Your mini-map will display nearby players in line-of-sight, regardless where you are looking. The range of this feature varies from mech to mech, and is modified by many other factors:

• Range-increasing effects, such as the Tricera's turret form or the Falcon's plane form increase it
  
• Corite Haze and Corite Storm cut it down severely
  
• "You are leaving the Combat Zone" completely cancels it

This is an environmental effect caused by Corite Crystals. It:

• Prevents Lock-on
  
• Hides your name, healthbar, and minimap presence
  
• Greatly multiplies your Energy and Fluid Armor Recharge
  
• Enables you to regenerate Energy when you are "Leaving the Combat Zone"

There are several ways of creating Corite Haze, most notably breaking Corite Specimens. The Haze Dispenser and the Stego's Smoke also create a continuous Corite Haze effect that moves with you for a while and provides limited advantage to your opponent. (Corite Specimens are these things):


In the "Accessibility Settings" tab, there is an option labelled "Mashmak Mini Map Icons". This will greatly help in finding repair stations, both those that spawn naturally and those called in by other players!

These spawn close to each other at predetermined locations on the map. Taking any damage will stop you from using them, so you must typically clear out the enemies that spawn nearby. Many abilities let you bypass this, but it sometimes doesn't take any abilities. Objects can be interacted with through cover and from a decent distance, allowing tactics like this:

These spawn in as a match progresses and possess a secret trait: When first damaged, they have a chance to spawn in an enemy Troop Transport or Martlet (especially on higher difficulties). The Martlet is a highly aggressive airship with strong attacks and two drones assisting it. Causing one to spawn is an effective way to delay other players in the area, especially when they are trying to repair or extract!

A quick overview the mechs whose base kit frustrates players the most:

A good Stellaris player will grapple you out of nowhere, take a huge chunk of your health, vanish, then do it again. Every lobby has at least one, and it's always waiting to kill you. You wanted to kill a boss? The real boss was hiding in the bushes. You wanted to get extracted? How about exsanguinated?

Understanding the grappling hook is key: it has a 370m lock-on range, can pull the Stellaris in, and halves the distance of the target's evades. However, it breaks if lock-on ends, such as by the target leaving the enemy's view. Fast-Dropping from a great height works best!
Use recon beacons if a Stellaris is lurking around a resource/objective to deny it from you!

Its Sword Drone ability renders the target incapable of locking on. On paper, it shares the hook's 370m range, but modular weapons can overwrite this!.Using a scoped-in sniper, you can Sword Drone almost a kilometre away! (Credit to SorenMors for discovering this)
Press S to cancel a Sword Charge without slashing - this keeps your stealth active and saves energy.


Direct energy damage makes it formidable at long distances, but it has one of the best lock-on systems in the game when unscoped. Its stunning Pulse Claw is one of the most forgiving abilities to hit, giving the Aquila 3 attempts for every charge. It is far less mobile than in earlier patches, but its ability still lets it break lock-on with every evade.

Breaking its lock-on will only get you so far, as the Aquila's gun is well-suited for skillshots. Use terrain, fly low, and hard engage it if you can. A drawn-out fight consistently favours the Aquila.

Abuse your high Fluid Armor Regen as much as you can - Any source of Corite Haze is extra powerful for you.
Sniping from Corite Haze will make it much harder for an enemy to locate and attack you.


Frustrating to hit, frustrating to run from: these mechs have extremely energy-efficient flying and manoeuvers that stop lock-on.
They have two basic gameplay loops: barrel rolls and evade spam. Both break lock-ons, but barrel rolls have sizeable periods of vulnerability at the end of each roll. In exchange, they are far more energy-efficient and easier to aim with.

The fliers depend heavily on lock-ons and missiles for their damage. Don't stand still after breaking lock-on - those missiles are still headed for you! Lure them indoors - their evasive manoeuvers become predictable, their missiles often hit walls, and it's easy to lose track when flying close to a ceiling.
Direct damage weapons are preferred, as it's easy for fliers to run and recover. Skyraiders, however, can mod their energy resistance up to the 50-60% range, making Beam Snipers almost useless.
Melee hits will take them out of plane mode! The "Downwards Slash" is your most powerful tool, as it is smoother and more forgiving than other melee attacks. Against airborne targets, it will also apply "Destabilized" when landing, extending your combo window. Position so as to be above the flier when their barrel rolls end!

Seriously rework your bindings: both these characters put immense pressure on your keyboard space. Add a secondary bind for your plane form that overlaps with a secondary bind for slamming to the ground! This gets you on the ground and into cover quickly. Buffering sideways dashes mid-fall triggers them right after landing!
The Skyraider's EMP rockets block non-direct-damage energy beams that pass them. This can let you extract or repair under fire!
You can turn during barrel rolls - this makes it much harder to hit you, especially with rocket spam.
Air evasion energy mods apply to your special air manoeuvers!

