Hello, new and returning players. Since this game has a steeper learning curve than most, I've compiled useful resources and frequently asked questions. There's a lot to learn, but resources like Outreach, Metamechs, and Smurfy's can vastly improve your experience by helping you avoid pitfalls and removing the painful trial-and-error typically involved in becoming a more advanced player.

/r/OutreachHPG has a dropdown menu with the resources listed below and more if you ever need to find them. Here's my personal, abridged list of resources new players should know about.

Tutorials

I can't recommend the in-game tutorial enough. This game is not easy, and having the basics down is key to your enjoyment. Once you've got your feet wet, consider watching experienced players on Twitch or checking out these resources to further improve.

• Kanajashi’s Video Tutorials - They’re informed, organized, well-produced, and he’s got a good voice for it. For more detailed explanations of the basics and beyond, this a very solid choice. All new players should check out his Game Settings video at the very least.
  
  
• Kin3ticX’s Comprehensive Guide[docs.google.com] - Another phenomenal resource that’s incredibly detailed. If you want a meticulously thorough guide, this is what you're looking for.

Mech Building

Building 'mechs is half of the game, and unless you're into Battletech, it takes a while to learn the intricacies. Building a 'mech poorly means you'll be at a constant disadvantage. I strongly advise you to use established builds as a starting point and make alterations as opposed to doing it live from the ground up.

• The Mechlabs - Smurfy’s Mechlab,[mwo.smurfy-net.de] Li Song’s Mechlab,[li-soft.org] and aweMech[play.google.com] - Smurfy's in particular has gotten this community through dark times. It's a great place to go play around outside the Mechlab, and it's what everyone uses to link builds.
  
  
• Metamechs[metamechs.com] and Mechspecs[www.mechspecs.com] - Metamechs, maintained by long-time competitive player Gman, in particular is a great place for players to start getting ideas for a range of builds that play to 'mechs' strengths.
  
  
• Snafet’s Quirk List[snafets.de] - Quirks are variant-specific buffs and nerfs that are important to know if you want to build a 'mech to its strengths. This website is a great way to view all quirk information easily.

Units and Streamers

This game is absolutely made to be played with a team with voice chat. Though being a PUG isn't exactly miserable, you're missing out by not enjoying group play. Think about getting the most out of your playing experience and find a unit that jives with you. They range from super casual to ultra-competitive, and not having a microphone or being a social person shouldn't deter you. I'm mostly a loner, but being in QQ Mercs is what's kept me around for three years.

• Official Recruitment Forum[mwomercs.com]
  
  
• Outreach Recruitment Thread
  
  
• Voice Comms Directory - This is where you'll find all the TeamSpeak servers. Hop on and float around; lots of places will let you jump in and drop a few.
  
  
• Streamers - Watching skilled players, as with all games, is a great way to improve your own play. Since positioning and situational awareness are so important in MWO, consider tuning in if you find yourself dying too quickly.

Community-Run Websites

• /r/OutreachHPG - OutreachHPG is the officially recognized and more active subreddit, having split from /r/mwo nearly two years ago. Links and resources are updated on a fairly regular basis, nearly all game-related news ends up there, and we do have rules (mostly just don't be a ♥♥♥♥) that you can find in the sidebar. Critics of the moderation team and users view it as a censorship-and-Carebear-filled Hugbox that's completely averse to criticism of the game.
  
  
• /r/mwo - The original subreddit is now un-curated and almost entirely unmoderated after a dispute that ended with the sub's creator kicking out the active mods and moving to a no-moderation policy. Anything anti-PGI ends up on /r/mwo , you will find many bitter ex-players there, and it's definitely the place for unfiltered fights and criticism. Critics view /r/mwo[20] as somewhere between pointless and hilarious.
  
  
• No Guts No Galaxy[nogutsnogalaxy.net] - A diverse platform built up over several years (mainly by the two known as Sean Lang and Bombadil) that has become the largest MWO fan organization by far. They put out podcasts, comics, written content, videos, and all manner of content. They are the only community organization you will ever see interview PGI due to their cozy relationship.
  
  
• Rak's Armory[raksarmory.blogspot.com] - A great hodgepodge of 'mech reviews, guides, videos, and editorials on a regular basis makes this website a diverse resource of high quality.
  
  
• Church of Skill[www.churchofskill.com] - A competitive-focused group with news, match analysis, editorial content, and a new player training program that takes place weekly.

