Wars in the Inner Sphere:

MechWarrior 1 Walkthrough

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Copy Protection Codes - Cheats - Docs (keyboard controls only)

Source: "Byter". Modifcations and corrections by Rocqueforte O'Leary and Matt McLaine.

The basic premise behind Mechwarrior is that you're the only surviving son of the leader of the planet Ander's Moon. A group of Mechs known as the Dark Wing attacked the planet, killed your family, and installed a new government on the planet. They also stole a valuable chalice whose possession entitles the owner to rule Ander's Moon. Your job is to track down the killers, find the chalice, and restore your family to power on Ander's Moon.

When you start out, you will usually be on one of the Davion planets, but might start out on a Kurita planet. Travel immediately to the Kurita planet of Land's End.

When you get to Land's End, enter the bar and order a drink. The barkeep will tell you to come back later. Go to the mech complex and sell your Jenner, as you won't need it for a while, and can make a nice profit here. Besides, it will be a lot more expensive to haul it along with you where you're going.

Go back to the bar. The ruffian you meet there will tell you "Grig can be found on...". Make a note of the planet he gives you and go there. I have seen New Samarkand, Tabayama, and Delacruz often. It will always be a Kurita world.

When you get there, you will meet Grig. Accept his mission to deliver a packet to his agent on Dustball, and go there. Dustball is a Steiner world.

When you get to Dustball, there will be a little scuffle. You can either FIGHT then RUN, or RUN then RUN. Just make sure that you RUN the second time. After that, go to the bar and order a drink. The barkeeper will tell you to return later, but you can just order another drink and he'll give you some information and the name of a Marik planet, such as Gibson, Mosiro, or Sadurni. Travel there.

When you arrive on the Marik planet, go to the Mech complex. The man there will tell you that you might find Kangaroo Jack on Tancredi IV or Okefenokee (Davion planets). When you leave, you will be shot at by a sniper. RUN.

When you get to the Davion planet, go to the bar. Order a drink, and you'll be introduced to a guy named Kearny. He'll give you some information, and a scrap of paper with an address on it, telling you to meet him there. When you leave the bar, go ahead and follow the address. Then HIDE and FIGHT.

When you finish that, read the news net. You'll note a few news items in which you were involved. You'll also get a message from Jordan Rowe, telling you where the Black Widows currently are. That's your next destination. It will be a Kurita world like Thestria or Proserpina.

When you get there, go into the bar. You'll see some of the Black Widows, and get a story. CHALLENGE it.

You'll get in a fight, and some woman named Tasha will save you. She'll tell you that Matabushi is your enemy, not the Black Widows, and that Kearny was just trying to get you killed. Go ahead and leave the bar.

If you read the news net, you'll see that Tasha gave you some files supposedly from Matabushi telling about your family's execution. Read on, and you'll find something about Matabushi announcing a new commercial strategy. Another news item from Jordan Rowe will tell you to meet up with Kearney on Albiero. Go there.

When you get there, you'll land in the middle of a battle, and see Tasha. Follow her. You will see Tasha and Kearny confronting each other, and have to decide whom to trust. I would suggest you trust Tasha.

When the smoke clears, Tasha will give you a data disk explaining the action which killed your family, and who was behind it. She'll also give you five million bucks, which isn't too bad. She'll tell you that the chalice you're after is on a Kurita planet called Kirchbach or Albiero guarded by four Battlemasters and one Warhammer.

Another loose end to tie up is Grig. Head to the planet where you first found him (New Samarkind, Delacruz, or Tabayama) and you'll meet a vagrant. Ask him to GO ON with his story. Make a DEAL with him.

When you see Grig, WAIT for the situation to improve. You'll get a chance when there are only two guards with him, STRIKE now. He'll try to make a deal with you. Don't go for it, and PULL THE TRIGGER. You'll pocket some easy cash.

You've now done everything you need to do except get the chalice back. The above actions should have taken about a year of game time, meaning you've got about four more years to go. Save the game now, and also try to save the game after every 2 or three missions since it is easy to forget that you only have five years from the start of the game to reclaim the chalice. Remember that travelling to and from missions takes time, as does travelling to the planet where the Dark Wing is hiding.