Special attention should be paid to the Strikers that benefit most from modular melee weapons. The extra mobility provided by the Melee Boost Attack can patch gaps in their Mashmak gameplan. The modular Hammer will deal twice as much damage as the Sword and has unique moves that excel against other melees, but the Sword requires 40% less energy in flight and allows for faster turning.

There are many great off-hand options for the sword. Notable mentions go to the Haze Dispenser, the Shield, the Beam Autocannon, the Charged Blaster, and the Autosplitter.


By spamming its Booster Kit and cancelling it early, the Inferno can generate large amounts of energy mid-air to fuel a modular melee weapon's Boost Attack. This lets it chase even Skyraiders and Falcons over longer distances. The Booster Kit also provides Fluid Armor regen and illusory copies, making this a tough build to kill. The Inferno's default weapons are a powerful option against enemies that might outplay your melee, such as the Welkin or the Tricera.


The Pinaka's Emergency Support Drone provides a 60k hp Forcefield and immunity to immobilization/stagger. This is extremely powerful in close-up combat. It is able to reliably engage in short trades that deal direct damage, then disengage to heal. Flying mechs in particular struggle to safely attack a melee Pinaka healing in cover.


The Tricera is in great need of extra mobility, and has some features well-suited for melee. Between self-healing and an inbuilt parry when switching to turret form, placing lasting damage on it can be very frustrating.
Notably, it can still use the staggering Howitzer when holding modular weapons, and will take on all lock-on characteristics including range and lock-on time. A level I Imbued Sword will lock on and move just as well as a level VI, as the main difference are the damage numbers.

The ability to safely reach indoors locations from great distances is very important against Skyraiders in particular. In Turret form, it can intercept and outheal what a Skyraider throws out, but being hit with an EMP disables the interception drones.


While the Welkin can make a shockingly robust sniper with defensive use of the box, adding the modular sword alleviates the Welkin's energy issues when chasing. Swapping weapons during a sword Boost Attack is a very smooth way to transition out of it and into a devastating downwards axe strike. The additional turn speed makes it far easier to put flying foes in a box.

Most off-hand weapons are viable along with the sword, but a special mention should go out to the Haze Dispenser for obscuring the Welkin's position. This makes it much more difficult to avoid being trapped in the box, as well as denying counter-plays such as Stellaris Sword Drones or auto-staggering downwards strikes.
The Welkin also possesses the highest Fluid Armor Regen by far, which is multiplied by the bonus regen the Haze Dispenser provides. Mods decreasing Fluid Armor Depletion Cooldown make this combo even more powerful and reliable!

This tab is vital to getting started with Extreme Mashmak. Matrix credits can be obtained in bulk by completing Mashmak missions or "Bulk Sell"ing glider blueprints. Tier II beacons, Tier III weapons, and ammo are available at very reasonable prices here!


I would advise against buying Tier I Recon Beacons, as they only have 400m of range compared to the 600m of Tier II Recon Beacons. Recon Beacons reveal enemies visually and on the map, regardless of line-of-sight, stealth, etc. You can even lock on to enemies through cover! They only have a limited lifespan, but can easily swing fights over dropped loot, bosses, or extraction points.


Outside the self-evident considerations, these are important traits to note:

• Lock-on time is hugely important to certain match-ups
  
• Energy weapons only reload one shot at a time, but can reload while firing
  
• Only Missiles home in on locked targets, Rockets are unguided but fast
  
• Weapon Tiers only affect damage, range, reload time, and max ammo held in reserve
  
• The Charged Blaster deals half of its damage in an instant blast, half over time
  
• The Ballistic Sniper hits instantly when scoped in, but has travel time when unscoped

The Matrix Marketplace has very powerful filters for mods, with Rare mods being very affordable for F2P players. You can usually find 3 (near-)maxed copies of the mod you want for 40 Corite each, easily gained by selling Supply Crates at market rates. The stat difference between Rare and Flawless mods is generally quite modest.

Mods will generally affect any modular weapons or special mech features, such as Evade Energy (Air) affecting the energy needed for Falcons/Skyraiders to evade and roll in plane form. If your mech has high Energy or Physical defenses, going all-in on further increasing them might could be a game-changer. It depends on the match-ups you are most nervous about. Increasing your health is a viable option as well, since all repairs to date heal a percentage of max HP!

This reddit thread explains all the stats very well.

Most pilots favour lock-on range boosts, but lock-on speed is a powerful option for mechs with slow lock-ons. Either mod WILL affect modular weapons.


Truth be told, I have not seen anyone use Gliders efficiently in Solo Extreme Mashmak. They are expensive to assemble, easily outsped, and vulnerable when isolated. Save them for Co-op extractions with trusted friends.