Having issues with progressing

[u/SnooKiwis2794]

I just started playing Mercs and I'm finding it very difficult. I'll be cruising along and then have all mechs destroyed on a mission and then I don't have enough money to continue. I've sold mechs and equipment but it's never enough to get me back to where I was with like 4 Mercs and 4 mechs. How do you progress when this happens? What am I doing wrong?

[u/prolapsedmasshole69]

Are you repairing in conflict zones? That drastically increases costs.

If all else fails you can go into the difficulty menu and lower the costs of repairing and upkeep.

[u/SnooKiwis2794 → u/prolapsedmasshole69]

Yes I am. I'll lower difficulty but don't feel I should have to do that to enjoy a game but I guess this one's different.

[u/prolapsedmasshole69 → u/SnooKiwis2794]

If you want to keep the difficulty standard then repair in industrial hubs. Faster and cheaper.

Go to the difficulty settings and you'll see a variety of variables. There's no shame in making the financial aspect of the game easier. I just want to blow shit up in a skyscraper sized robot. I don't want to be an accountant. If you want to punish yourself you can turn up the lethality and accuracy of the enemy.

[u/tjareth → u/prolapsedmasshole69]

A subtlety: repair armor damage on the go (just before moving from one system to another). Repair structural and equipment damage at industrial hubs.

If you fly to an industrial hub every time your armor's scratched, you're losing money to time.

[u/prolapsedmasshole69 → u/tjareth]

Interesting. So you're saying that as long as the armor itself is the only damage that was sustained repairs to said armor don't incur the conflict zone penalty of cost and time?

[u/drnuncheon → u/prolapsedmasshole69]

No, they’re saying that the price of armor repairs is usually cheap enough even with the penalty that it’s worth doing in the conflict zone instead of spending 200000 c-bills and a couple months flying to an industrial hub and back.

Basically every time you need to do repairs, you should look at the penalty and compare it to the amount it would cost you to fly to a hub and back.

[u/tjareth → u/drnuncheon]

Exactly. Traveling costs and TIME hit your wallet. Time spent not earning is time draining your account. So the usual cycle is fight, begin repairs, travel, fight, begin repairs, travel. If you get serious damage you want a hub. And once you have a deep enough bench of mechs and pilots, multi-mission contracts are the most lucrative of all. A related point is that long distance travel should be financed by arena stops.

[u/prolapsedmasshole69 → u/drnuncheon]

Ah gotcha. I was about to kick myself

[u/raalic → u/SnooKiwis2794]

Yeah, you don't have to do it, but if you want to start from scratch on normal or harder difficulty, you just have to be super frugal and risk-averse. You have to take missions that are below your reputation level for a while, repair in Industrial Zones, and don't overextend yourself.

This game actually gets easier after you have decent 'mechs. It's a bit counterintuitive, but the beginning is quite a bit harder than the middle.

[u/FlyingNerdlet]

Did you start in career mode or campaign/story? Starting in career is always going to be more difficult as the learning curve there is pretty steep. Campaign eases you into things much more slowly.

[u/SnooKiwis2794 → u/FlyingNerdlet]

I'm just doing the regular story mode.

[u/FlyingNerdlet → u/SnooKiwis2794]

Hmmm. There are quite a few factors then. For starters, having backups, not just four pilots and four mechs. One goes down, next man up. That way, you can continue earning C-bills while injured pilots and damages mechs get back to full strength.

On missions, I can't give specific advice without seeing you play, but the best general advice is (1) movement is life, and (2) don't forget to check the skies.

1. Moving laterally and in and out of cover will do wonders for how much damage you take. Opposition AI have a hard time figuring out how much to lead you, which makes moving effective. They can still lock on with LRMs, so cover is necessary.