You should have about 10.5 million C-bills, so go ahead and invest in some mechs and crew. SAVE THE GAME before you try to hire any crewmembers, because the game will sometimes crash when you do. You'll want to end up with a good crew and some good mechs, I would suggest you get four Battlemasters. You'll need money for this, and there are two legit ways you can get it:

1. Go around buying Mechs at industrial planets and Mech-manufacturing planets such as Alshain (Kurita), Herperus II (Steiner), Calloway VI (Marik), Ares (Liao), and Marduk (Davion). Other good planets include Amity, Aldebaran, and Galax. Buy mechs at these planets, and travel to various backwater and out of the way places like Land's End and Baxley. There are a huge number of these planets. You can sell Mechs at these places for a nice profit.
2. Take combat missions for House Davion and quickly build up your experience and lance status. NOTE: missions labeled as "garrison" or "general security" pay almost nothing, but there's a good chance that there won't be a fight at all; you'll get the up-front and mission pay (and zero for salvage), but with no repair cost. With that in mind, weigh your mission type choices carefully. Once you have a lance of 4 heavy 'mechs, you should start being offered extended contracts (usually to fight 12 enemy mechs of varying weights). You should be able to negotiate a deal that'll give you 9990-K C-bills, 27-30% salvage and around 30% upfront. Before you take launch on an extended contract, buy enough ammo to fully reload your 'Mechs twice. A few extended contracts should soon see you with enough money to afford BattleMasters for your entire crew.

If you only traded 'Mechs to build up you cash , you'll probably have to train up your crew to have a chance of beating the Dark Wing. I recommend fighting for House Davion as they tend to pay the most not only in direct payments but in salvage (once you and your crew start getting experienced, you should be able to demand 27-40% salvage rights and around 30% of the contract upfront. The actual contract amount varies depending on the number of enemy 'mechs expected and their weight).

When your crew gets good enough, go to Kirchbach (or wherever the Dark Wing is located) and reclaim your chalice.

COMBAT
The same techniques for MechWarrior 2 fighting apply here: circle you enemies with your torso twisted, vary your speed and direction, and concentrate your fire. Note that missiles and autocannons have a longer range than the target-box indicates, so you can lob LRM5s or AC5s at far-off enemies to distract them from whatever you're guarding. Don't bother shooting jump-jetting mechs, just wait for them to land. Note that it's MUCH easier to get head shots in MW1 than in MW2, so that's a key to lots of easy salvage. Legs are also a large, deadly target. Note also that this is a trick that can beat the Dark Wing consistently. If you attempt to fight these 4 BattleMasters and 1 Warhammer (usually 3 or 4BMs, followed by the 'Hammer and maybe 1 more BM) in close, you're doomed. I took 3 BMasters and 1 Warhammer (for me) for the final fight, simply because the 'Hammer has the twin PPCs and 18 heat sinks vs. the Marauder's 2 PPC / 16 HS combo. Send your BMasters to fight the Dark Wing and go in just behind them, but keep a clear shot. When you have range on an enemy, stop moving and target both PPCs for its head. 2-4 shots later, it'll go down, decapitated; repeat this, having the others gang up on the Wing members that you're not targeting. Practice on saved games before you try this, but with skill, it's a sure thing.

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CHEATS

There are only two useful cheats available, both for cash:

1. Norton Utilities. Save the game, NU it, and give yourself some cash. Money is offset 73 (49h). Fill the three bytes with $FF, and you'll get about 16.7 Million. Or if you're REALLY greedy, go to byte 76 (4Ch), and change that one to 01h to 0Fh (0Fh will give you about 250,000,000).
2. On the copy protection screen, append PFJS (no spaces) to the protection code to get 500 million C-Bills. For example: The mech is a Jenner, and the code is "Sierra Echo Xray". The proper code to enter would be "Dragon Tail", so you type in "Dragon TailPFJS". Note that some "abandonware" versions of the game come pre-cracked, skipping the signon screen, making this cheat useless. Cheat from Nic Jansma.

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Keyboard Controls

ENTER - select target in crosshairs
ESCAPE - eject / retreat
SPACE - fire selected weapon
TAB - fire all weapons
Number Keys 1-9, 0 - select weapon
Left/Right Arrow Keys - turn mech left / right
Up/Down Arrow Keys - increase / decrease speed
< - twist torso left
> - twist torso right
A - align torso with feet
C - command screen
D - view your mech's damage
E - view target's damage
H - change HUD color
J - activate jump jets
M - crosshairs up
N - crosshairs down
O - activate automatic weapon selection
P - pause
Q - quit to cockpit (from map)
R - alter Radar range
S - sound on/off
T - view topographic map
U - get up after falling
W - toggle automatic weapon selection on/off
Z - select zoom level

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MechWarrior 1 Copy Protection Codes

For those of you who don't know what a Warhammer or Marauder looks like, click HERE for a .GIF file (15k) showing all the protection codes with pictures of the mechs they apply to.
Codes courtesy of Matt McLaine, Table structure by Nic Jansma, GIF by Anonymous.

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