Pilot Survival Guide

Welcome, Pilot! Herein you will find everything you need to know to begin your journey in mechanized combat.

## The Cockpit

First off, let us talk about each interface available to you in your cockpit and heads-up display (HUD).

* Above your head is a set of four “sliders” that allow you to route power to different utilities for your mech.
* Straight ahead on your HUD you have two important metrics to view: your energy and the hull integrity of your mech. When your hull integrity reaches zero, your mech will be destroyed.
* Just beyond those indicators, you have two ability buttons on either side to use when your energy reaches the requisite level.
* Between the two ability buttons, you have a minimap which shows local ally and enemy positons. Allies appear as green dots and enemies appear as red dots on your minimap, and elevation on the map is not represented.
* Lastly, off to each side of your mech (90 degrees from looking forward) you have an elongated button at the bottom of the window which you can press to toggle the weapon on that arm without pressing a controller button.

## Controls

### Other HMDs

Other HMDs are not officially supported, but a list of any that have a playable state will be kept here as they are encountered.

(None currently)

## The Sliders

The four sliders, from left to right, control Damage, Defense, Speed and Energy Generation. The sliders have two full sliders worth of power (200%) to distribute amongst the four any way you prefer. They can be adjusted manually by grabbing and dragging each to the desired level or by using one of the four available preset buttons. Note that dragging any slider up when 200% power is already allocated will cause the other sliders to automatically shift down to not exceed 200% collectively. Shifting sliders down manually will never cause others to change, and power can thus be under-allocated. Sliders increase the effectiveness of the associated trait substantially when set to the maximum value versus the minimum. Consider that leaving your Defense slider at the minimum in combat can then lead to as much as 15x the base attack damage applied to you! Scaling values are provided below:

* **Min/Max Slider Scaling**
* Attack: 750 %
* Defense: 200 %
* Speed:  ?
* Energy:  ?

The preset buttons are located at the corners of the slider panels. Each has two bars full bars depicted on the button representing which two sliders it will maximize. These buttons allow a pilot to instantly shift between power modes, often saving invaluable time in combat situations. Note that you can grab any two sliders at the same time and slide them to maximum together for as similar effect to presets, but it requires the use of both hands rather than just one. The left side sliders prioritize attack and the right side prioritizes speed. Some typical uses for the slider presets are as follows:

* Attack/Defense – Actively attacking enemies, balanced offense
* Attack/Speed – Fast attacks, sacrificing survivability
* Speed/Defense – Tanking, Fleeing, or Countering attacks
* Speed/Energy – Non-combat situations, gaining energy between engagements

Using presets in combat is the preferred method of many pilots due to the instant and consistent application of the settings, but they are not all encompassing. Defense/Energy and Attack/Energy presets do not exist, and thus energy management must be considered. Some pilots choose to manually manage their presets for this reason, and a mixture of presets and manual adjustment may seem optimal, but it ultimately up to the pilot to find their preferred slider control method.

## Shields

Each mech has a pair of independent shields at their disposal, one on each arm. The shields are rectangular and fixed in positon, with a size corresponding to the size of their mech. Shields decay slowly over time when they are deployed and decay more quickly from incoming enemy attacks. Your defense slider reduces incoming damage applied to your shield just as it does with attacks directly to your hull integrity. Shields can be broken once they are fully drained and will regenerate while not actively deployed. Shields do not block your own shots and you can use your other arm’s arsenal in full while a shield is up.

Shields can absorb vast amounts of incoming damage, sometimes negating nearly all incoming damage entirely, but only when used effectively. The key to maximizing shield effectiveness is minimizing the time they are deployed. Both leaving shields down when not being actively shot at and using one shield at a time are the most direct ways to minimize uptime for either shield. Your shields recover independently of each other, so swapping back and forth and rarely, if ever, using both simultaneously gives you a notably larger shield pool as each recovers while the other is up. Aggressively swapping between shields with your Defense slider up allows for a much more significant defense, which often allows you to tank large bursts and counterattack.

The idea of swapping between the right and left shield to maximize their effectiveness is often referred to as “shield rotation”. This strategy can be diversified in a variety of ways beyond the basic shielding. Slightly turning left and right corresponding to which shield is up will maximize the coverage, whereas shielding facing forward often leaves an arm at least partially exposed that can be damaged. Since you can use your non-shield hand to attack as usual, working in attacks for a balanced attack and defend approach is highly recommended. Alternatively, you can take a more aggressive approach with some weapons, such as the light mech rockets on both hands, and wait for an opportunity while leaving Defense/Speeds sliders up to optimize defense and then unleash everything just after manually changing or hitting a preset to boost your attack to maximum. Regardless of your approach, working in some form of shield rotation should become a staple of every pilot’s arsenal.

