1 Introduction, Game Plot
2 Recovering the Chalice
3 Financing Mechs
4 The Mech Simulator
5 Final Battle, Endgame

MECHWARRIOR
Part 1

INTRODUCTION

In MECHWARRIOR, your task is to find the Chalice that will restore your family's good name and the throne of Ander's Moon. To do this, you will need to follow a chain of clues throughout the Successor States, fight numerous mercenary missions, perform shrewd trades to raise funds, and defeat a Heavy Lance in two climactic battles, all within five short years. To assist you, I have divided this walkthru into five parts. The first part (this one) describes the overall flow of the game. The other parts are as follows:

RECOVERING THE CHALICE: Details the clues and actions you must take to track down the Chalice.

FINANCING MECHS: Explains how to accumulate the necessary funds to outfit a Heavy Lance.

THE MECH SIMULATOR: Presents tips and tactics for use with the Mech simulator.

THE FINAL BATTLE: Describes tactics for use in winning the final confrontation with the Dark Wing.

Your first task in the game is to start following the thin trail of clues that will lead you to the Dark Wing. These clues may be obtained in a variety of locations, but they usually appear when you order drinks at the bar or in NewsNet messages. As you follow these clues, you will also want to start raising money by buying and selling Mechs.

It should take from two to three years to discover the location of the Dark Wing (who hold the Chalice) and to have the money to buy enough Mechs to outfit a Heavy Lance. The next step in your quest is to take on missions. These will raise your prestige (or reputation) so that "Good" to "Excellent" pilots will be willing to hire on. These missions will take most of your remaining time.

Finally, you will be ready for the Dark Wing. You will need to have four Heavy Mechs consisting of (preferably) one Marauder and three Heavy Mechs. You will also need to hire three pilots, with at least Good skills in gunnery and piloting. Assign a Mech to each member, load up, and move out. Once you have beaten the Dark Wing, you have won the game.

MECHWARRIOR
Part 2

RECOVERING THE CHALICE

This part is a guide to the textual clues that must be followed in order to retrieve the chalice. Note that in each game certain locations are randomized, including the starting planet. These planets are designated with an asterisk (*). Where alternate planets are known, they are listed. You begin play in April, 3024. I recommend that you spend the first two years or so of play following the clues and trading Mechs for money. Thus, by mid-to-late 3026, you should know the location of the Dark Wing (who hold the chalice), and also have enough money to begin putting together a heavy lance.

The clues are listed in sequence. Each clue has three pieces of information:
the planet you will be on when the clue is received (remember, however, that these are randomized); the action you must take to get the clue; the information the clue gives. Note that you must follow the chain in its entirety. Each clue triggers the next, so you cannot simply skip a set of clues to save time.

*TANCREDI IV: At the bar, order a drink. You will be told to find Grig Griez.
The NewsNet for May, 3024 tells you to go to Galedon V.

GALEDON V: Request a mission, then go to Land's End.

LAND'S END: At the bar, order a drink. You will be told to come back to the bar. Leave, then return to the bar and order another drink. You will be told to go to Delacruz.

*DELACRUZ (TABAYAMA): Upon landing, agree to take the package to Dustball. Then, go to Dustball.

DUSTBALL: Upon landing, fight, then run. Grig's ship is the Stone Arrow. Go to the bar and order a drink. You'll be told to find Kangaroo Jack and that his brother is garrisoning at Levorno.

*LEVORNO (SADURNI/GIBSON): The Mech Complex is located here. Go to Okefenokee.

*OKEFENOKEE (TANCREDI IV): At the bar, order a drink, then leave the bar. Follow the address, hide, then fight. Read the NewsNet; you'll be told to go to Prosperina.

*PROSPERINA (DELACRUZ): At the bar, order a drink, then accept the story. Read the NewsNet; you'll be told Kearney's on Albiero.

*ALBIERO (RADSTADT): Upon landing, follow Tasha, then trust her. She will tell you the chalice is on Radstadt.

You will receive $5-million credits and the location of Dark Wing after the battle at Albiero. Your next task is to accumulate enough prestige to be able to hire Good to Excellent pilots and to buy BattleMasters for each of them. Read the section on Mech Financing to learn how to do this.

RADSTADT: When landing, you will have the option of attacking the Dark Wing in order to retrieve the chalice. This is covered in the section on the Final Battle.

MECHWARRIOR Part 3

MECH FINANCING

This part describes how to finance the Heavy Lance that you will need in order to tackle the Final Battle with the Dark Wing.

