MWLL Basics Guide
From Mechwarrior Living Legends Wiki
Welcome to the Mechwarrior: Living Legends Basics Guide!
Here you will be able to familiarize yourself with the basics of Mechwarrior: Living Legends after installing the mod and joining a game.
Contents |
Buying the Mech
 | We'll begin with familiarizing you with the starting HUD, as well as utilizing the Buy Menu. Each player starts the game in Battle Armor (abbreviated BA) - a suit that affords light protection, limited radar, BA weapons, and Jump Jets. The interface you'll see at the beginning of the game will be similar to the image to the left. Let's see what elements we have on it:
After purchasing the Mech, there will be an audible confirmation message, as well as a brief text prompt that will appear below the Radar on your HUD; this prompt will indicate which bay your Mech is being constructed in. You'll have to move out of the spawn area and down into the hangar proper to access the various Mech Bays. When your Mech is completed, an indicator will appear on your HUD, directing you to it; to enter the Mech, (press [F]) while you're level with the cockpit and close to the Mech, either by running off the catwalk behind it or jumping at it (hold [space] to use Jump Jets). |
 | Welcome inside your first Mech! Controlling the Mech is relatively easy - accelerate with [w] key, slow down with [s] key, turn with [a] and [d], stop with [x] key, aim and rotate your torso with the mouse, fire selected weapon group with left mouse button, fire second weapon group with your right mouse button, fire third weapon group with your third mouse button. You may want to check File:UserControlMap.pdf, but for this tutorial let's focus on basics
For training let's re-arrange the weapon groups. It's always good to have weapons spread between the groups on energy-based Mechs, like this variant of Osiris, to avoid overheating which can power down your mech or even damage it! Use your arrows to turn-off the Large Beam Lasers in first weapon group, and turn them on in second. When you are done return to the first group (cause the group you selected will be the one firing when you press first mouse button). Thanks to this you will have Laser with short recharge time at the first group and the one with long recharge time at the second. It's very good setup to start the battle, but first let's see the status indicators: |
 | At the center-bottom part of the screen you can find several important indicators, between them the radar and heat management systems:
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Check before you go
You should always remember to check following things before moving away from hangar:
- Weapon groups arrangement - spread weapons between first two or three weapon groups (may between more if your mouse have additional buttons)
- Your current weapon group is 1 - when pressing first mouse button your active group will fire, so it'd be good if active one would be the first
- You bought ammunition - some mechs have free tons you can use for ammo. Always buy as much as you can before leaving the base.
Basics of combat
Mechwarrior: Living Legends is built around Combined Arms doctrine - this means that coordinated strike of various kinds of units is required to achieve the victory, or in other way: single powerful unit without support of other complement forces means nothing. One team of experienced but disorganized players can be defeated by simple coordinated attacks. So it's very essential to stay close to your teammates, escort heavier mechs, and use teamchat ( [u] ) for better coordination - you may read about more about it in the Teamwork Guide.
While engaging enemy units you have to select the enemy ([e] for nearest opponent, [t] for next opponent, [q] for enemy you are pointing at) in order to see his armor status on the left. Than you will try to destroy one of his components (like the right arm) to earn credits and lower enemy battle value. It should be noted here that unlike in most of other online games it's not the killing opponent what does matter, but rather inflicting as much damage as possible to the enemy. So destroying the center torso is one of fastest way to earn a lot of money, because Mechs explode when their center torso is destroyed giving large amount of Cbills at a time. You should also note that some of weapons - like the ACs, PPCs or Gauss may require some lead when firing at the moving target because of their travel time.
Other than shooting at single part of enemy unit instead of spreading damage all over it it's also essential to stay mobile. While moving you are far more difficult target for everyone around, and you increase a chance of getting behind the enemy mech - Mechs back armor is very fragile, it has about 3 times less armor than the front, so destroying enemy by shooting it's back is very fast and efficient way.
Common problems
- You hit the enemy but he hasn't received any damage - your ping is too high. Pick the server with ping lower than 100.
- You cannot move but still can aim - your Mech is crouching - press [left ctrl] to stand up
- Your Mech head has been destroyed (is black instead of green) - happens after ejecting, by pressing [f], without powering down [p] the mech first - return to a bay inside the hangar, stand inside the middle of one of the bays, power down [p], wait a second, power up [p] - see also: repairing
- You can Sell your Mech/vehicle by going into a main hanger bay and pressing [j]. The amount you receive will be based on the condition of your mech, to a maximum 70% of normal buy price.
See Also
This guide lead you through basics of Mech interface and combat. To get known about other aspects of game feel free to browse the Wiki.
- Other guides
- Lists of various equipment and entities in MWLL with usage hints and a ways to counter them.
