Welcome to Mechajammer!

This guide will help you better understand some of the core mechanics in Mechajammer, including dice rolls, combat, stats! This guide is not nessecary for learning the game, but it can help you better understand the ins-and-outs of it.

Guide version: 1.2

Much like in a game of Dungeons and Dragons, every action you make will be determined by a roll of dice. Dice can also come in different shapes and sizes. A common way to describe dice rolls looks like this:



This means we have 2 dice, and each one has 6 sides. Each one can be from 1 to 6. If we wrote 1d8, this would mean we have only one die, but it has 8 sides in total, giving us anything from 1 to 8.

When you roll dice in the game, you can see a detailed breakdown of your rolls displayed in the event feed, showing the values you rolled.

From the dice available, we can make a prediction on how they are likely to roll.

Lowest Roll:
To determine the worst possible roll, you would assume all dice roll a 1.
e.g. Rolling a 3d4 always gives at least 3.

Highest Roll:
To determine the best possible roll, you would assume all dice roll their highest possible value.
e.g. Rolling a 3d4 gives at best 3 × 4 = 12

Average Roll:
The average value will always be from the middle value of every dice.
e.g. The middle value of a d7 is 4. Therefore, rolling a 2d7 gives on average 2 × 4 = 8

If the result is not a whole number, the most common outcome is tied between two numbers.
e.g. The middle value of a d6 is 3.5. Therefore, rolling a 3d6 gives on average 3 × 3.5 = 11.5. 11 and 12 are the two most likely outcomes.

Depending on how many dice you have, even if they share similar average and maximum values, may give different probabilities.

The more die you are rolling, the more likely the average value is to happen, and the less likely a very high or very low roll will occur.
e.g.
1d12: 1 in 12 chance of rolling the highest of 12, and a 1 in 12 chance of rolling a 7
2d6: 1 in 36 chance of rolling the highest of 12, and a 1 in 6 chance of rolling a 7
3d4: 1 in 64 chance of rolling the highest of 12, and a 1 in 5.33 chance of rolling a 7

If you want something chaotic with a chance to go beyond expectations, you would prefer it to have less dice overall, and prioritise options with greater but fewer die. But, if you want something consistent and reliable, you want more dice.


Despite having a higher minimum, the chance of getting a high number with more dice with fewer sides isn't much better, while the chance of getting a middling roll is much higher

Armor has two values,the number of Armor Dice, and the Armor Roll Threshold.

When damage is received, every Armor Dice is rolled as a d6. For each dice above the threshold, incoming damage is reduced by 1.
e.g.
Armor Dice: 4
Armor Roll Threshold: 3
Armor rolls a 2, 3, 4, and 5. The rolls 4 and 5 are above the threshold 3, therefore damage is reduced by 2.

Armor Dice shows the maximal possible damage reduction you can receive, while Armor Roll Threshold indicates how efficienctly the armour will reduce damage.

Similar to other rolls, having more dice even with a higher threshold means the armor is more likely to achieve its average damage reduction, while fewer dice with a lower threshold means the armor is more likely to get very good or very bad damage reduction.

Combat begins as soon as you are noticed by an enemy, this can happen for a variety of reasons:

• You or a squad member were heard by an enemy due to walking, breaking an object, or taking down another enemy.
  
• You or a squad member were spotted by an enemy.
  
• You or a squad member attacked an enemy.

Some enemies will not begin combat if they see you. Instead, they will tell you to leave. In these cases you have time to leave without starting combat, but stand around for too long or get spotted again and they will fight you.

Enemies can notice you and begin combat, even if they do not know where you are. In these situations you enter Turn Mode, but the enemy will patrol and try to locate you, and investigate the source of any sounds they hear.

Any time you enter combat, the game automatically begins Turn Mode. During this, the game will pause between every action you take, allowing you to plan and prepare your actions. When you perform an action, time will continue until the action is complete, such as:

• Moving
  
• Attacking
  
• Throwing a weapon
  
• Using a Medical Kit

Each turn represents a fixed amount of time. Most actions come with a Preparation (Prep) and Recovery time. Preparation is how many turns will be spent before the action begins, while Recovery is how many turns will be spent afterwards before a new action can be chosen. Weapons also have Attack Turns, listing how many turns are spent during the attack.


Enemies can move before the gun fires, and you will be unable to move out of the way for a while

For example, when you shoot a Slug Gun, you may find it has 2 Prep / 4 Recovery with 1 Attack Turn. This means all enemies (and allies) can perform 2 turns worth of actions until you fire. In this time, they could move, attack, or get into cover. After firing, you enter 4 turns of recovery. After this is finished, you may begin a new action. In total, this took 7 turns before a new action could be chosen.

You can still perform certain actions during Turn Mode without time proceeding:

• Stand up or crouch down
  
• Change equipped armour and weapon
  
• Read notes and journal
  
• Move inventory
  
• Pick up items near you
  
• Talk to and heal squad members

Some mid-height structures can be used as cover. You can use cover by crouching near to it. If you are covered from the line-of-sight of enemies, they will have less visibility and will be much less likely to land shots at you.


Sitting behind cover keeps you hidden and keeps you safe

When crouching behind cover, all Recovery turns will be spent in cover, making you much safer, especially in a gun fight. Even when standing, cover prevents line-of-sight to the lower body, preventing wounding damage to your legs. However, it will not protect you from being hit anywhere else.


Your character will continually regain health. The Life Restore stat will determine how many turns it takes to heal back 1 health. Therefore, a smaller Life Restore means faster life regeneration. Squad allies also have life regeneration.

You can also heal yourself and allies by using a Medical Kit. Robots instead require a Repair Kit.

