BATTLETECH Career Mode Strategies (2024)

With FLASHPOINT’s and Update 1.3’s release just days away, I am already super-excited to dive into Career Mode. : )

But some Career Mode Strategies are more likely to net higher Career Mode Point Totals than others.

As Kiva mentions in her Career Mode Dev Diary, there are 15-different ways that HBS’s Career Mode rates our overall performance.

With each of those 15-ways in play, some IMO will no doubt incur opportunity costs. For example, if I am busy trying to visit every System on the Map to gain the points related to that particular achievement, I am forgoing the chance to spend less time in transit and more time on Mission by focusing on shorter Jump Times and visiting Planets already visited but that have FLASHPOINTS appear on them.

So while I intend to forego the “Every Planet” Career Mode points, will this prove to be more efficacious in earning Career Mode points?
I can’t wait to find out. : )

How about you?

Do you have any ideas for Career Mode Strategies? Or comments on my thoughts above?

I really wish the BATTLETECH Granular Difficulty Settings applied to Career Mode...

...I’d push ALL THOSE BUTTONS, in a heartbeat. : )

Yes, well, there are so many options "changing" the difficulty, that getting a score system to account for all the permutations would probably mess things up, not to mention it would take a really long time for them to test said system for bugs, thus delaying the product a lot.

Getting that all-planets-visited seems a bit too stressful for me, I'll just play a single mission for each planet while trying to plot a route taking into consideration the skull-rating (probably going to have to write down the order of planets to visit, about oh-twenty, maybe less). I'll probably go shamelessly with the route of less-difficulty to get both xp and loot before hopefully being able to dare and play harder missions.

But first I'll load up my save with the finished campaign in order to try out a bunch of Flashpoints and get a feel for things before starting anew in Career Mode.

well i expect the wonderful modders we have will figure out a and advanced settings setup for career mode that modifies your score earning plus (harder) or minus (easier).

that being said...im not really going for a score so much as a proper sandbox rp'd career.

mork77 said:

Do we already know which Mechs you will start with in Career mode? They did say it wouldn´t be random.

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If I remember the streams correctly, it's a Vindicator, Panther, Jenner, Commando 1B, and... Spider?

stjobe said:

If I remember the streams correctly, it's a Vindicator, Panther, Jenner, Commando 1B, and... Spider?

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If we get a Spider, I'll be using that solo on Extraction missions to save cumulative battle damage / downtime and score the Steam achievement "One Mech Army".

stjobe said:

If I remember the streams correctly, it's a Vindicator, Panther, Jenner, Commando 1B, and... Spider?

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if that is what we get..i will use that for the default mode.

but for my rp career i will 'adjust' things a bit..say...ASN-21, PHX-1K, TBT-5N and the MAD-BH3015

gh0s7 said:

I'll just play a single mission for each planet while trying to plot a route taking into consideration the skull-rating (probably going to have to write down the order of planets to visit, about oh-twenty, maybe less).

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On this, if I don't miss remember from the stream, time does no longer proceed (by one day) from doing missions, making it optimal to do every single mission on the planets you visit. Obviously provided you can do so without having to take time for repairs.

Besides that, the only thing I have planned is to remove some weapons from the starting mechs in favor of more armor for some extra survivability. More a personal preference than anything else.

Mcwynne said:

On this, if I don't miss remember from the stream, time does no longer proceed (by one day) from doing missions, making it optimal to do every single mission on the planets you visit. Obviously provided you can do so without having to take time for repairs.

Besides that, the only thing I have planned is to remove some weapons from the starting mechs in favor of more armor for some extra survivability. More a personal preference than anything else.

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Actually a very good idea for something like the spider. Not to remove the weapons per-say, but to remove some of those jumpjets (8 is way too many) and get some extra armour on there to protect the fragile beast.

Edmon said:

Actually a very good idea for something like the spider. Not to remove the weapons per-say, but to remove some of those jumpjets (8 is way too many) and get some extra armour on there to protect the fragile beast.

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Havamal said:

View attachment 420736

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hehe, including keeping your ammo bins in their default locations?

D-Day said:

hehe, including keeping your ammo bins in their default locations?

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Sometimes .
I'm not so concerned with that as some might be.

As I've mentioned I usually leave a mech stock for as long as I can keep it from any wreckage.

Once it gets blasted good though I'll pimp that ride a bit. I don't touch armor. I will add JJ often. I don't mind torso ammo, but sometimes I want to separate rare equipment from it so it depends on what is where, how late in the game, what mechwarriors are meant for the ride.

None of that really addresses the Spider I guess. I just run em stock until Spider time is over.

One of the most fun missions was early game when I dropped with only a spider and a locust because everything else was in the shop and I wanted to get one more payday in before the bills were due.

Havamal said:

None of that really addresses the Spider. I just run em stock until Spider time is over.

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Edmon said:

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Just don't go hot rodding and you'll be alright. Just because it can get there doesn't mean it should go there. That should be in the tutorial for new players.

Never lost a Spider .
I did lose a

Jagermech and way later a Firestarter when I started to get squirrely.

The Argos Engine Upgrades, Mech Bay, and Mech Tech upgrades would seemingly be very important to get ASAP. With no time cost for missions being able to move around the star map quickly as early as possible is a major opportunity upgrade. Having a larger mech bay allows you to deploy on missions while other mechs are being repaired/upgraded. Mech Tech upgrades will, of course, allow work to happen faster which becomes important if you are moving around the star map faster.

Your mechwarrior collection will have to be managed very carefully. I suspect in the early/mid game I will be rotating one new guy into every fight to build their XP. The goal being a full bay of 10/10/10/10 pilots at the end. This has to be balanced against the desire to get to 5 Skull missions as quickly as possible for the increased earnings potential in terms of CB, MRB, and Missions score.

Contract negotiations are going to be much more intense. I played one run through where I only accepted minimal pay/max salvage. That is not going to fly this time without all the piles of stuff being dumped on me by Priority Missions.

Overall the game tempo is going to be much much tighter and faster.

There is more of course but here are a few strategies to chew on.

Havamal said:

I did lose a Rifleman

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That's easy....I lose them all the time.....^$#^$# Unseen Stealth Armour!

Mcwynne said:

On this, if I don't miss remember from the stream, time does no longer proceed (by one day) from doing missions, making it optimal to do every single mission on the planets you visit. Obviously provided you can do so without having to take time for repairs.

Besides that, the only thing I have planned is to remove some weapons from the starting mechs in favor of more armor for some extra survivability. More a personal preference than anything else.

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Good point, I had completely forgotten that, thanks.