MechWarrior 5: Clans guide—suit up, squad up, and survive the harsh Inner Sphere with these six strategies

The MechWarrior franchise has been putting players behind the controls of towering, walking tanks for nearly 40 years. But the long-running series's latest entry has players suiting up like never before, embarking on a standalone, story-fueled, character-driven campaign that can be tackled solo or alongside four co-op squadmates.

MechWarrior 5: Clans' focus on a cinematic, self-contained narrative is aimed not only at seasoned pilots but also new recruits who have yet to climb into the cockpit. If you're among that latter camp, you're probably anxious to dive right in and start littering the Inner Sphere's battle-scarred lands with the smoking, twisted metal husks of your enemies. 

But be warned: While the game's setup and story serve as the perfect entry point for eager new pilots, its steel-obliterating skirmishes aren't for the faint of heart. Favoring thoughtful strategy, tactics, and RPG-like progression over button-mashing mayhem, the challenging gameplay can take some time to master. 

With that in mind, we've put together a few helpful hints, tips, and strategies to ensure you hit the ground running—or stomping—and don't end up on the business end of a Gauss Rifle blast.
 

Keep track of your currencies, XP, and resources

Given that MechWarrior 5: Clans straps you into armed-to-the-teeth titans, you might expect to spend most of your time bloodying the battlefield. But while you'll have ample opportunity to unleash hell on your enemies, you'll invest equal time preparing for those brutal melees in the metagame. 

Like the mechs themselves, this portion of the game contains lots of moving, interconnected parts—primarily RPG-flavored progression paths that see you continually investing in and upgrading your machines. All of these systems, from chassis unlocks and skill upgrades to science research and weapon purchases, are fueled by specific currencies and resources. 

Grasping the ins and outs of the various features can be daunting, but knowing your Kerenskies from your components is a great place to start. The former is essentially your money or gold, used to purchase new chassis, weapons, and equipment in the Marketplace. Before you can purchase anything with Kerenskies, however, you'll need to unlock them with another currency—Merits—which are also used to requisition and upgrade scientists, technicians, and salvage operations. 

Components are invested in upgrades for your mechs, a separate progression path that also requires research points. Of course, we can't forget XP, which is divided into two pools. Both your pilots and mechs earn their own XP, enabling players to upgrade their skills and chassis, respectively. Properly monitoring and managing the multitude of resources is key to success, but half the battle is knowing what each is used for.
 

Collect those Chassis Milestones

On the subject of XP, the incredibly valuable resource is one you want to keep flowing. You'll receive generous chunks of both pilot and mech XP upon completing missions, but you'll also want to seek some less obvious avenues for collecting them. Notably, Chassis Milestones—which are essentially completed passively by successfully finishing missions—offer huge bonuses. 

Killing different enemy types as well as using specific chassis—which all go toward their own XP pools—help hit these Milestones. But you'll want to ensure you're actually claiming the Milestone XP upon completing each challenge, as your hard-won rewards aren't automatically added to your total. 

Want to further ratchet up your XP gains? Replay already conquered missions to double-dip, albeit at a lower rate, on both mech and pilot points. You can also earn more of the latter by completing extra challenges called Advanced Mission Parameters within those replayed levels. 
 

One man's trash…

Collecting junk might not sound like the best use of your time when tasked with saving the galaxy, but salvaging others' discarded items is actually one of the best ways to upgrade your war machine via research. Similar to the XP you earn during missions, components—of the mech, weapon, and equipment varieties—are added to your inventory after each successfully completed level. 

But you'll also want to increase your salvaging skills early on by investing those aforementioned Merit points. Pouring Merits into the Upgrade Salvage Operations area in the research section of the science lab significantly buffs the number of components you can collect at the end of a mission. Scoring these parts is already pretty easy, and this simple upgrade enables you to secure even more of them without doing any extra legwork. 

Speaking of legwork, you can find even more of the research-fueling resources by scouting out optional supply caches in the field. Acquiring this extra salvage is easy enough, but it does require you to be in scan mode. It's worth seeking out and scanning these scattered components, though you'll want to be sure the coast is clear when doing so, as your weapons are down when the visor is up.
 

Match the warrior to the war machine

In Clans, you can build the death machine of your dreams, but your metallic menace is only as good as the brave warrior strapped into its cockpit. As such, you'll want to spend as much time in the barracks as you do the mech bay. Keep a close eye on your earned XP, and use it wisely to build and evolve a well-rounded squad that accounts for whatever surprises might await in battle.

To cover all your bases, you’ll want to ensure each of your five pilots' strengths and weaknesses are balanced against their squamates' skills and shortcomings. Even more important is matching your warriors with the right mechs. Many skill upgrades are specific to certain weapon types, so you should always be mindful of which pilot you're putting behind the controls.

A soldier who's especially skilled with energy weapons, for example, will see their talents wasted in a mech not equipped with that type of firepower. Similarly, a pilot proficient in melee damage may never get to showcase their pummeling skills from within a mech primarily used for ranged attacks. While properly matching a mech to each warrior’s skills isn't integral in the early game, it's a nuanced practice that’s capable of having a huge impact, so it’s something you'll want to carefully consider as the difficulty ramps up. 
 

Make a nimble mech

Mechs in any medium are typically represented as large, lumbering hunks of metal that forgo agility and speed in favor of brute force and brimming arsenals. While most of your machines in Clans certainly live up to that reputation and then some, it's a good idea to have at least one among your ranks that's a bit lighter and faster.

With a few quick chassis upgrades, you can crank up a mech's forward and reverse speeds as well as how quickly it can rotate its torso. Invest a bit more XP, and you can further boost its agility by increasing that rotation range. But if you're serious about crafting a mech that's quicker than it is clumsy, you can also invest components and research points to increase the Jump Jet heat and Jump Jet recharge time on any given chassis. 

Finally, head over to the barracks and upgrade the skills of the warrior that'll be piloting this relative roadrunner. Specifically, pour points into their evasion and handling skills to further buff your mech's agility. Focusing on all these specific paths—for at least one of your mechs—guarantees you'll always have a comparatively quick and agile fighter in your corner to complement your more traditional tank-like hardware.
 

Abort, restart, and drop the difficulty 

Clans' early hours can be challenging, especially if it's your first time in the cockpit. Following the above tips and hints will certainly flatten the learning curve, but you're still going to take your lumps. If you find yourself frustrated by a string of defeats, there's no shame in dropping the difficulty down—you can always kick it back up when you've honed your skills. 

And if you're really taking a beating early in a mission, there's nothing wrong with cutting your losses and coming back later. When you're demoralized and defeat is imminent, you can restart a mission or totally abort it.

Taking the latter route is also a good opportunity to do some grinding by replaying previously completed objectives for some extra XP and other resources. With some new investments and fresh upgrades in your arsenal, you'll likely find the mission that was blocking your progression is no longer a problem.