Allies when injured can also be healed without items by selecting them outside of combat and selecting Heal. This will perform an Organics roll for most allies, except robots, which require a Repair roll.

Sometimes you may get injured beyond simply losing health, and be inflicted with a Wound. Wounds affect different parts of the body, and cause status inflictions, such as lower health regeneration, lower total health, or worse aim.

Some wounds may not disappear when you heal. Instead you must cure the wound, with either a Medical Kit or by going to a Doctor. To use a Medical Kit open the character sheet and click on the wound you wish to cure. This will spend a Medical Kit.

The kind of ailments you receive depend on the source of harm, and the body part inflicted. For a comprehensive list of all ailments see the official Mechajammer game manual[mechajammer.com].

During combat you can aim weapons at an area even if there is no target standing there. This is especially important for hitting moving targets at a distance. You can guide the aim using Tile Mode, or by holding the Show Target Line key (Default key: Ctrl) to display a marked line in the direction of the attack.

You can choose to have the game allow freeform movement during combat, or constrain your movement to a hexagonal grid for easier planning and better see the terrain layout. This does not change any other systems.

To enable Tile Mode, go to the Settings screen on the Main Menu and enable Tile Mode.


Tile mode helps you better see your orientation in combat.

Squads are additional team members you can recruit, including hired mercenaries and by Charming people with a Social roll.

Squad members are assigned to 1 of 4 squads. All members of a squad can be given an order as a group by first selecting their squad by pressing the respective keyboard key 1, 2, 3 or 4. From there, you can click on a location to move the squad members, or select on an enemy to instruct the squad to attack.

You can manage your squads and their combat behaviour from the Squads menu, which can be accessed by clicking on the icon above the squad list. From this menu, you can name squads, change their modes by clicking on the mode icon next to the squad name, and move allies between squads by dragging their icons.

Manage squad members and plan ahead your battle

During combat, you can issue orders to squads to move or attack specific targets. They will then begin performing this as a group.

When issuing orders in Turn Mode, the turn will not proceed until your main character takes an action. This allows you to plan out the turns of squads at the same time as managing your character. While you can issue orders when the turns are not paused, it is much more difficult. You are given more control when your character is not performing turns.

Additionally, if a squad is ordered to Stay Close, by default or selecting on your character, the squad will mimic your stance. If you crouch, all squad members will begin crouching, and if you stand, squad members will stand. This allows you to move more quietly as a group, and decide how they will approach a target.

From the Squad menu, each of the four squads can be assigned a mode. This will determine their behaviour during combat.


Every squad member will have their own personal skills, much like your character does. These can be found by talking with them and selecting Skills.

Talk with your squad members and find out what they're best at

For any action using their best studies, they will have a higher success rate, similar to your own Success Rolls. Additionally, some skills provide additional perks both in and out of combat scenarios:

As you progress through Mechajammer, your character will get stronger over time, able to improve in their various Studies with additional Pips and Dice by receiving Level Up Kits.

With a Level Up Kit, you can add one Pip to one Study. This provides a flat +1 to all rolls with this Study. If you receive 6 Pips in a single study, you earn an extra die in the Study, and the Pips reset to 0. Consider when you wish to use this, as more dice allow higher rolls and allows you to level up the study with further pips, but is much less reliable than the consistent value of Pips.

For more information on the effects of Studies and Virtues, please see the official Mechajammer game manual[mechajammer.com].

Level Up Kits are earned in one of two ways, based on the character progression mode of the playthrough.

XP Mode:
Your character gains XP after defeating any hostile enemy, giving more for more powerful enemies. With each level up the XP requirement increases. You earn one Level Up Kit upon each level up. Use this mode for a steady experience throughout the game.

Note: respawning enemies do not provide XP.

Exploration Mode:
Your character only gains Pips and Dice through finding Level Up Kits hidden in the environment or from certain NPCs. You cannot improve Studies without locating these. Use this mode for an experience that rewards exploration.

With Augmentations, you can also improve your Virtues with additional dice, which can be purchased from NPCs, for a maximum of 3 Augmentation Dice at any one time.

For every action you take, there is chance of success or failure. Depending on your character, the action being taken, and what tools you use, some actions may be more difficult than others to succeed.

To determine your skills at a task, you will need to first look the type of task being performed. If you are blocking an attack, this will be Blocking, if you are melee attacking with a Wrench, this will be Impact. Checking a weapon's details will tell you which type of skill is needed to perform an action.


Different actions may need different skills

When you perform an action, you roll a set of dice to get a chance to succeed or fail, this is your Success Roll.

The more pips and dice you have, the better your aptitude

On the character profile, under Studies is a list of every task type. For every dice you have in the specified task, you will roll a 6-sided dice, giving a random value 1 to 6 per dice.

Alongside the studies, your character also has Virtues. Many Virtues give additional dice for specific task types.

Some modifiers may remove dice, for example Wounds.


Alongside the dice you have Bonus Pips. These are a fixed number that is added directly to your success score.

Some weapons and actions have a modifier to your success roll. They influence your success score by a fixed amount.


Throwing the Wrench reduces your aim roll by 2

Some other modifiers can also directly influence your score, including Wounds and Virtues.

Taking your final success score, this is how capable your character will be at performing the task. Note that every time you perform the task each dice gets rolled to potentially new values.
This value is then compared against the Challenge of the task, if you roll above the Challenge, you will succeed, if you roll below, you fail.

For example, if you have 3d6, with 2 bonus pips, and the Challenge is 10, you have 3d6 + 2 vs. 10. You roll 8 across the 3 dice, you then add the 2 points, and get a score of 10. 10 is enough to meet the challenge, therefore you succeed.

If your character has no dice for a task, by having no required Studies, Virtues, or pips, you will be unable to complete a task.