MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries/Salvage

An important part of Mercenaries is the addition of a salvage system, where the remains of enemy mechs can be recovered by the victors. This serves as both a secondary form of income and also the only way to acquire Clan mechs.

Scripted vs. dynamic salvage
Salvage in the original MS-DOS versions of Mercenaries "is predetermined by the Designer ... then the computer randomly determines what you get depending on the terms in the contract. What you kill ... has no effect on salvage." This means that in an unpatched game the only advantage to taking out enemy mechs is to gain the 50,000 C-Bill bounty bonus for their destruction, if the contract even offers one.

With the 1.1 patch and all later Windows versions (including Battlepack and Titanium) the salvage system is dynamic, meaning what you salvage is directly drawn from what you destroy.

Killing for salvage
The main reason for felling an enemy mech is not to claim the cash bounty but to get a chance at recovering its chassis, which, when repaired, gives you another mech at a fraction of the price the mech factory would sell it for. The primary barrier to recovering a chassis is the mission's salvage rights. On missions with "poor" rights you will often get no salvage at all, whereas on missions with "good" and "excellent" rights you stand a good chance of recovering some chassis. The less damage the mech takes before being disabled the better. Generally, the torso being undamaged increases the chances of it being recoverable. The best method is to destroy the cockpit, thus killing the pilot without damaging the mech much.

Machine guns, Autcannons, Flamers, and PPCs are all very effective at killing the pilot, sometimes at the cost of other parts of the mech. You can also use missiles; SRM2s and the like will deal less damage than SRM10s and other high-damage missiles, which means there is a greater chance. While lasers are very accurate at shooting only the cockpit, it is believed that they actually decrease the chance of salvage (whether by design or by mistake).

As a general rule of thumb, if you see the defeated mech explode with parts flying everywhere you won't be able to salvage it. If its remains are still standing, and isn't subsequently destroyed during the rest of the mission, there is a good chance you will get it.

Debriefing
Depending on your salvage rights (stated when you read the contract summary) you will usually get some share of the salvage. Contracts with salvage rights defined as "poor" will often end with no salvage. If salvage is available there will be a big Salvage button at the bottom of the aftermath screen (just beside the Next mission/Starport button). The salvage interface is the same as the Customization and Repair & Reload screens.

Recovering chassis
If you are lucky, some mech names will appear in yellow text on the drop-down list. This means there will be a "recover chassis" button at the bottom of the screen. Always choose it if it is available, as a chassis is far more valuable than the parts you can strip from it. Not only that, once you get to the repair & reload screen you can patch it up and then either use it in combat or else sell when you return to the starport. If you don't want to use a mech straight away don't bother repairing it until you return to the starport. Try to always fully repair a mech before you sell it because the increase to its resale value far outweighs the repair costs.

Salvaging parts
If the "recover chassis" button is not available you can still harvest individual components. Click on each part of the mech's body (parts the same color as the background are completely destroyed) and double click on parts listed to add them to your inventory. Some parts will be damaged (indicated by red text ) and must be repaired by an arms merchant back at the starport before they will be usable. They still have value, however, so take them with you if you have the room.

Once you have stripped a mech, use the drop-down menu beside its name to choose another mech to salvage parts from. Always check for the existence of the "recover chassis" button, as usually only a couple of the salvaged mechs can be fully recovered.

Discarding parts
If you run out of room in your dropship you can choose to discard parts in order to make room for more valuable ones. Discards are listed as a "discards" entry in the mech name drop-down menu. The discards pile is always empty by default, so don't bother checking it if you didn't put parts there yourself. As with fallen enemies, discarded chassis appear in yellow text on the drop-down list.

Completing salvage
Once you are satisfied with your salvage, click Exit and confirm you are content. Once you have done this the Salvage button will vanish from the aftermath screen, so be sure you have all the salvage you want first.