MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

• Get some mods, the game has some issues that can be easily fixed for a massively improved experience.

• Turn on some level of aim assist. It's very difficult to aim while moving and managing your torso and leg positioning, and even the low setting with help a lot with keeping you on target, especially with lasers.

• Positioning is incredibly important in fights; you can't just slug it out until you get into heavy and assaults, and even then it's dangerous.

• Present your tougher sides to targets unless firing. The centurion for instance has more armor on his left arm because of the shield, so you should rotating your torso to present that side towards enemy fire as much as you can.

• Pay attention to where your components are so you know what to protect and how to position.

• Ammo will explode if hit by weapons, and take out the section its in. If that's a side torso, the arm attached comes off too. If it's center torso, you die. Don't ever put ammo in the CT.

• Look for where your targets have their weapons, watch where the beams and projectiles come from. Targeting and destroying enemy weapons is a massive part of combat; don't just fire center mass, blow off arms to weaken them and legs to slow them.

• Losing a leg cripples you, losing both kills you. Same for enemies.

• Keep moving, the AI has more trouble hitting you at speed. They are still hideously accurate still though, which is one of the aforementioned issues. Mods can balance this.

• Lancemates are really bad though and will regularly be worthless, unless you, yes, get mods.

• I always put a negotiation point into damage costs, and the rest into salvage unless I need a fast cash injection. Salvage will always end up being more valuable in the long term.

• Check your weapon groups! You don't want to alpha strike (fire everything at the same time) all the time.

• Specialize your mechs. Focus on close combat and high armor (heavy acs, srms) mid range (lasers and mrms), or long range (ac/2, lrms, ppcs). If you have a spread of different ranged weapons, you're going to be weak at all ranges. Your lancemates can cover the other ranges.

• You don't always need to max out armor. It helps when you're new and learning positioning, but the best defense is destroying enemy arms and weapons. If you can lose a ton or two of armor and add another laser or missile rack, you will potentially be way better off. Dead mechs can't shoot at you.

• Don't overdo it on ammo. I promise you you do not need 80 shots on that ac/20.

• Don't bring what you can't afford to lose. That brand new level 3 large pulse laser is really dope yeah, but if you get your arm blown off it's gone forever. Hope you can find another one! That said, don't be afraid to use your good stuff. Just think about the mech it's going on and the mission ahead (torso slots are usually way, way safer than arms, demolition missions tend to be cqc slogs, etc).

• Check industrial zones on the regular. They populate with rare weapons and mechs, as well as Hero Mechs. The hero variants are great; always have higher armor and structure, as well as unique perks and bonuses coupled with rare and powerful fittings.

• Flank flank flank flank. Rear armor is always weaker that front, even if it's maxed. Get behind a mech and go ham on it and you'll drop it in no time. Same goes for you though, so pay attention to your positioning.