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This is a tips and tricks guide for RogueTech, a modded version of the BattleTech game covering inspired by the Mech Warrior universe. RogueTech adds a layer of difficulty to the original BattleTech game. Since so little information can be found, this guide is written with a range of tips and tricks to give new players a more leisurely start. Also included in this guide, are some mech builds with pictures and some build advice, in general, to illustrate design choices when building a mech. At the time of writing this guide, I have well over 600 in-game hours this covers the original BattleTech game and the RogueTech modded version of the game and thought I share my experience with the RogueTech community.
Where to start?
Initially, you will have to farm missions of 1 skull and lower to gain more equipment and C-Bills(in-game currency)as well as gaining reputation with all factions to gain access to higher tier missions. The mission part will be tricky in a sense you do not want to drop reputation with one faction to gain reputation with another faction. However, the easy workaround is that you gain more reputation than lose reputation when you do a mission to ensure that if you do a mission against a faction, your reputation does not dip too far before taking on a mission. Furthermore, you can do missions against the "Planetary Government" that will affect no reputation loss at all so ensure you do those missions first. In short gain reputation before losing reputation to unlock higher tiered missions.
I started in the Clan area as it gave me a small reputation boost and access to the Clan stores to get more Clan gear while doing missions at the same time and gaining some more clan equipment and mech parts through salvage. This allowed me to get ahead started early in the game and made my overall playthrough easier over beginning in the Inner Sphere.
Clan Gear.
Clan gear is in most cases best in the slot for all weapons and equipment, and it will use fewer slots and weigh less while having increased performance. This will allow you to fit more weapons and equipment, giving your Mech thus lance more damage output. At times Clan gear might give off more heat so make sure to balance those out with overall damage vs heat generation.
RISC Gear.
Is Innersphere experimental tech that offers even more benefits then Clan Gear, it is however scarce, and only appears as salvage always. RISC gear should be priority salvage even over mech parts since RISC gear is that rare. Due to the weight savings, this will make it easier to outfit medium and heavy mechs and will retain better damage output.
Prototype Heatsink Kit & Prototype Double Heatsinks.
These are by far best in cooling performance and allow you to build insane Omni Mechs(assault Class) with over 600 sustained damage. The Heat Sink kit converts all the Engine Heatsinks and Additional Engine Heatsinks into Prototype Heatsinks and allows you to install more Prototype Double Heatsinks. While they only sink -4 heat per turn, they also lower heat output from weapons by 4% per heatsink, increase your overheat threshold by 4 per Prototype Heatsink and your maximum heat by 4 per Prototype Heatsink. Therefore Prototype Heatsinks and Kits are a MUST salvage above everything else unless you already have more than 10 of each. Even just installing the Prototype Kit will benefit you by having the benefits mentioned earlier on the Engine Heatsinks saving you tonnage and slot space to fit more gear. I personally never use any other type of Heat Sinking than Prototype that is how good it is.
The Basics.
There are several ways to increase tour performance that do not involve direct damage output. E.C.M. and Sensors are very important and will help with your overall accuracy and prevent you from being jammed. Acid munition will help you increase damage output in the next round. And at the same time overheating a hostile mech with special incendiary munition can shutdown a mech and allow you to take it out via headshot. T.S.E.M.P., Chaff L.R.M., and Chaff countermeasures will debuff targets even further while T.A.G., NARC launchers and L.R.M. Narc will aid in detection and counter E.C.M. As well as limb mods that that either decrease recoil, increase accuracy and improve melee and stability damage dealt and last, are Stealth systems combined with E.C.M. will make it harder to be hit and detected.
ECM & Sensors.
There are various Sensors and E.C.M. suites that will Buff your Mechs and Debuff the enemy Mechs. Buffs come in forms like increased sensor detection range, Increased visual range, Lower sensor signature for making it harder to be electronically detected, Increased sensor checks to counter stealth and E.C.M., as well depending on the suite you can get a UAV, C3 Master/Slave functionality, etc. The Debuff comes in the form jamming enemy sensors checks decreasing detection or prevent detection altogether. Listed below are my four go-to E.C.M. and Sensor suites.
