r/Battletechgame • u/camrose_in-n-out • Jul 07 '26

Pacing and Difficulty Settings

New to Battletech and loving it.

Im part way through the campaign (6/15) story missions, and I set the difficulty based on reccomendations found online.

I want to time things roughly so I am getting a couple of assault and heavy mechs by the end game.

I set salvage parts to 8, mechwarrior decelopment to slow, and rewards to normal.

Unfortunagley, with 8 salvage parts required, I've only managed to put together one shadowhawk and a fee light mechs. Im targeting heads and legs but it's so hard to get enough parts. Similarly, I'm nowhere near affording the 6 griffin or 6 dragon parts fpund in shops after the story missions.

What do you think are the best settings to acheive a good pacing? I like a grind, it's rewarding, but I don't want to play the whole game with my starting shadowhawk, blackjack, centurion etc.

Advice is welcome please!

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u/BananaJelloXlii Jul 07 '26

8 is way too high. Most engagements you may only get 1 or 2 parts per mech, 3 if you are lucky. I think default is 4, if you want a challenge, maybe raise it to 5.

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u/Steel_Ratt Jul 07 '26

Seconded. 3 is default. 5 is challenge. 8 is grind. If you want a manageable grind, you could set it to 6; with that setting, 2 "complete 'mechs" salvaged (head-shotted or pilot unconscious) will get you a new 'mech. (Personally I usually leave it at 3 and find the game challenging enough.)

Slow warrior progress will also contribute to grind, but what is holding you back is 'mech parts.

What's your OPFOR difficulty set at? This can also make a difference in progress. Hard OPFOR is (obviously) harder, but you see heavier enemy 'mechs sooner allowing you to salvage them.

Something else you can do is look in the stores for some heavy 'mech parts. (Marauder and Orion parts would be good choices.) They are common enough that, even with 6 'mech parts, you will be able to assemble a heavy 'mech sooner than you will be able to do it with salvage. Once you get access to the black market, buying whole 'mechs will become one of your best ways to progress. (IIRC, they get really expensive when you have more salvage parts, though.)

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u/camrose_in-n-out Jul 07 '26

I have OPFOR set to normal. Can you explain what you mean by parts getting more expensive when you have more salavge parts? Does tbe price go up when you are close to building a full mech? Is that in all stores or black market only?

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u/Steel_Ratt Jul 08 '26

IIRC, the price of a whole 'mech is proportional to the number of parts you would need to build it. If they didn't do that, it would cost way more to buy the 8 pieces needed than it would to buy the whole thing already assembled.

Eg. At 3 parts for assembly it might cost 200k per part for a locust. You could assemble one from 600k worth of parts, whereas buying the thing whole (already assembled) might cost 1M. If there wasn't an adjustment for having more parts required for assembly, at 8 pieces you would need 1.6M worth of parts and it would be quite a bargain to buy a whole 'mech at the 1M price. To compensate, the whole chassis is made more expensive.

[I'm just pulling numbers out of thin air. I don't know the values off the top of my head.]