The key to MECHWARRIOR and winning the game is to realize that the most important thing you can do is earn lots of money. You will need around $40 million in credits to buy your Heavy Lance; you cannot accumulate this kind of money by taking on missions, at least not in five years. The only way to do it is to buy Mechs at low prices, and sell them at high prices. Using this approach, you can accumulate the necessary funds in a couple of years.

In order to streamline your task, it is recommended that players combine Mech trading with clue chasing. As will be seen shortly, this will necessitate some extra travel and detours in the course of following the clues. But overall, a critical time savings can be achieved by carefully combining the two tasks.

The key to successful Mech trading is quite simple: Buy low, sell high. You can buy Mechs for relatively low prices at centrally located worlds in the areas controlled by each House. Capitals and military centers are particularly good areas. Good prices can be obtained for these Mechs at outlying (backwater) worlds such as Land's End. Note that most backwater planets will only buy one or two Mechs at a time. So, you should buy one or two expensive Mechs in order to obtain the best margins.

The sole overhead to your trade will be in transportation costs. These can be quite high when transporting several Mechs across known space. So, keep your numbers small and your journeys as short as possible. If you're uncertain about where to sell your Mechs, save the game before traveling. If the prices offered aren't satisfactory, restore and try a different planet. Above all, don't get caught hauling the same batch of Mechs around from planet to planet. The transportation costs can completely erase your profits.

As you near the end of the clues and trading cycles, you should begin to keep your eyes open for BattleMasters and Marauders. You will want three BattleMasters and one Marauder for your Heavy Lance. These can be hard to find, particularly the BattleMasters, so it may be worth the extra transport costs in order to ensure that you have enough of these scarce Mechs for the Final Battle.

MECHWARRIOR Part 4

THE MECH SIMULATOR

This part includes hints and tips for operating your Mech at maximum effectiveness in the battle simulator. It also discusses some tips on handling Mech teams, such as the Heavy Lance you will use in the Final Battle.

The first task you have is to familiarize yourself with the Mech controls. You can do this during your first mission, which should be against a Locust. When requesting a mission, choose Attack or Retrieval missions over Garrison or Defense missions. This will allow you to dictate the pace of the engagement, and places the burden of positional defense on the computer. It is all too easy to lose a defensive mission against fast jump-jet-capable Mechs.

Before embarking on your first mission, be sure your Mech is fully repaired and loaded out. You may wish to check the prices of available Mechs. On the first world, it is often possible to sell your Jenner and have enough money to buy a Phoenix Hawk. Even a lightly damaged Phoenix Hawk is superior to a Jenner, and helps to ensure your first mission will be a success.

Before starting the first mission, be sure to save the game. Then choose your mission, assign yourself to the Mech, and blast off. Once on the planet, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the controls. You will want to have the manual open to page 27. First, practice changing your speed. Then, turn back and forth. Twist your torso, and note how your heading and torso directions can diverge.

Next, check your weapons linkage. You start with all weapons linked. Toggle off the short-range weapons. You should only have the longest-range weapons linked at the beginning of each engagement. In general, you will make better use of long-range fire than the computer, so the tactics detailed here emphasize that. Practice using the numbers and the plus (+) and minus (-) keys to select different weapons. Then, set the active weapon to the longest range weapon you have, preferably a projectile weapon.

As you approach the opposing Mech(s), you will want to have your torso twisted to the right or left. Slow down as you begin to come within range, and be sure your target indicator is set on the enemy. Before you reach the range of your longest weapon, fire it. If the weapon is a projectile weapon, you can usually hit with it before it is "officially" within range. Note that this trick does not generally work with lasers.

Once within striking range, the other Mech will generally close. To keep your range, you will want to slow or even move backward. This will allow you to keep peppering the enemy with shots before he can reply.

You will have to make a fundamental choice in tactics: Shoot at the legs or at the head. Body shots are easy, but they may not disable the Mech, and they will take a long time to do so at any rate. Head shots are extremely difficult in most cases, but they leave a Mech relatively unscathed allowing for more lucrative salvage fees. Leg shots are of medium difficulty; Mechs will be disabled when a leg is shot out. This was the tactic of choice for me, but if you can consistently make head shots, then go for it. The one weak spot of BattleMasters is their relatively prominent head.

Heat control is critical and can be very difficult with some Mech models. Marauders are particularly prone to this with their heavy complement of weapons and relatively small heat sinks. Nevertheless, I recommend them as the best Heavy Mech for the human player (you). The reason is the Marauder's superb long-range weapons. Through judicious use of Autocannon, you can seriously damage a Mech before it can even return fire. A linked barrage from the long-range lasers can often finish them. Be careful, though, and watch the heat.

