View source for Guide:Low Level Survival

So, you're new to MCM and you need to get by and win some fights.  This guide's for you.  I'm going to outline all the tricks I did as I fought through the lower levels of MCM.

==Levels by the Numbers==

First off lets talk worst case scenario.  A level one-hundred-and-something big bad nasty mech pilot.  If they take all the right perks they can have a significant advantage.  I'm going to just work out the math so you can see the biggest odds you'll fight against.

First off armor.  Under the defensive perks you can spend about 32 points and get +12% resistance on all damage types.  That will leave you with 88 damage dealth for every 100 you toss out.  The most damaging thing to your odds is the top tier defensive perk that requires 32 points spent in the tree.  It gives +25% armor.  So, in theory you could have two mechs with 1000 armor each, except your opponent has 1250 armor and you deal 88 damage for every 100.  That means you'll have to deal 1421 damage to defeat your opponent, while they only have to deal 1000 to defeat you.

Now, your opponent can also improve damage via perks.  +12% at best.  So, if they are deailng 112 damage for every 100 damage they only have to deal 893 damage to defeat you.

So, worst case scenario, you'd end up with 893 armor and your opponent has a whopping 1421 effectively once all the perk math is worked in.  And then the opponent may have varoius heat management and other support stuff that makes them even nastier.

And of course they likely had more practice then you and are more skilled in general.  Let's face it, I've gone up against a few new players with utterly stripped down builds, trying to play softball, and still picked them apart.

Looks daunting doesn't it?

Don't worry too much though.  This is the WORST case scenario, you won't find a lot of pilots worked to this level.  Also, we are going to work around this.  Read on and find out.

==Get a Good Botter==

Bots give way more exp then anything else.  You want to nail those.  The spawners migrate from arena to arena with time.  Click one, out pops bot.  A combat arena has 2.  You can migrate between those two spawners for maximum exp.  The training area has a single spawner, but that's slower.  You want to migrate between two.

Sensor based weaponry is no go on bots.  Get some good projectile weapons.  Legionnaire's UACs are actually pretty decent DPS, good actually.  You can work with that.  Either use your Legionnaire to shoot bots as is, or buy some Autocannons (200 lindens) and slap those on your shoulders and arms and turn into a blitz of bullets, that'll work even better.  You may want some heatsinks for that if you overheat a lot, or remove some guns.  

Whether or not you slap extra guns on your legionnaire, the tactic for nailing a bot is simple.  Tap the spawner, start strafing, keep firing on the bot, DO NOT OVERHEAT.  Overheating will open you up to a pile of abuse.  If you get Coolant (200 linden) and equip that yo ucan tap crouch to cancel overheating.  

Do not stand still when shooting the bot.  You'll get hit repeatedly and die.  Do keep moving.  Curse the fates when a laser bot shows up, those things tear up even experienced pilots on occasion, you gotta be hella fast to avoid a laser.  Projectile bots though are easy.  Thunder is SUPER easy.

Watch your Armor, if it gets low, duck for cover.  Bots will get you your early levels REAL fast.

==First Few Perk Buys==

Type /6verify if you have not done it yet, set up your MCM account.  If you have gained a few levels of experience get from the tech-support-tree the repair bay perk and the ammo depot.  If you are biomech, get the ammo refill equivilent from support.  From there you might want to get "overload" from passive so you can equip more stuff on your mech, or work on the defense tree so you can get that armor boost.  Biomechs should look at the passive tree for getting the improved regeneration perk twice.

==Fighting Against the Well Equipped==

So, the other guys got more levels and a big bad mech.  What are you going to do?  The simple answer is "Don't get hit".  If you can avoid getting hit, kite, play evasive, and hit and run.  Then it doesn't matter how much more armor the other guy has.  you can whittle it down.  DO NOT get into a slug fest.  Do NOT buy a big heavy assault mech and expect to win with it against high level players.  Get fast things.  Goblin's very cheap, 200 lindens, it'll need weaponry though, comes with none.  If you drop off a ledge with a hover mech like a goblin or thumper and use the jump jet to keep elevation sparingly you can stay in the air indefinitely and move at breakneck speeds.  Dropping off a ledge instead of jumping reduces the height you get from a jump-jet spurt, but increases your max speed, it has to do with SL physics shennanigans, falling things move faster then jumping things, go figure.

Bouncy mechs with built in jump jets can be pretty evasive.  Tap jump when on the ground, let yourself float up and down, take pot shots at the apex of your leap and at the bottom.  Harlequin's amazing at that.

==Above all Practice==

Perks help, skill helps better.  Practice at manuevering shooting accurately and keeping out of the line of fire.  You'll go far if you work out those basics.  I routinely face and defeat things over my level because I just play a better evasion game.

Those bots may not be too sharp, but they are good practice at basic arms accuracy, practice practice practice.