- Guardian E.C. M(C): -2 Accuracy debuff, 2 Sensor buff for friendlies, 2 Sensor debuff.
- NOVA CEWS(C): 10% Increased sensor range, 10% Visual range, +1 Resolve gain per turn, -1 Accuracy debuff, 1 Sensor buff for friendlies, 2 Sensor debuff, C3 Networking.
- WatchDog Suite(C): 20% Increased sensor range, 15% Increased visual range, +1 Defense, -50% Electronic signature, 2 Sensor buff for friendlies, 3 Sensor debuff, 3 Additional sensor checks, UAV with a 4 turn cooldown.
- Warfare Suite: 15% Increased sensor range, 20% Increased visual range, -1 Accuracy debuff, -10% Electronic signature, 3 Sensor buff for friendlies, 2 Sensor debuff, 2 Additional sensor checks, UAV with a two-turn cooldown.
The whole purpose of this equipment is to make you harder to hit while making it easier for you to hit your opponent and finding units that might be in stealth mode and sharing all that data among friendlies. Do not underestimate jamming mostly when some medium mechs can close in and can only be spotted when in visual range but then it is too late they can field alpha strikes over 300 damage that will kill most Heavy Mechs and severely damage Assault mechs.
Special Munitions.
There is a wide range of special munitions in RogueTech, but I only prefer to use some since the pros and cons of most munitions do not make up the redux in damage output. A by far must is the acid munitions you can use on S.R.M.'s or Mortars, and I only use S.R.M.'s or Mortars for the most part to round of some D.P.S. and add acid attacks. The difference between the S.R.M.'s and Mortar is that the Acid attack stacks on the S.R.M.'s but does not appear on the Mortar furthermore the Mortar adds an acid debuff for 20% but does not stack while the S.R.M. acid munition only adds 1% debuff per missile but does stack. The 2nd munition to recommend is the Incendiary munition. Still, I only use this in specialized builds that are fully geared towards overheating targets I will cover that more in-depth later on in this article. And the 3rd option is either an increase in accuracy for long-range of stability damage in short-range builds. For long-range L-K LRM missiles that have increased accuracy, Deathfire L.R.M.'s do increased damage and stability damage, and Thunder/Thunder Augmented L.R.M.'s lay mines handy when taking on light mechs. And for short-range, the Tandem S.R.M.'s are great vs light, and medium mechs and Deathfire S.R.M.'s as the L.R.M. counterpart does increase damage and stability damage. But selecting those munitions will depend entirely on your build and lance setup.
L.R.M. Munitions.
- L-K LRM: +1 Accuracy, +35% Intercept chance by A.M.S.
- LRM [INC]: +1 Heat - 2 LRM Damage.
- LRM DF: +50% LRM Damage +1 Stability Damage -40% Range, -1 Accuracy.
- L.R.M. Thunder: -3 L.R.M. Damage, 1 Mine per missile.
- L.R.M. Thunder Augmented: -3 L.R.M. Damage, 2 Mines per missile.
S.R.M. Munitions.
- SRM AX: +1% Damage for 2 turns and does stack.
- SRM Tandem: +4 Damage to internals, -4 SRM damage.
- SRM DF: +50% SRM damage, +2 Stability damage, -1 Accuracy.
Haywire(TSMEP) & Chaff.
Haywire and chaff will debuff enemy mechs and will include one or more of the following, impaired movement, accuracy, heat management, sensor strength, and visual range. This can be very helpful to decrease damage output, taking on higher difficulty missions. It can also aid with farming for mech parts and equipment if you use the heat management debuff paired with incendiary munitions to force a shutdown and then take out the Mech with a headshot allowing the entire Mech to be salvaged. Another great application is for melee mechs that do not need weapons as they are centred around melee damage thus closing in and applying debuffs and then going in for the melee kill the next turn is very useful.