When putting together a Lance, I recommend waiting until your prestige enables you to hire Good to Excellent pilots. This will take quite a few missions. You should take the toughest missions offered if you have the Mech to handle them. This will bump your prestige more quickly than several lesser engagements. When your prestige is high, you should go to the bar and try to hire crew. If the crew available is not up to snuff, take some more missions and check again.

Though the simulator provides a fair degree of flexibility in the ways in which you can direct a Lance, your Lancemates will generally come to close range as soon as possible. This means they will take significant damage (and dish it out). So, you will need to get them the best Mechs possible for close-range combat: BattleMasters. You should stick with a Mech that has good long-range strike capabilities such as the Marauder or Rifleman. Then, as your Lancemates close with the enemy, move to one side and keep hitting the enemy Mechs from long- to medium-range. Avoid closing as this limits the amount of assistance you can render.

In missions where you can complete it by touching the enemy headquarters, you may try having one of your Lancemates circle around for the headquarters while engaging with the rest. This does not usually work, because the enemy will usually leave a defending Mech to deal with this.

One anomaly that can work to your advantage is the gap between the headquarter buildings. If you can get the buildings between yourself and the enemy Mechs, you can sometimes fire at them through the gap in the buildings. They will not return fire and will often continue to stay where they are.

You can successfully complete any mission by destroying all the enemy Mechs. This will also ensure maximum salvage fees; it is the recommended method for winning each mission. The one exception is the Final Battle. See that section for details.

MECHWARRIOR Part 5

THE FINAL BATTLE

This part describes tactics for the final confrontation with the Dark Wing. When you have won this engagement, you will retrieve the Chalice and win the game. In MECHWARRIOR, unlike many CRPGs, the final battle is anything but anticlimactic. The Dark Wing is a Heavy Lance of four BattleMasters and a WarHammer. This is the toughest opponent you will ever face in MECHWARRIOR; when you win you will deserve the Chalice.

As described in other parts, you will need to have a Heavy Lance of your own to tackle this battle. The ideal Lance will have three BattleMasters (for your hired mercenaries), and one Marauder (for yourself). You should also have Good to Excellent pilots. Every Mech should be fully repaired and loaded, and each should take enough extra ammo to do a complete reload.

The final battle actually consists of two battles. In the first, you will face the Dark Wing in a set-piece battle. Assuming you win this clash, you will then be taken to another battlefield. Here, you will face the Dark Wing again, which has been fully repaired and loaded. Your own Mechs retain their damage from the first engagement but can reload. The second battle is a standard attack mission with the goal of touching the Dark Wing Headquarters.

In the first battle, you should try to concentrate against one or two of the enemy. Maneuver your own Mech to one side and attempt to finish the Warhammer, then, attack the nearest BattleMaster. Your Lancemates should be coordinated so that they cannot be picked on individually. Depending on the terrain, you may be able to prepare a defense behind a mountain so that the enemy can be attacked, one Mech at a time. Remember that you have two engagements to fight; try to minimize the damage your Mechs take.

After you win the first battle, you will be taken to another battlefield. In this battle, your objective is to touch the enemy headquarters (thus retrieving the Chalice). Unlike earlier missions, your best chance is to do just that: Avoid the enemy Mechs as much as possible, and get to the headquarters. Fortunately, the enemy Mechs are split on either side of a mountain in front of the headquarters.

You should move your entire Lance to the south of the mountain. Your Mech should be in (or close to) the lead so that you can deal with the enemy Mechs on that side of the mountain. Send one of your Mechs to the headquarters while you and the other Mechs tangle with the enemy. The northern Mechs will come around the mountain and attack your rear, so be prepared for them. You may wish to peel off a Mech to delay them, though it is basically a suicide mission.

The key to this last battle is the quick elimination of the southern Mechs followed by touching the base as soon as possible. I know of one player who took a light mech into the final battle with this in mind. A fast, light mech with jump-jets is definitely an asset in the second engagement. However, the light mech will be hard pressed to survive the first battle, and may do best by staying out of it entirely. Needless to say, this puts a strain on the remaining Mechs. I chose the all-Heavy Mech approach and found it the easiest way to tackle the final battle.

Once you have touched the base, you have won the game! You may continue to take missions and play with the simulator. Note that a bug/feature in the game causes the NewsNet messages to act as if you had failed in your mission. Also, if you land on Ander's Moon, you will still be arrested. There is nothing you can do about this; simply ignore it and enjoy the simulator.

MECHWARRIOR is published by Activision and distributed by Mediagenic.

This walkthru is copyright (c) 1990 by Stuart Moulder. All rights reserved.