Q: I'm dying a lot. What am I doing wrong?

It's hard to answer that, but here are my top six things new players tend to do wrong:

• Being Alone - Despite what may work in other shooters, flanking alone or with a couple others is almost never helpful in this game. Deathballing (staying close together) has long been a generally winning strategy in this game, and if you're not in the blob, you should be extremely cautious.
  
  
• Being Too Aggressive - Stop being out front. Sit in the middle or back of the pack - at least until you're more comfortable. Don't be the guy the enemy is looking at, don't chase kills, and do exercise patience.
  
  
• Standing Still - Especially in light 'mechs, this is an absolute death sentence. Never stand still unless you're doing something clever. Even if you're just rocking back and forth slightly, it's way better than being completely static.
  
  
• Overheating - If you keep shutting down at inopportune times, you need to get better at heat management or make your 'mech run cooler (by taking weapons out or adding in heatsinks).
  
  
• High Mouse Sensitivity - So many players have this set way too high. Remember that 'mechs have individual components and you need to be able to hit them. An Atlas can take over 600 points of armor damage alone if you spread your damage, while just over 150 is all you'll need for a kill if you focus the center torso exclusively.
  
  
• Terrible Builds - As mentioned earlier, a trash build severely limits your ability to do well. Having a weapon for every range just means that every enemy you encounter is better in their particular range bracket. Diversity isn't all bad, but you should strongly consider specialized builds and checking out the 'Mech Building resources above.

Some additional advice: be someone's wingman until you get your feet under you. Pick a 'mech on your team that goes your speed and just be his buddy. Stay close, shoot at what he shoots at, and you'll be ingraining all the right instincts without having to think too much. Just don't stand behind people!

Q: What's the difference between a weight class, a 'mech, a chassis, and a variant?

There are four weight classes of 'mechs: Light (20-35 tons), Medium (40-55 tons), Heavy (60-75 tons), and Assault (80-100 tons). The term 'mech generally refers to any of the stompy robots in the game (can be used in place of chassis or variant). A chassis refers to a specific type of 'mech that has a name, tonnage, aesthetic design, and any number of variants. A variant is a specific hardpoint configuration / loadout of a chassis. The Awesome 8Q, 8T, 8R, 8V, 9M, and Pretty Baby are the current, in-game variants of the Awesome chassis.

Q: How does damage work?

Every 'mech has eight components: head, center torso, right and left torsos, right and left arms, and right and left legs. Each of these components can be individually destroyed. Each component has some amount of armor and internal structure. Once the armor has been stripped, the internal structure starts to take damage. The internal structure - unless modified by quirks - is half of the maximum armor for that component.

When the internals are exposed, any weapons or equipment in that component can be destroyed with a critical hit. Destroying the center torso, head, or both legs of any 'mech will destroy it. Inner Sphere 'mechs using XL engines will also die when losing a single side torso, and Clan 'mechs using XL engines will die when losing both side torsos.

Damage transfers from destroyed components to adjacent components, but only at 50% power. For instance, if both a right arm and right torso were destroyed and the arm stub gets shot, the damage would do 25% of its original damage to the center torso.

Q: What should I do with my Cadet Bonus?

Don't waste it. Far too often, I've seen players burn their initial pool of cash only to be left with 'mechs they don't like. Try a bunch of trial 'mechs, see what class fits your style, see what weapons you like, and then either find a chassis that fits those parameters or ask the community for a recommendation.

There are hidden costs (like 1.5 million C-Bills to upgrade to Double Heatsinks) that you almost must spend to be able to compete (people often refer to it as the DHS tax). Engines alone can cost well over 5 million C-Bills if you aren't happy with what comes stock. Don't buy three 'mechs that you can't outfit; buy two and kit them out so they perform well. Build things on Smurfy ahead of time so you know what it's going to cost and don't short-change yourself.

You should also consider the advantages of buying multiple variants of the same chassis: Elite and Master Efficiencies - per-chassis bonuses unlocked in the skill tree - are only available when you've unlocked the Basic Efficiencies of three variants of that chassis. Getting the most out of a 'mech requires you to sacrifice breadth in your hangar.

Q: What's the difference between Clan and Inner Sphere?

Long story short, they're different factions with different 'mechs and equipment that are not interchangeable. In traditional Battletech, Clans were straight-up superior, and though PGI has struggled to bring them down to parity with IS (Inner Sphere) 'mechs, we're getting close. There are big lore differences, but I'll skip that for now.