Haywire: 4 different equipment types can apply this Debuff to enemy mechs but vary in strength.
- T.S.E.M.P. Cannon: 30 Heat, 60% Movement reduction for two turns, -3 Accuracy for two turns, -80% Heat management for two turns, Uses support weapons hardpoint thus fires in melee attacks.
- NARC Haywire: 0 Heat, 15% Movement reduction for two turns, -1 Accuracy for two turns, -20% Heat management for two turns, Use support weapons hardpoint utilizing the NARC Launcher an ammo based weapon but does NOT fire in melee.
- Taser: 10 Heat, 40% Movement reduction for two turns, -2 Accuracy for two turns, -50% Heat management for two turns, Uses ballistic weapon hardpoints utilizing the Taser an ammo based weapon and does NOT fire in melee.
- IATM EMP: 10% Movement reduction for 2 turns, -1 Accuracy for 2 turns, -10% Heat management for 2 turns, IATM munition and stacks up to 6 times.
Chaff: 2 different munitions that apply a debuff of varying strength to an enemy mech.
- Chaff CounterMeasures: -1 Accuracy for two turns, -30% Sight reduction for two turns, -60% Sensor strength for two turns, Area of effect weapon, Uses internal munition storage, Uses support weapon hardpoint thus fires in melee attacks.
- LRM Chaff: -1 Accuracy for 2 turns, -20% Sight reduction for 2 turns, -30% Sensor strength for 2 turns, LRM munition can be fired indirectly.
T.A.G. & NARC.
T.A.G. & NARC beacons allow for more significant target acquisition for the entire lance and work regardless of the usage of C3 networking, best-used with spotting/recon, and melee mechs and is especially useful to support L.R.M. builds.
- T.A.G.: +7 Sensor checks counter E.C.M., +1 Accuracy 2 turn duration, 15% Increased electronic detection for two turns, 15% Increased visual detection for two turns, Uses support weapon hardpoint but does not fire in melee.
- Light T.A.G. (C): +8 Sensor checks counter E.C.M., +1 Accuracy 2 turn duration, 20% Increased electronic detection for two turns, 20% Increased visual detection for two turns, Uses support weapon hardpoint but does not fire in melee.
- NARC Beacon: +8 Sensor checks counter E.C.M., +1 Accuracy 2 turn duration, 25% Increased electronic detection for two turns, 25% Increased visual detection for two turns, Uses support weapon hardpoint but does not fire in melee.
- NARC I-Beacon: +12 Sensor checks counters E.C.M., +1 Accuracy +2 Missile Accuracy 2 turn duration, 35% Increased electronic detection for two turns, 35% Increased visual detection for two turns, Uses support weapon hardpoint but does not fire in melee.
Limb Modifications.
There is a wide range of limb modifications that aid with accuracy, recoil management, melee damage and perks like C.A.S.E. and damage reduction. I wouldn't say I like using all of them since some of them would involve taking internal damage. However, recoil management can be instrumental on Ultra A.C., and Rotary A.C. builds as well as they suffer the most from Recoil over P.P.C. and Gauss weapons. Accuracy helps with any build but is best served in long-range builds, Omni Mech prevents the usage of A.C. type, and P.P.C. type weapons thus are ill-suited for long-range builds. Melee mods are suitable for your melee builds and should only be used to unique purpose build melee mechs. Listed below is a range of mods I frequently like to use.
Weapon Mods:
Adds one or more of the following specs in various degrees, Recoil Reduction, Increased Accuracy, Increased Firing Arc. However, they take up slots space and will also come at a tonnage price.
- Omni Pod Lower Arm: +1 Accuracy, +10% Melee damage, but cannot be used with Ballistic or P.P.C. weapons.
- Weapon Mount: +* Accuracy depending on the mod quality, -* Recoil depending on the mod quality, +*% Firing arc depending on mod quality, -* Melee accuracy depending on the quality of the mod, Uses the lower limb slot +1 extra slot.
