MechWarrior Online

MechWarrior Online

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Heavier Guns: A Quick Glimpse at Free Tonnage (Clan Mechs) - MWO
By GarbageCollector
A brief comparison of how much tonnage you actually have to work with for a given mech, after applying maximum armor and considering its unremovable equipment.
   
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Introduction
Sometimes, you need something fast and quick to outmaneuver the enemy. Sometimes you need something tanky to sponge up that damage without going down. Other times you just need to load up as many of the biggest guns you can find to shred metal. This guide is a cursory, but hopefully still helpful, look at how each of the different clan mechs currently available in the game meet this last goal.

There are a great deal of considerations when choosing a new mech, but the particular question of "How much weight will I actually be able to use for my desired purposes?" tends to come up most frequently. Luckily on the clan side, this analysis is actually fairly simple, as the existence or absence of fixed equipment on many of their mechs simplifies the issue. Whereas Inner Sphere mechs with their switchable engines, variable upgrades, and wide array of other customizable things tend to allow more role versatility for a given chassis, most of the time a given clan mech does what you've come to expect it to. Additionally because of this typecasting, the question of tonnage available for weaponry is often even more important.

Generally speaking, the heavier a mech is, the more weaponry it carries. This isn't always true however, and a lot of times mitigating the various downsides that come with moving up in weight (if that's what you or the manufacturer have decided to do) actually becomes more costly.

I have included Origins IIC mechs in this table, by request. The numbers given assume Endo Steel upgrades, the maximum Clan XL engine, and like all the others maximum armor.
Free Tonnage
After I apply maximum armor, approximately how many tons do I have left over to work with?

Chassis
Total Tonnage
Free Tonnage
Mist Lynx - MLX
25
6.5
Arctic Cheetah - ACH
30
8
Kit Fox - KFX
30
14.5
Adder - ADR
35
16.5
Jenner IIC - JR7 IIC
35
7.5
Ice Ferret - IFR
45
9
Shadow Cat - SHC
45
16
Hunchback IIC - HBK IIC
50
23
Nova - NVA
50
15.5
Stormcrow - SCR
55
23
Mad Dog - MDD
60
26
Hellbringer - HBR
65
23
Ebon Jaguar - EBJ
65
28.5
Summoner - SMN
70
21
Orion IIC - ON1 IIC
75
33
Timber Wolf - TBR
75
27.5
Gargoyle - GAR
80
20
Warhawk - WHK
85
32
Highlander IIC - HGN IIC
90
49
Executioner - EXE
95
25
Dire Wolf - DWF
100
50.5
Kodiak - KDK
100
42.5
Further Thoughts
Remember this is just one rough statistic to consider when choosing a mech. Things like hardpoints, hardpoint locations, jump jet capacity, speed, maneuverability, heat management, and quirks can all be very important as well. Additionally, sometimes what you would have almost certainly used free tonnage on is already accounted for as fixed equipment (such as the 4 heat sinks in the Nova's side torsos) and skews the validity of the above numbers slightly. Nevertheless, I have found this information to be a good starting point, and hope you find it useful as well.





25 Comments
=JPS=Veloci-Raptor 17 Mar @ 3:16pm 
Is this cross section of mechs chosen based on having the best hit boxes?
cat stang 5 May, 2024 @ 7:07am 
hnngnhhh ighlander
Enty 25 Apr, 2022 @ 6:33pm 
you can add to the further thoughts that in some cases you can strip all armour off of an arm (or both arms) if you aren't using them
Fibonacci123 15 Apr, 2022 @ 11:57pm 
seems fine, table looks good
Fibonacci123 15 Apr, 2022 @ 11:56pm 
yeah np. i mean i already have most of my builds polished.
GarbageCollector  [author] 14 Apr, 2022 @ 10:38pm 
I think I fixed the formatting issue. Just a word of caution though, this info is probably 3 years or more out of date. Not planning to update it since I haven't played the game since then.
Fibonacci123 14 Apr, 2022 @ 8:46pm 
there's a weird formatting issue or something and it isn't loading the last column of the table
Demon Horde 28 Oct, 2021 @ 9:21pm 
@Gusater

well if pgi had stuck to cannon (or closer) then the Dire wolf would be so much more powerful than any thing fielded by the IS (that is until the weapon additions) , but constant nerfing of the clans has made their hit box draw backs over exagerated. that coupled with the massive buffs to IS armor makes the clan mechs in MWO feel massively inferior to IS mechs ( when it should be the other way around) but well PGI were to incompetant to set up clans in groups of 3 while IS was groups of 4 , like cannon has them (ie 9 clan mechs versus 12 IS mechs) .
Discount-Mike 13 Nov, 2019 @ 6:25pm 
the clans would call you freebirth scum
Nate Racing 8 Jun, 2017 @ 4:54pm 
For your list:

- A S S A U L T -

The Marauder IIC - MAD IIC, 85 tons total w/ 38.5 tons of free tonnage left for weapons. (Stock Engine, FF, and ES)

The Supernova - SNV, 90 tons total w/ 50.5 tons of free tonnage left for weapons. (Stock Engine, FF, and ES)

- H E A V Y -

The Linebacker - LBK, 65 tons total w/ 16.5 tons of free tonnage left for weapons. (Stocke Engine, FF, and ES)

The Night Gyr - NTG , 75 tons total w/ 37.5 tons of free tonnage left for weapons. (Stock Engine, FF, and ES)

- M E D I U M -

The Viper - VPR , 40 tons total w/ 8.5 tons of free tonnage left for weapons. (Stock Engine, FF, and ES)

The Huntsman - HMN , 50 tons total w/ 23.5 tons of free tonnage left for weapons. (Stock Engine, FF, and ES)

*No New Light Mechs*

These are all from new releases and patches and more are still coming out.