's initiative by 1 and removes one bar of stability damage when Reserving. This is a key talent to have later in the game once you have Heavy and Assault Mechs. It allows you to use these Mechs 1 phase earlier increasing your damage output. Great to have on heavy and assault Mechs as well as Scouts who can get in and out quicker.

Pre- Deployment: Tips on How to Set Up your Lance

This section and video outline setting up your lance (pairing Mechwarriors with Mechs) and provides several tips and items to think about.

I'll be breaking the section into two primary pieces: Procedural missions and Priority Missions. I'll be posting Priority Missions guidance later on (please see Main Campaign Story Missions section for videos and brief explanations of each Priority Mission - more content to be added in)!

Procedural Missions: I think of them as two types of missions -

i) Need to eliminate all enemies on the map (Battle, Capture the Base type missions)

ii) Do not need to eliminate all enemies on the map (destroy base, destroy convoy, recovery type missions)

For the first type of mission, make sure you bring a lot of ammo and/or go with laser boats who wont' run out of ammo. Later in the game (see my fighting assaults videos in procedural mission sections or salvaging assaults videos), you will encounter multiple assault lances which take a lot of damage. You want to make sure you don't end up having to withdraw because you run out of ammo!

For the second type of mission, you can consider lighter/more mobile Mechs if you only care about achieving the mission (aka C-Bill and/or Rep focused contracts).

For either type of mission, if you want to prioritize salvage, make sure you bring a lot of ballistic and missile damage (preferable LRMs) and take the incapacitate approach to knocking out enemy Mechwarrior pilots!

Please see the video where I talk in more detail about the above!

Tips on how to level up your Mechwarriors fast!

Best Salvage Strategies

Hello everyone! This section is devoted to the best salvage tactics in battle.

I've decided there are two "Best in Class" salvage strategies.

First, blow off the legs to ensure you receive 2 pieces of salvage. Precision shot alpha strike (aka use all weapons) on the legs then blow off the other leg.

Second, knock over the Mech and cause enough pilot injuries to incapacitate the pilot to get all 3 pieces of salvage!

Third, (THIS RARELY WORKS) blow out the cockpit. I've blown out the cockpit on Mechs on random chance by accident (regular attack), however, given the probabilities, you will most likely blow up the mech or CT and only recieve 1 piece of salvage.

I go into more detail and showcase how I obtained my Zeus.

Main Campaign Story Missions - Main Story Line [SPOILERS] - Priority Missions

Please watch as I start my BATTLETECH journey! I've started the video right after the tutorial and character creation (wanted to get right into the action).

Raju sacrificed himself to allow Lady Arano and Shadowcoast to escape! Having ejected from our sabotaged Blackjack, Shadowcoast awakes aboard a mercenary units ship. 3 years elapse where we take on our second campaign mission!

Next up is Priority Mission (main story line mission) Capture the Argo. We find ourselves on a pirate held moon fighting through defenses to clear a path for our client's scientists.

Later on we find out that Kamea wasn't killed on the dropship! She needs our help in leading a restoration and reclaimation of her birthright!

We pick back up on the primary story line with the First Strike mission.

Our objective is to free prisoners on Weldry, a Directorate controlled planet. High Lady Arano is leading the main assualt on a spaceport while we sneak in through the back. Great mission where we have to fight several heavy mechs and incldues a Lady Kamea appearance at the end!

Liberate Panzyr Campaign Mission

In this mission we have to take out ground control to prevent enemies from dropping on the planet. We start off by securing a turret control center where House Decimis fighters are able to turn the turrets on the enemy! We then have to make our way through several medium to heavy Mechs to hit the ground control center. Great mission and a lot of fun!

Liberation: Smithon (Part 1)

In this mission we work to free Smithon (House Karosas) from Directorate control. We're tasked with cutting off enemy supplies and capturing supply crates (that are fully capable of exploding). The mission forces us to move across the map and divide our forces to deny enemy convoys from escaping while deciding how many ammo crates we explode to injury or kill enemies. Great and fun mission!