## Mechs

### Light Mechs

**HX Banish and USFF Harbinger**

* Health: 140
* Speed: 180
* Basic Weapons: Thrasher AMG Machinegun (x40)
* LH Secondary: Light Rocket (x3)
* RH Seocndary: Hellswarm Missile Battery (x6)

Light Mechs are agile and have a high damage output potential, but are also very susceptible to damage. It is well within their capabilities to one-hit each other with a well placed burst. Their agility lets them be aggressive with pickups and easily maneuver their way around the battlefield for both offensive attacks and fast retreats. Cloaking gives a mech additional mobility for both offensive and defensive use, while distributed field artillery has enormous damage potential especially with its likelihood for headshots from high above the arena. Health packs heal a light mech almost entire due to their low base health so don’t fret if you take a few hits, just find a health pack and regroup.

### Medium Mechs

**HX Hellfire and USFF Archangel Mk2**

* Health: 200
* Speed: 150
* Basic Weapons: Thrasher AMG Machinegun (x35)
* LH Secondary: Tracker Rocket (x6)
* RH Secondary: XLR Railgun (x4)

Medium Mechs are offensive specialists. They are the only mech with no defensive ability to use and have very high damage output, although with some of the more difficult weapons to land accurately. All-out attack and defense suits the medium mech well, unloading your entire railgun and rocket clips and kiting or repositioning. Ammo regen gives the medium mech bonus damage and the ability to shred any shields it encounters, while singularity beam channels your entire damage potential into a penetrating line of destruction.

### Heavy Mechs

**HX Behemoth and USFF Golgotha**

* Health: 320
* Speed: 128
* Basic Weapons: Thrasher AMG Machinegun Mk2 (x25)
* LH Secondary: Slamshot Heavy Rocket (x1)
* RH Seocndary: Brimstone Cannon (?)

Heavy Mechs are slow moving and high in health, but only really shine in combat when they can force close quarters combat. Their slow-moving rocket hits like a truck but can be hard to land. The brimstone cannon shreds shields and is an excellent compliment to an EMP blast, but only when close. EMP will drain opponents energy, cancel their active abilities, deal damage and steal health to restore yours. If an EMP is not used in conjunction with aggressive attacks, don’t expect much resulting damage. Invulnerability has extensive uses both on offense and defense to negate all incoming damage and status effects, a perfect opportunity to let the big guns blaze or heal up and return to the right. Keep in mind a health pack will not provide a substantial amount of health for a heavy mech.

## Abilities

### **Light**

**Distributed Field Artillery (DFA)**

[Cost: 100 Energy]

Also known as "Death From Above," this special ability will propel your mech into the air for 8 seconds with dual rocket launchers and allows you to unload a rapid-fire barrage onto the battlefield below. When this ability burns out, you can steer your mech to a desired landing area. Rockets have moderate speed but, given the typical long range from being aerial, tend to have notable travel time to their target and are easy to miss if you don’t lead your target. This ability has a very high overall damage potential, particularly since headshots are not uncommon when firing from the high angles of attack this ability allows.

**LR Cloak**

[Cost: 30 Energy]

Become invisible to enemy mechs with a Light Reprojection Cloak, the latest in cloaking technology. LR cloak hides only your mech from view, but any other visible actions may reveal your position. These include shooting weapons, using jump jets, deploying shields, or being on fire from having low health. Additionally, you will still appear on radar as long as you are in range of enemies. Weapons with targeting abilities such as light mech hellswarm rockets or medium mech tracking rockets can give away your positon while cloaked. Nevertheless, it is a very useful utility ability for both attack and defense in the appropriate situation. Used offensively, it can be leveraged to get a clean shot on an unsuspecting enemy’s weak points or around their side to subvert shields. Defensively it can be used to escape or reposition, most effectively when just out of line-of-sight or up close so enemies can’t as easily establish a track on your position via your last position or on radar.

### **Medium**

**Singularity Beam**

[Cost: 95 Energy]

The powerful beam deals heavy damage to any enemy mechs struck by it. The beam is guided by the direction the pilot is looking in their cockpit and is movable by simply looking around. The mech’s movement speed will slow down substantially while the beam is being fired. Singularity beam penetrates through any enemy targets that it encounters but will not pass through any terrain. The attack is relatively short and has a narrow field of effect, but has massive total damage potential, so it is best used against large targets. It can be used to attack aerial enemies and provides instant results if the pilot’s aim is true.

