Skills

Skills define the abilities of your pilots and their performance on the battlefield. Of note is the fact that the game forces you to specialize: A pilot can only have two primary skills (granted at level 5) and one specialized skill (level 8).

Skills

Each skill has its own area of focus:

• Gunnery is universally useful for any mech that uses ranged weapons, but wasted on melee builds. Dump builds in like there's no tomorrow.
• Piloting is mostly about punching enemy mechs - it does not affect the mech's speed or turning rate. However, the sprinting bonuses, increased evasion, and stability make it a worthwhile investment at least to the unsteady threshold. Light mechs rely on movement, so they should get at least the sprint distance bonus.
• Guts determine your pilot's survival chance and the added abilities greatly increase your ability to survive on the battlefield. Recommended investment for any pilot assigned to heavy and assault mechs (or any other that's expected to take a beating).
• Tactics is a varied skill that gives a variety of bonuses, primarily aimed at improving indirect fire accuracy (for artillery mechs), reducing the minimum range penalty (increasing mech flexibility), and most importantly, called shots mastery, which make precision strikes that much more useful.

Level	XP from previous	Total XP	Gunnery	Piloting	Guts	Tactics
1	-	-	+2.5% ranged hit chance	+2.5% melee hit chance	-5.0% chance to die when incapacitated 3 maximum injuries
2	100	100	+5.0% ranged hit chance	+5.0% melee hit chance	-10.0% chance to die when incapacitated
3	400	500	+7.5% ranged hit chance	+7.5% melee hit chance	-15.0% chance to die when incapacitated
4	900	1 400	+10.0% ranged hit chance	+10.0% melee hit chance +1 unsteady threshold	-20.0% chance to die when incapacitated 4 maximum injuries	-1 indirect fire penalty
5	1 600	3 000	+12.5% ranged hit chance Ability: Multi-Target	+12.5% melee hit chance Ability: Evasive Movement	-25.0% chance to die when incapacitated -1 recoil Ability: Bulwark	-45 m minimum range Ability: Sensor Lock
6	2 500	5 500	+15.0% ranged hit chance	+15.0% melee hit chance +1 maximum evasion	-30.0% chance to die when incapacitated +15 overheat threshold	Called shot bonus
7	3 600	9 100	+17.5% ranged hit chance	+17.5% melee hit chance +20% sprint distance	-35.0% chance to die when incapacitated 5 maximum injuries	-2 indirect fire penalty
8	4 900	14 000	+20.0% ranged hit chance Ability: Breaching Shot	+20.0% melee hit chance Ability: Ace Pilot	-40.0% chance to die when incapacitated -2 recoil Ability: Juggernaut	-90 m minimum range Ability: Master Tactician
9	6 400	20 400	+22.5% ranged hit chance	+22.5% melee hit chance +2 unsteady threshold	-45.0% chance to die when incapacitated +30 overheat threshold	Called Shot mastery
10	8 100	28 500	+25.0% ranged hit chance	+25.0% melee hit chance +2 maximum evasion -25% DFA damage	-50.0% chance to die when incapacitated 6 maximum injuries	No indirect fire penalty

Abilities

Skill-based abilities

The following abilities are derived from skills and unlocked at level five and eight respectively. A pilot can only have two primary skills (level 5) and one master skill.

Name	Effect	Requirements
		Skill	Level
Multi-Target	ACTION: Fire weapons at up to three separate targets within this 'Mech's current firing arc.	Gunnery	5
Breaching Shot	PASSIVE: Attacks with a single weapon ignore COVER and GUARDED on the target.		8
Bulwark	PASSIVE: Gain GUARDED (50% damage reduction against ranged attacks to the front and side) when remaining stationary.	Guts	5
Juggernaut	PASSIVE: Successful Melee attacks knock your target back one Initiative Phase.		8
Evasive Movement	PASSIVE: This unit generates an extra EVASIVE charge from movement actions (up to its maximum).	Piloting	5
Ace Pilot	PASSIVE: This unit can move after shooting if it has not moved yet.		8
Sensor Lock	ACTION: Select a target within sensor range to reveal it until the end of the current round and remove two of its EVASIVE charges.	Tactics	5
Master Tactician	PASSIVE: 'Mechs piloted by this MechWarrior gain +1 Initiative, and remove one bar of stability damage when Reserving.		8

Each skill has an application in the world of Battletech:

• Multi-Target is excellent for reducing evasion on multiple targets, finishing enemies off, or engaging multiple targets at various weapon ranges. It maximizes the combat efficiency of mechs with multiple weapons, especially if they have multiple ranges. However, mechs with short-range weapons or just one with an extended range won't benefit from it - unless by some miracle, the AI decides to crowd in at close ranges within the firing arc.
• Breaching Shot is the sniper skill. For obvious reasons, it works best with hard-hitting single weapons (think PPC, AC/20, LRM20 etc.). It also synergizes with multi-target if you fire single weapons at individual targets.
• Evasive Movement is excellent, especially for light mechs and others that are expected to cross the battlefield and get shot at. However, artillery mechs and those focusing on tanking damage benefit more from Bulwark (Guts) may not want to take it.
• Ace Pilot is always useful, particularly on light mechs Shoot, then move? The enemy will hate you.
• Bulwark is the heavy and assault mech skill, allowing them to easily absorb incoming damage and effectively defend. Not recommended for light mechs and other designs who rely on not getting hit in the first place.
• Juggernaut is for the melee specialists. Punching the enemy so hard they act later is useful if you can hit them. However, it works poorly with its prerequisite, bulwark and is useless against assault mechs.
• Sensor Lock is a recon skill for spotter mechs; reduces evasion points, exposes the target, and gives a target to LRM platforms. However, you can't sensor lock and shoot in the same turn, and sensor range is limited. For these reasons, it is a poor addition to fire support 'mechs.
• Master Tactician is at least somewhat useful for most all mechs, but other options may be more useful depending on a pilot's role.

Traits

Traits are additional passive perks received while upgrading your skill line. Of all the bonuses, Called Shots are the most useful for any pilot, greatly increasing your ability to hit enemy parts (especially when used with Precision Strike).

Name	Effect	Requirements
		Skill	Level
Increased Evasion Cap	PASSIVE: 'Mechs piloted by this MechWarrior have their EVASIVE charge cap increased by 1.	Piloting	4
Increased Evasion Cap	PASSIVE: 'Mechs piloted by this MechWarrior have their EVASIVE charge cap increased by 2.		7
Safer DFA	PASSIVE: When performing a 'Death from Above,' this unit takes 25% less damage to its legs.		10
Increased Health	PASSIVE: This MechWarrior gains an extra point of Health.	Guts	4
Increased Health	PASSIVE: This MechWarrior gains an extra 2 points of Health.		7
Increased Health	PASSIVE: This MechWarrior gains an extra 3 points of Health.		10
Improved Indirect Fire	PASSIVE: 'Mechs piloted by this MechWarrior have their indirect fire penalties reduced by 1.	Tactics	4
Improved Indirect Fire	PASSIVE: 'Mechs piloted by this MechWarrior have their indirect fire penalties reduced by 2.		7
Improved Indirect Fire	PASSIVE: 'Mechs piloted by this MechWarrior have their indirect fire penalties reduced by 3.		10
Improved Called Shot	PASSIVE: Called Shots taken by this MechWarrior are twice as likely to hit the targeted location.		6
Called Shot Mastery	PASSIVE: Called Shots taken by this MechWarrior are almost guaranteed to hit their location (max of 35% chance for head shots).		9

Strategy

You are forced to specialise as you can only have 2 first-level and one second-level abilities. However, you still gain bonuses and traits by increasing the other skills to 5 or more, even if you do not gain the ability.

The various combinations of skills have various strengths:

Gunnery + Piloting is a flexible option for fast mechs. You get bonuses to both ranged and melee damage, along with evasion. Prioritising Piloting is probably better as you get the benefit of Ace Pilot making you very irritating in a relatively lighter mech, firing then retreating into cover.

Gunnery + Guts is a powerful option for Mechs that are planning to stand still and fire, like heavier medium-range mechs. Prioritising Gunnery is probably stronger to get Breaching Shot, as Juggernaut is less use if you took Gunnery over Piloting.

Gunnery + Tactics is perfect for long-range fire, as the indirect fire, minimum range and called shots bonuses synergise well with accurate LRMs, PPCs and so on. Equally, it does nothing for your defences, so staying at range is wise. You probably want to emphasise Gunnery to get Breaching Shot, though could also use Master Tactician to make sure your heavy weapons get in early each round.

Piloting + Guts is good for brawler-type mechs who are mainly melee focused, as Juggernaut works very well with the melee bonuses from Piloting.

Piloting + Tactics and Guts + Tactics do not really synergise much at all so are not recommended.