Liberation: Smithon (Part 2) Served Cold

Simon Karosas (leader of House Karosas) refuses to help us until we eliminate a troublesome ship called the Newgrange. We're tasked with destroying the Newgrange and have a surprise encounter with Lady Espinosa in a famed Catapult K2.

Mission: Grave Robbing (Parts i and ii)

In this mission, we fly to the Artru in search of LosTech to help in our fight against the Directorate. We encounter Star League defenses but Dr. Murad is able to bypass and gain us entry into the armory. Filled with ancient Mechs such as the Atlas and Highlander and high tech weaponry, we think we're in good shape. However, blowing up the Newgrange comes back to bite us as the Taurian Concordat was tipped off to our plan and makes planet fall to kill Lady Arano (we killed the Comodore's son who was the Captain of the Newgrange).

The second part of this missions details Lady Arano's harrowing escape from Artru ending with the Taurian Comodore pledging to hunt us down!

Liberation: Itrom

In this priority mission we liberate Itrom for House Gallas to try to learn damaging information on the Directorate that will help us convince the Taurians to stop fighting for the Directorate!

Defense Panzyr Priority Mission

In this mission we defend dropships and the control center from invading Taurians who are attacking our famine relief effort on Panzyr.

Priority Mission: Extraction

Alexander obtains the incriminating evidence but is being pursued by the Directorate. In this mission we have to try to save Alexander while securing the evidence that will convince the Taurian's to stop fighting on behalf of the Directorate. Difficult decisions ensue and we end up leaving Alexander's fate to Lady Victoria Espinosa (yes she's back and she's as mean as ever)!

Priority Mission: Liberation Tyrlon

Watch as we Liberate Tyrlon for House Parata! I fail on my first attempt and have to adapt my lance on my second attempt outlined in the video!

Priority Mission: Coromodir - Locura

Priority Mission Coromodir - Showdown

Where to find certain Mechs and Mechwarriors (WIP)

In this section, we outline our hypothesis that certain planets and factions deploy certain Mechs and Mech variants than others. This is a hypothesis and has not been proven yet.

I'll be trying to track down a Catapult in the below videos (yet to be posted) and outlining my findings as I go along.

Catapult - what we know: according to Sarna.net, the Capellan Confederation took the majority of Catapults after the fall of the Star League. As such, we'll be fighting on Capellan held planets (fighting for and sometimes against them) to see if we encounter a Catapult.

Catapult K2 (rare variant)- what we know: also according to Sarna.net, the K2 variant was created and produced in 3033 on the planet Al Na'ir. We'll be searching for this planet and seeing if we can fight a few battles to obtain this rare variant Mech!

Content to be posted and potentially deleted if we find out that the Mechs generated on procedural missions are completely random (I hope not as the Devs have done a fantastic job so far with this game, adhering to the Lore and Universe)!

Please see my other guide (WIP) here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1374260035


The other piece I'll be outlining is where to find those rare Ronin Mechwarriors! I've heard that they pop up throughout the universe and are rare Mechwarriors who can only be hired (and fired) once.

I have yet to confirm but the Ronin Mechwarriors are most likely survivors of the original Tenth Ghost Regiment which formed the Draconis Combine's (House Kurita's) phantom BattleMech Regiment. However, if I'm mistaken, these Mechwarriors fought later during 3068-3075 which is outside our timeperiod. I'll be editing and posting more information if I encounter a Ronin warrior (it might just be a higher tiered specialized Mechwarrior).

As always, please post and help me improve this guide!

Procedural Missions - Leopard Dropship [No Spoilers]

The following videos and content is focused on procedural missions (missions that are continuously generated throughout the game). We have various types labeled above each one.

Skip to 16.01min in to get to a Patrol mission in episode 3. Earlier content is focused on exploring the Leopard and getting to know our crew.

