Receiving Damage

Every weapon hit on a 'Mech does damage. Damage is first applied to the armor of the location hit, then internal structure. Every time a location's internal structure is damaged there is a chance for critical hits. Once the internal structure of a location is reduced to zero, that location is destroyed. Every damaging hit follows the below process:

1. Armor is reduced until zero, with remaining damage applied to internal structure. Torso armor has different front and rear values.

2. Internal structure is reduced until zero, then the location is destroyed. While the torso has different front and rear armor values, there are only single values for the internal structure of each torso. All components within a destroyed location are lost. Any further damage to that location transfers inwards, but the destroyed location absorbs 60% of the damage.

• Damage to a destroyed leg or arm transfers to the front side torso

• Damage to a destroyed side torso transfers to the front center torso

3. Every hit that damages internal structure has a chance to do critical damage ("crits"), causing bonus structure damage and damage to components. See Critical Hits for more information.

4. If there is ammunition within a location when the location is destroyed, there is the same chance for it to explode as if each ammunition bin was directly destroyed by critical damage. Gauss rifles also have a chance to explode when destroyed. See Armor/Structure for more information. |}

How to Destroy a 'Mech

There are two ways to destroy a BattleMech: Destroy both legs or destroy the engine.

Legs

To destroy both legs you must remove the armor and internal structure from both legs. After destruction additional leg damage does not transfer from one leg to the other leg; additional leg damage transfers to the front side torso.

Engine

To destroy a 'Mech engine at least three slots must be lost. Removing the center torso destroys all engines since they occupy five slots in the center torso. IS XL engines occupy three slots in each side torso, so they are destroyed with the loss of a single side torso. IS light fusion engines and Clan XL engines both occupy two side torso slots, so they are destroyed with the loss of both side torsos.

New Player Guide, Part Three: Playing MWO