Inner Sphere 'mechs have a certain weapon hardpoint configuration, a range of equippable engines, and the ability to swap out some "Upgrades" to add to build flexibility: Heatsinks, Internal Structure, and Armor Type. When equipping an XL engine, and IS 'mech will die after losing either side torso. Since IS tends to be weaker on paper, they tend to get more quirks (per-variant buffs) than Clan 'mechs.

Clan weapons and equipment tend to be better (lighter, better range, more damage, etc.), Clan XL engines only die if both side torsos go down, and Clans also have what are called Omnimechs, which allows components to be swapped out between variants. That effectively means Omnimechs can change their hardpoints. To balance this, PGI locked a lot of slots, locked the engine, disallowed Upgrade switching, and mostly refrained from giving Clan 'mechs big quirks.

Inner Sphere 'mechs appear to be less expensive up-front than Clan 'mechs, but many are nearly unplayable until several million C-Bills worth of equipment and upgrades are swapped out. That said, some 'mechs like Hunchbacks are relatively cheap to outfit effectively, making them ideal for new players. In general, Omnimechs are more expensive up-front, but because of their limited customization, you won't have to spend much afterwards. Though costs appear very different, Inner Sphere prices can be deceptive, so play around in Smurfy to calculate real costs.

Not long after Steam release, the first set of Clan non-Omnimechs will be released. These are effectively IS-style 'mechs with Clan equipment - Upgrades can be swapped, the engine can be swapped, but unlike Omnimechs, the components (and thus their hardpoints) cannot.

Q: What's with the game modes?

They all end up effectively being a slightly different flavor of deathmatch, and you should play them all as deathmatch initially. Skirmish is straight-up deathmatch, Assault is deathmatch with bases that can be captured, and Conquest is deathmatch with five resource points to capture. You will find that rewards for capturing are sub-par, and that playing the objective is often to the detriment of your team. While you're off capturing, your team is effectively down a man. Capturing can secure wins and be extremely useful, but think about sticking to the fight until you get a feel for when it actually helps.

Q: What is Community Warfare?

It's the hardcore mode oriented towards units that involves planetary conquest and a different set of game modes with respawns. Because of the limited population, there is no skill-based matchmaking, and you should be ready to get stomped if you aren't going in with a unit. I'd recommend staying away from this until you're doing okay in the regular queue.

Q: Does this game have a competitive scene?

Yes. Check out http://www.runhotordie.com/ and https://mrbcleague.com. http://metamechs.com has tier lists that rank 'mechs and http://www.churchofskill.com also aims to become a competitive resource.

Q: Why do people get angry when I run LRMs?

A lot of players hate LRMs, but putting them on an assault makes most of us cringe. Assaults are the most heavily armored and expected to tank instead of hiding in the back, and since they're slow, they actually make poor LRM 'mechs compared to mediums and heavies that can maneuver to get shots. Please, please don't put LRMs on your assault 'mechs.

Q: What's with all the hate for this game?

Many of the Founders (initial crowd-funders for this game) feel like they got shafted. PGI promised a lot, changed or abandoned some of the core pillars, let important features slip up to two years, and never delivered on much of the vision that many Founders had. Additionally, PGI has been especially tone-deaf in terms of community management, only in the last year getting less bad (but still not great). Many bittervets choose to stay, warn others away, and generally seethe that PGI still has the MechWarrior license.

Q: What's worth buying with real money?

To get it out of the way: yes, the prices are pretty ridiculous. Battletech fans tend to be older and more willing to throw money at nostalgia, so enjoy. The pre-order packs are usually the most bang for your buck. Anything on 50% off sale is decent, Hero 'Mechs boost your earnings (wait for sales), colors can be used on all 'mechs, and to be honest their Steam packs are a pretty good value (comparatively speaking). Premium time is extremely helpful to grind C-Bills and XP, but whether or not it's worth it depends on how frequently you play.

Q: What's changed since I've been gone?

I used to keep a running list going until I got lazy earlier this year. Here's the link. Since that time, there have been matchmaker improvements, a fixed / Smurfyfied Mechlab, tons of quality-of-life and UI improvements, a sizeable rebalance, and the addition of map voting. Some ♥♥♥♥'s missing, but you get the idea.

Q: What the hell does _____ mean?

There's a ton of jargon in this game, I'm burnt out writing this, and I'm calling not it on making that list.