Logistics Base Capture mission for episode 4. Secure the base and repel the enemy. Pretty straight forward.

Assasinate and Battle misisons covered in episode 5.

Run through of a Smugglers mission in episode 6.

Episode 8:

Episode 9:

Episode 10:

Episode 11:

Episode 19:

Achievements (WIP)

Please find below a list of Achievements and requirements to obtain:

A MechWarrior's Path - Establish a History - completed at main campaign character creation.

Coromodir Lost - Suffer a terrible betrayal - complete the introductory mission.

Argo Rising - Recover an Ancient Ship - completed after Free the Argo mission.

Why We Fight - Started a war - completed after freeing prisoners on Weldry.

House Decimis Restored - Liberated the world of Panzyr - completed after liberating Panzyr.

House Karosas Restored - Liberate Smithon - completed after liberating Smithon from the Directorate.

Just Getting Started - Destroy 50 Mechs (any size).

Dropping like Big Metal Flies - Destroy 250 Mechs (any size).

Heavy Metal - Destroy 50 heavy Mechs.

Mass of Mediums - Destroy 50 medium Mechs.

[andyb816]

when the A.I leaves to find star league ... does it ever come back.

[Moley Plays]

A really superb comprehensive walkthrough guide. Great job, and big thanks!

[Shadowcoast]

Thanks Bluntman, appreciate it!

[Bluntman]

Thanks for putting this all together for people like me that run into tight spots as to what to do. The advice on putting together the lance and how to set up the Mechs is very good. Also I think your tips on salvage has helped me tremendously. Overall this is a top notch Guide. Not sure why you only have 3 stars but its awesome.

[Shadowcoast]

Awesome! Ya I noticed some Mechs become more prevalent later. Hope you're having a blast!

[Furrycheezit]

Oh, also...
@Shadowcoast
The Catapult C1!
I'm starting to see these after completing the mission Defense Panzyr!
In fact I have since acquired TWO, from running various procedural missions on various planets from Panzyr, Weldry, Fjaldr.. and some in between.
Despite the fact that I'm now running all Assaults (2 King Crabs, 1 Atlas, 1 Highlander) .. I ended up using one of my Catapult C1's to great effect, on a random procedural mission where I had to intercept and ambush a convoy.
AllI had to do was find a nice hill top to park my Catapult C1 along with my King Crab that I loaded out with all LRM's.. then send my other two in close enough for visual contact and then...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB0mGGTID6M

I walked up and told the enmy that our missiles shall blot out the sun... but.. seeing as they're from a different planet, they didn't get the reference, and got scared and all fell down amd got picked off one by one from all my stability damagel lol

[Furrycheezit]

Oh I farmed a lot myself between the story missions...
..and not because of these Guides, but I mean this is almost a given that you have to do this.

First things first though, ...and mind this is just my opinion here but... you absolutely must acquire either the Quickdraw from the Argo Recovery mission, or the Jagermech from the Weldry Mission... Or both!

Cause those will be your first heavys, and its gauranteed that they will be available to you during those missions so you know you're gauranteed some salvage from them. So do everything you can to try to salvage one or both of those intact!

Then use one or both, to lead your forces on farming runs until you start acquiring better Mechs.

[Shadowcoast]

@Elmoth, appreciate it, thank you!

@Nyarlathotep I cannot seem to find that mission but you're completely right! I think I might've deleted that recording somehow (apologies). I am working on my Iron Man Impossible Mode campaign and will post that video albeit it will look and feel a lot different!

[Elmoth]

Nice walkthrough. I like that you included some small resume before the videos, so we know what they are about. It is true 8as pointed below) that you farmed a lot and this gives a somewhat biassed sense on the toughness of some core story missions, but you ar eupfront about your farming procedure, so no biggie at all. Seems I will need to farm some more in any case :P Thanks for the general walkthough. Useful to new players.

[Shadowcoast]

Thanks, let me track it down and add!