MECH MARS Combat Guide: Weapon Numbers, Rear Armour, Medals and Holdout

Arm weapons by the numbers

Both arms fire from one trigger, so the real choice is which pair of numbers you can afford. Damage per second below assumes every round hits; heat per second is what the gun adds while held, before your frame cools it.

• Autocannon: 9 per round, 6 rounds a second, 54 damage a second for 7.2 heat a second. 300 rounds, 650 m range. About 7.5 damage per point of heat.
• Pulse Laser: 14 per pulse, 4 a second, 56 damage a second for 20 heat a second. Unlimited ammo, instant hit, 450 m. About 2.8 damage per heat.
• Scatter Cannon (after Dust Landing): 9 pellets of 7, 1.1 shots a second, up to 69 damage a second for 6.6 heat a second. 50 shots, 150 m.
• Railgun (after Hold the Dome): 110 per shot, about 51 damage a second over its 2.15-second charge and recovery cycle, 28 heat a shot. 16 shots, 950 m.

Shoulder weapons

Shoulder pods fire a salvo, then reload. The Kestrel has only a right shoulder; the other frames carry two.

• Missile Pod: six missiles of 13 (78 a salvo) every 5 seconds, 10 heat, 10 salvos, 700 m. Needs a lock to chase.
• Rocket Rack: four rockets of 26 (104 a salvo) every 3.5 seconds, 8 heat, 12 salvos, 500 m, 6 m blast.
• Plasma Mortar (after Convoy Run): one 70-damage shell every 3 seconds, 12 heat, 20 shells, 600 m, 10 m blast, lobbed slowly at 95 m/s.

Heat: what a shutdown really costs

Each frame sheds heat at a fixed rate: Kestrel 20 a second, Pioneer 18, Warden 17, Bastion 16. One Pulse Laser adds exactly 20 a second, so a Kestrel can hold a single laser forever while a Bastion gains 4 a second. One Autocannon never comes close on any frame. Most heat trouble comes from pairing two hot weapons.

Hitting 100 shuts the mech down for 2.5 seconds with no cooling at all. When it restarts it is at 60 heat, not zero, so the next shutdown comes quickly if you keep firing. Overdrive is the exception: for its 8 seconds heat does not rise at all.

The four frames side by side

Body, arm and leg HP are tracked separately. Energy feeds both boosting and jets, and refills at the regen rate once you stop using it. Jet thrust is shown against Mars gravity of 7 m/s².

• Kestrel: 300 body, 130 per arm, 190 legs; walks 17 m/s, boosts 38; 110 energy, 28 regen; jets 19.
• Pioneer: 420 / 180 / 260; 14 and 32 m/s; 100 energy, 26 regen; jets 17.5.
• Warden (after Convoy Run): 560 / 230 / 330; 11.5 and 27 m/s; 95 energy, 24 regen; jets 16.
• Bastion (after Iron Mesa): 720 / 290 / 410; 9.5 and 23 m/s; 90 energy, 22 regen; jets 14.5.

Energy in seconds

Jets burn 42 energy a second, sprinting 24 and a quick boost 16 at once. From a full bar, a Kestrel gets about 2.6 seconds of jets, 4.6 seconds of sprint or six quick boosts; a Bastion gets about 2.1 seconds, 3.75 seconds or five. Net of gravity, a Kestrel's jets push it up at 12 m/s² and a Bastion's at only 7.5, so the heavy frames gain height far more slowly for the same energy. Regeneration starts 0.6 seconds after you stop, and a full refill takes about four seconds on any frame. Mobility upgrades raise energy by 3% a level along with speed.

Where damage lands, and why to get behind

A direct hit on a mech's body from behind its torso does 1.3 times damage, and the HUD flags it REAR. Only the Autocannon, Pulse Laser, Scatter Cannon and Railgun can score it. The torso faces wherever that pilot is aiming, so a mech turned toward you has no back to hit. The same rule runs online.

Missiles, rockets and mortar shells all explode, and blasts follow different rules. They do full damage at the centre and fall to 30% at the edge, measured from the target's outer shell. On a mech, blast damage is split 65% body and 35% legs, never counts as rear, and your own blasts hurt you at 30%. In escort and defence operations the rovers take 60% and the Hellas dome 50% of any hit, including your enemies' misses.

Overdrive is a damage meter

Overdrive charges by 0.12 per point of damage you deal, to mechs or anything else, plus 5 per kill, and fires at 100. Without kills that is about 830 damage. For 8 seconds you deal 20% more damage, move 15% faster, gain no heat and refill energy twice as fast. Save it for a sustained close fight, not a single target at range.

Reading enemy mechs

Enemy and bot mechs pick a preferred distance from their arm weapons: about 70 m for a Scatter Cannon, 200 m for a laser, 230 m for an Autocannon and 420 m for a Railgun, averaged across both arms. They close in beyond 1.25 times that distance and back off inside 0.7 times it.

They fire their arms only within 95% of their main gun's range, so a Scatter Cannon mech is harmless beyond about 142 m. Rockets go only inside 320 m, mortars only between 110 and 560 m, and missiles only with a full lock. Keeping outside a mech's range while staying inside yours is often worth more than raw damage.

Repair crates

Every destroyed enemy mech drops a repair crate. Other enemies drop one 25% of the time, or 55% when your ammunition is low. Walk into it within 40 seconds: it restores 25% of maximum HP to every part still standing and 40% of each weapon's ammo. Broken parts stay broken, so a crate is worth most before an arm or the legs go.

Medals

Since 11 October every operation carries three medals, judged on a cleared run. Each pays 200 credits the first time.

• Swift: clear within the operation's par time. Hold the Dome has a fixed length, so it has Sweep instead: destroy 60% of its enemies yourself, 15 of its 24.
• Ironclad: finish with at least 70% body armour.
• Marksman: finish with at least 40% accuracy. Every round, pellet and missile you fire counts as a shot, so a long-range Scatter Cannon or missile spam drags it down.

Holdout

Holdout opens after Dust Landing: endless waves in the crater arena, spread around the side of the crater away from you, 230–280 m from its centre. Wave n brings 2 + n tanks (up to 8), n ÷ 2 mechs rounded up (up to 4), and gunships from wave 3 (up to 3). The mechs grow heavier: Kestrels in waves 1–2, Kestrels and Pioneers in 3–4, Pioneers and Wardens in 5–7, Wardens and Bastions from 8. Their skill rises each wave to a cap of 0.9, and from wave 7 every enemy gains 8% HP per wave.

Clearing a wave adds 250 × the wave number and refits you with 25% HP and 35% ammo before an 8-second break. Each wave has 75 + 10n seconds; after that the next wave arrives on top of the stragglers and that wave pays no clear bonus. Your score is kill points plus wave bonuses, kept on this device only, with no credits or ranking.