MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries/Campaign Missions

Overview

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries Campaign Missions detail the game's main story, seeing Commander Mason rebuild Nik's Cavaliers to seek revenge against the Black Inferno.

Like Harebrained Schemes' BattleTech game, each step of the Campaign opens up in response the player reaching certain Reputation levels, thus a number of procedural generated Contracts or High Reward Quests must be played to "Improve your Reputation" and unlock the next campaign mission.

Tutorial

Commander Mason takes out a rebuilt CN9-A Centurion BattleMech with his father Nikolai Mason, this training mission is interrupted by an surprise attack by a mysterious mercenary unit demanding information from Nikolai. Refusing to divulge the coordinates they seek, Nikolai orders his son to return to base and flee aboard the unit's Leopard-class DropShip, sacrificing his life to ensure their escape.

As its name implies, the Tutorial is primarily intended to familiarize the player with MW5's controls and how BattleMechs function.

Smash and Grab

  • Reputation Level: 1
  • Tonnage Limit: 30

The battered Cavaliers head to one of De Berry's icy outer worlds to strike a bandit held abandoned power station for supplies to keep afloat while Sebastian Spears of Interstellar Expeditions works on a way out of the system.

Imminent Threat

  • Reputation Level: 1
  • Tonnage Limit: 30
  • Rewards: 50,000 c-bills

Hired on Spear's recommendation by mining interests operating in the De Berry system's outer worlds, Commander Mason must defend the mining company's facilities from pirate attack.

Takedown

  • Reputation Level: 2
  • Tonnage Limit: 50
  • Rewards: 50,000 c-bills

With Black Inferno closing in, the Cavaliers must perform one more contract, launching a risky strike to destroy the pirates' base of operation for good to earn passage out of the system.

Last Man Standing

Obligated to Spears for his assistance, Commander Mason arrives at Brookeland to reinforce the depleted mercenaries defending an Interstellar Expeditions dig site from pirate raiders.

This is the final "tutorial" mission, with player now having access to the Starmap to go where they wish in the Inner Sphere, with the full repair and modification system unlocked. "Last Man Standing" being completed is required to unlock co-op play. At this point the player can rename Cavaliers, for convenience they remain so-named here.

Noble Causes

  • Reputation Level: 5
  • Tonnage Limit: 200
  • Rewards: 178,000 C-bills, 310 Reputation, one SRM-4, one Large Laser.

Seeking to expand their reputation and standing, the Cavaliers are hired by indentured Interstellar Mining Corp employees to hit the Apex Minding Syndicate in its pocketbook, damaging vital facilities to force the iron-fisted company to the negotiating table and more fairly treat its workforce.

Target of Opportunity

  • Reputation Level: 6
  • Tonnage Limit: 200
  • Rewards: 120,100 C-bills, 150 Reputation

Free Worlds League refugees forced from their homes by the Black Inferno fled into Liao space, only to be trapped by a malicious governor blocking their passage back over "ongoing security concerns". Deducing this is a ploy to destabilize the region, the League government hires the Cavaliers to assassinate the local governor on Hisen to teach House Liao a lesson and let the refugees come home.

Collateral Damage

  • Reputation Level: 6
  • Tonnage Limit: 180
  • Rewards: 220,250 C-bills, 200 Reputation

With an incensed House Liao launching raids against Marik border posts in response to the Hisen governor's assassination and the refugees still trapped, the Free Worlds League hires the Cavaliers to destroy a Logistics Center in an Urban Military Complex on Capolla to weaken the CCAF enough to allow their return.

First Strike

Ryana and Spears' investigation into the refugee movements and Black Inferno attacks in search of a pattern appears to have paid off, discovering the Black Inferno have seized control of a fuel refinery on Foot Fall to power their offensive. Hired to defend a civilian settlement nearby, Spears gives the Cavaliers an opportunity and funding to strike the first blow against their hated foe.

Distress Call

  • Reputation Level: 9
  • Difficulty: 60
  • Tonnage Limit: 260
  • Rewards: 440,800 C-bills, 700 Reputation, three Tier 3 Medium Lasers

With Ryana and Spears deducing that the Black Inferno are after LosTech after discovering all the refugees come from locations rumored of being near hidden Star League facilities, the Cavaliers race to defend a Coalition of Farmers site near a suspected SLDF base from a Black Inferno attack.

Lock n Load

Learning more about the man who killed his father, Andreas Kane, Mason eagerly responds to a call for help from another settlement on Cavanaugh seemingly under attack by Black Inferno, unaware their enemy lies in wait.

Black Harvest

Barely surviving the ambush on Cavanaugh, intercepted transmissions reveal the Black Inferno is backed and protected by ComStar and that Kane's homebase is on Xinyang. Seeking to enhance their strength while weakening Inferno's, Spears buys black market intel revealing the location of a key Inferno refit base on Eaton for the Cavaliers to strike.

Extraction

  • Reputation Level: 11
  • Difficulty: 75
  • Tonnage Limit: 340
  • Rewards: 3,202,500 C-Bills, 2000 Reputation, one AC/10, one [[LRM-10], one LRM-15

Having killed Inferno member Zavarov and reclaimed Nikolai Mason's 'Mech, the Cavaliers discover more clues to Mason's father's hidden past in the process. While the heavily encrypted coordinates are being deciphered, Ryana has secured a contract to extract a highly valuable Federated Suns pilot held hostage by pirates on Leganes in the Lyran Commonwealth.