- UpperRecoil: +* Accuracy depending on the mod quality, -* Recoil depending on the mod quality, Uses the upper limb slot.
Melee Mods:
Adds one or more of the following specs in various degrees, Melee Accuracy, Melee Damage, Stability Damage, reduced Melee Damage taken.
- Upper Spiked: -*% Melee damage taken depending on mod quality, +*% Melee damage depending on mod quality, CASE protection.
- Lower Melee: +* Melee accuracy depending on mod quality, +*% Melee damage depending on mod quality, +*% Stability damage depending on mod quality.
- Leg Spiked Boots: +* Melee accuracy depending on mod quality, +*% Melee damage depending on mod quality, +* Base melee damage depending on mod quality.
- Hands Melee: +* Melee accuracy depending on mod quality, +*% Melee damage depending on mod quality, +*% Stability damage depending on mod quality.
Blades, Claws, and Shields:
Adds a big bonus to melee some of these come pre-attached with the Mech and offer an even better bonus in a melee centric mech. They can be fitted on the specific limb it is designed for and only take up slot space below a list of some of my favourite mods that can be equipped additional to pre-attached melee mods.
- Claws: +2 Melee accuracy, +40% Melee damage, +10 Base melee damage, +25% Stability damage, +50% Critical chance, replaces the mech hand actuator.
- Retractable Blade: +2 Melee accuracy, +15% Melee damage, +5 Base melee damage, +10% Stability damage, +25% Critical chance, replaces the mech hand actuator.
Melee Mods slot specific:
These melee mods will use a support weapon slot and add more melee damage as well as in some cases being able to fire outside and inside melee attacks. They take up a support weapons slot and slot space on the Mech.
- T.S.E.M.P.: 5 Damage, 30 Heat, Haywire E.M.P. nerfs movement, accuracy, and heat sinking on target.
- Chainsword: 5 x 12 Damage, 5 x 7 Stability damage, + 2 & +1 Melee accuracy, 20% Critical hit chance.
- Hammerfist: 3 X 25 Damage, 3 x 10 Stability damage, +1 Melee accuracy, +10 Stability Damage.
- Plasma Lance: 50 Damage, 25 Heat, 15 Stability damage, + 1 Melee accuracy, x2 Critical hit chance, +5 Base melee damage.
- Wrecking Ball: 60 Damage, 60 Stability damage.
- Flail: 3 x 35 Damage, 3 X 25 Stability damage, +1 Melee accuracy, 120% Critical hit chance.
Stealth.
Stealth systems are an armour mod that makes it harder to be detected either electronically and or visually and always requires an E.C.M. module to be installed. Very useful for brawler and melee builds to face tank hostile mechs. However, armour repairs are very expensive as well as the system generates heat and also increase the generation of weapon heat. Of all the stealth systems to prototype systems are of the highest quality and offer the greatest bonus.
- Null Signature System(NSS): 30% Sensor stealth, 5 Stealth charges, +2 Defense medium-range, +4 Defense long-range, +6 Defense extreme-range, -70% Sensor signature, +15% Weapons heat, +10 Heat per turn, Electronic stealth only.
- Void System: 20% Visual stealth, 6 Stealth charges, -70% Visual signature, -15% Sensor signature, +10% Weapons heat, +10 Heat per turn, Visual stealth only.
- Signature Damper: 60% Sensor stealth, 2 Stealth charges, +1 Defense medium-range, +2 Defense long-range, +3 Defense extreme range, -35% Sensor signature, +5% Weapons heat, +3 Heat per turn, Visual stealth augmentation adds Electronic stealth to Visual Stealth systems like the Void System.
- Active Camouflage: 30% visual stealth, 4 Stealth charges, -40% Visual signature, +10% weapons heat, +5 Heat per turn, Sensor stealth augmentation adds Visual stealth to Electronic stealth systems like N.S.S.