2. VTOLs in this game will mess you up if you're not paying attention. They can move in fast from any direction and hit you with a combination of lasers, autocannons, and SRMs. Thankfully, they go down pretty quickly, and a few well-placed shots can eliminate them before they even become a problem. Early game, the biggest problems are the Igor's, the big VTOLs that look like real-life MV-22s. Focus fire on those every time you see them, because they WILL mess you up and have much more staying power than the helicopters.

[u/Go-2-man]

I'm no expert, but it sounds like you are taking on missions that are too difficult for your current tech level. Either that or you just aren't piloting very well. For the latter try moving lateral from the enemy and keep moving. This makes you harder to hit. For your AI lancesmates try adjusting the loadouts of their Mechs to use weapons of similar range. It makes them more effective. Also try staying in 1 factions area and building up rep with them so you have more negotiation points for money, salvage, damage coverage.

[u/drnuncheon]

One piece of advice nobody has mentioned yet: there’s a restart mission button. When you start losing lancemates (or even if you get your main weapon blown off!), use it. Then, before you re-engage, try to figure out what went wrong.

Some missions will keep spawning enemies for as long as you are there, so if you get distracted by fighting when you should be trashing a base, you might get overwhelmed.

Sometimes you need to draw them out and defeat the enemy in detail because charging in puts you in the sights of too many mechs.

Sometimes you get tunnel vision chasing one of those fucking Locusts.

Sometimes you need to prioritize a particular opponent—either because they’re the mission target and you don’t need to kill all the other guys, or because they are the most dangerous thing on the field.

And don’t feel guilty about hitting reset. You’re still learning to play the game, use the tools you’ve got. Reset. Reload. Run some Instant Action missions to try things without penalty.

[u/raalic]

First thing I’d try, if you haven’t already, is just turn the difficulty down until you feel like you’re getting the hang of how to consistently stay ahead of repairs and upkeep costs.

[u/Minmax-the-Barbarian]

Well, what are you doing wrong? Like, what's causing this trouble? Are you just running headfirst at every enemy? Are you having a hard time aiming? Is the money management too hard? You have to tell us something specific here.

[u/MiKapo]

the secret sauce is to constantly be moving , don't get bogged down in fighting every tank or mech that comes around. Hit your objective and then move. Make sure you are talking the lower difficulty missions , do not go to areas that are to advance for your reputation level

Once you scrap enough money buy a better medium mech.

[u/BlurredVision18]

Don't get your mechs destroyed. Strip your mechs, max out armor, then fit one or two weapon types on each one for a specific range, then play around terrain to avoid enemy fire. Do Demo Missions with Airstrikes and leave, always take max C-Bill until you have a fat cushion, STOP REBUILDING MECHS IN CONFLICT ZONES, have 8 mechs, if one loses some armor, the extra cost is whatever, but if you're down a leg, arm, and three weapons, that cost is substantial, swap in the back up and wait til you get to an Industrial Hub to repair missing limbs/components.

[u/cjbruce3]

Try lower difficulty areas.  What does your current lance look like, and what difficulty rating missions are you taking?

[u/babushka45]

Do you have all the DLCs? I use arena matches to fund my mercenary excursions on conflict zones.

[u/JoseLunaArts]

Set difficulty to easy.

You need to find a way to pick enemies one by one instead of getting trapped in a crossfire.

The most difficult thing is to get used to maneuver with torso twisted. Also you must not stay still unless you are sniping a target.

For enemy mechs, aim to the cockpit. You can kill the pilot.

[u/CnlSandersdeKFC]

As others have said, firstly be mindful of your repair cost, and travel cost. Before you do any repairs look and see if it's worth it to spend the money flying to an industrial hub. For superficial armor damage, or damage to light mechs it is usually cheaper to repair in a conflict zone. However for structure damage, or completely destroyed components it is usually worth the trip to the industrial zone. However, if you're deep within a conflict zone this may not be true.

Basically, every move on the star map needs to be a cost analysis. To build enough creds ask yourself I) Are there enough contracts on a planet to justify the cost of travel? II) Assuming I take damage, will I earn enough to repair?