Blood and Treasure

  • Reputation Level: 11
  • Difficulty: 80
  • Tonnage Limit: 360
  • Rewards: 3,501,00 C-Bills, 2500 Reputation, one LB 10-X Autocannon, two Tier 2 Gauss Rilfes, 2 tons of LBX ammo, three tons of Gauss ammo

With the Cavaliers almost strong enough to take down the Black Inferno, Spears proposes as a partnership to take their secret benefactor ComStar down a peg too. To assist in both goals, Spears offers a contract to eliminate mercenary group Death's Legion who've gone rogue and hidden a treasure trove of stolen advanced weaponry on Grumium.

Killing Kane

  • Reputation Level: 12
  • Difficulty: 80
  • Tonnage Limit: 330
  • Rewards: 250,000 C-Bills, 100 Reputation, KGC-0000 King Crab, one AC/20, one Large Laser, one LRM-15-ST+ARTIV, two tons of LRM Artemis ammo.

With assaults 'Mechs, advanced weaponry and Spears' assistance, the Cavaliers are finally ready to put an end to the Black Inferno by killing Andreas Kane and razing their home base on Xinyang to the ground, but ComStar will not take kindly to their interference.

Deliverance

  • Reputation Level: 12
  • Difficulty: 80
  • Tonnage Limit: 360
  • Rewards: 3,752,500 C-Bills, 2500 reputation, one AC/10, one AC/20, one AC/2

While Black Inferno's reign of terror has been ended, Kenzo Yamata, Kane's ROM handler was able to escape. He left enough information behind to determine that ComStar has been using a Star League Defense Force map found on Xinyang to recover Star League caches, and that ComStar's interest in Nikolai's coordinates was to fill gaps in that map. Cracking the encryption on the coordinates is proving harder than expected, with Ryana signing a contract with the ISF to break a siege on Sulafat to ensure the unit has funds to continue its mission while they wait.

Lifeline

  • Reputation Level: 12
  • Difficulty: 85
  • Tonnage Limit: 380
  • Rewards: 4,160,500 C-Bills, 3250 Reputation

A shipping company serving as the only source of supplies to outlying Combine worlds is being run out of business by incessant raider attacks, raiders who are secretly backed by ComStar to force the inhabitants to leave to allow their LosTech excavation efforts to go unnoticed. Spears needs the Cavaliers to protect the company's main supply depot on Kandis to prevent the company from folding.

Coordinated Effort

  • Reputation Level: 13
  • Difficulty: 90
  • Tonnage Limit: 375
  • Rewards: 750,000 C-Bills, 10106 reputation, two ER Large Lasers, three SRM-6 with Artemis IVA, three tons of SRM Artemis ammo

Breaking the encryption on the first set of coordinates, Ryana discovers that they point to HD-276914, a reportedly uncolonized world outside Kurita Space. The fact Nikolai was willing to die to protect its location implies that something exceedingly valuable must be there, with the Cavaliers discovering ComStar is already one step ahead of them and prepared to do anything to cover their tracks.

Blackout

  • Reputation Level: 13
  • Difficulty: 90
  • Tonnage Limit: 400
  • Rewards: 4,545,00 C-Bills, 3250 Reputation, one Tier 5 AC/20, one Tier 1 LRM-5 with Artemis IV, one Tier 4 Medium Pulse Laser

Preserving the ComStar Stellar Research Facility on HD-276914 from destruction has revealed that ComStar's Explorer Corps is searching this uncharted region system by system to try and find more clues to the systems of the last two coordinates the hard way. To buy time for Ryana and Spears to crack the encryption on the coordinates, the Cavaliers must strike a ComStar communications hub on HD-417328 to slow down their efforts.

Reckoning

  • Reputation Level: 14
  • Difficulty: 95
  • Tonnage Limit: 390
  • Rewards: 1,500,000 C-Bills, 10,106 Reputation, NSR-9J Nightstar

The second set of coordinates have been unlocked thanks to IE resources, pointing to HD-389202, another supposedly uncharted system that is found to be the site of a massive and long abandoned Star League spaceport, with ComStar and Yamata again one step ahead of the Cavaliers.

Turn and Burn

  • Reputation Level: 13
  • Difficulty: 95
  • Tonnage Limit: 400
  • Rewards: 4,750,00 C-Bills, 3500 Reputation, one ER Large Laser, two Medium Pulse Lasers

Commander Mason's final defeat of Yamata is overshadowed by the discovery of a pristine Nightstar, a 'Mech extinct for two centuries, and the revelation that it belonged to Nikolai. Still unable to determine just where Nikolai really came from as much as they are unable to yet crack the encryption of the final set of coordinates, Spears enlists the Cavaliers to eliminate a ROM forward operating base used to assist the Explorer Corps investigation of the region to again delay ComStar's efforts.

Crucible

  • Reputation Level: 15
  • Difficulty: 100
  • Tonnage Limit: 400
  • Rewards: 750,00 C-Bills, two Ultra AC/5s, two PPCs, two LRM-20s, seven Double Heat Sinks

With the last set of coordinates finally unlocked the Cavaliers head to HD-438297, well beyond the Inner Sphere boundary in the Periphery. Confronted by a unknown derelict SLDF JumpShip upon arrival, the Cavaliers and Spears prepare to land to investigate a massive SLDF base on the surface seemingly untouched for centuries. As Ryana works her way inside in search of answers about his father, Mason must defend against the arrival of a sizable ComStar military force to allow Ryana to download and delete a Star League memory core to deny it from the Blessed Order.

The Mercenary Life

  • Reputation Level: 13

A post-Campaign "mission" which is merely an acknowledgement of the end of the game's story and that the player can continue to engage in mercenary contracts across the Inner Sphere.

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