**Athermodynamic Ammo Regen**

[Cost: 50 Energy]

Athermodynamic ammo regen provides virtually infinite ammunition to the user for all weapon systems. The sudden influx of power also gives the mech a temporary damage boost. With a short infinite supply of rockets and railgun slugs, this ability allows the user to make quick work of enemy defenses at half the cost of the singularity beam. While singularity beam provides near instant destruction, ammo regen does still require some accuracy to get the job done.

### **Heavy**

**EMP Blast**

[Cost: 95 Energy]

Although the first iteration of this weapon was purely electro-magnetic in nature, further advancements have extended its functional reach. It sends out far-reaching EMP pulses, each of which will cancel ant active abilities other than invulnerability, drain opponents energy, and do damage if enemies do not shield in the direction of the user. Damage done by the EMP decays with distance from the user and all damage done regenerates the user’s hull integrity. The EMP pulse is best used to either cancel another mech’s abilities or at very close range, where it can be paired with the brimstone cannon and heavy rockets or machinegun fire. At long range, the EMP is less useful an provides more of just a high-cost utility role to drain energy, heal the user slightly, and cancel abilities.

**LiBond Invulnerability**

[Cost: 50 Energy]

LiBond is the trade name for Line Bonded Molecular Structure based materials, and with a strong enough energy source it becomes impenetrable to all known energy and ballistic weaponry when activated. It quite literally blocks anything you can throw at it and is not even affected by an opponent’s EMP blast. It is very effective on both offense and defense. Offensively, it is often used to bait enemies into unfavorable positions by when triggered at a moderately low health where they suspect they might defeat you or by jumping into an otherwise unfavorable fight with no threat of suffering any hull damage. Defensively it can be used for a safe retreat for health or to force enemies to reposition as they cannot do anything but soak up your attacks while it is active.

## Pickups

### Health

Health packs heal 100 health, meaning they will almost completely heal a light mech (140 health) and will hardly heal a big dent in a heavy mech (320 health).

### Energy

Your current energy level is displayed on your HUD just below the center. Energy can be attained naturally over time, the rate of which is controlled by your energy slider, or by grabbing the various energy packs around each map. Energy is used to activate abilities and to boost with your jump jets. Boosting with your jump jets will cost you 5 energy per use and you cannot boost if you have less than 5 energy.

## Maps

### Genesis Facility

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### Collins Base

Collins base is a relatively open map with open views to most of the base elevation from the central area of the map. It is favorable for small and medium Mechs due to the long sight range and sparse cover to use. It is the only map that has either terrain-based damage features or a true underground region. The laser in the center of the map will do damage if you fly into it and will instantly kill you if you enter the pit at the bottom, while the lava running through the cave will slowly chip away at your hull integrity. It is also the only map to implement corridor doors which lower as you approach them, one of which hides the red energy pack for the map.

### Sanctuary Aftermath

Sanctuary is the ruined aftermath of a HUMNX attack on the former city. It has a wide variety of cover and is favorable for heavy mechs due to the often occurrence of close quarters battles. However, smaller mechs will find that they may be able to outmaneuver the large mechs in certain corridors which the heavy mech cannot pass through due to its size. Multiple red energy packs exist on this map at the tops of the highest buildings, often just out of sight from the ground. A yellow energy pack appears near each team’s spawn. Elevation can play a large role in the fight, but both the rail overpasses and many buildings are at least partially destructible.

### Agrizone 96

Agrizone provides a variety of terrain styles. The spawn areas are largely open, encouraging light and medium mech play, while the sides have tighter corridors or elevation drops which favor close quarters play by heavy mechs. The central bridge across the map provides quick access to the distributed pickups and is an excellent vantage point for sniping and tracking enemies. The red energy pack spawns on top of the largest rock near the center of the overpass.

## General Mechanics and Tactics

### Critical Hits

All Mechs have two areas where you can score critical hits for bonus damage. The first is the head, where any hits will be applied at 2x damage. The second is the jetpack are of the back, where hits will be applied at 1.5x damage. These regions vary in size with mech so be aware of you and your opponent’s mech weak point sizes. As an example, the HX Banish has a very large jetpack area compared to USFF Harbinger of the same class.

### Various Tips

* You’ll want to stick with your wingman as often as feasible.
* At maximum energy, you can tactically expend some energy on an ability while in the vicinity of an energy pack to grant ability benefits and recover most, if not all, of the expended energy from the pack. If it is desired to simply deny it from your opponents or clear it from the field, you can just boost while in its pickup radius.
* Medium mech pilots can use their left hand tracking rockets as a long range enemy movement tracking mechanism when they’re outside radar range by firing them over the expected direction of enemies.