Beginners Guide: Economy

Economy
Like pretty much everywhere else, the saying: "If you don’t cough up some dough, there's nothing to be bought!" applies in MechWarrior Online as well.

To date there are two currencies implemented within the game.

ComStar Bills
The common “Cbill” is the acknowledged currency in the Battletech Universe, therefore your friendly local vendor in MW:O will gratefully accept it too. Cbills can be earned by simply playing the game. They are awarded for wins, losses, ties and mainly for destroying enemy Mechs.

It does not make much difference if you either win or lose the game; the base amount of Cbills you earn will be the same. You can increase your income drastically by playing an active role during the combat, which roughly translates into damaging and destroying as many enemy Mechs as possible.

Cbills are used to buy new Mechs and to configure them with weapons, equipment and ammunition.

Trial Mechs
Trial Mechs are the exception to the “buy and build” mechanic. They are four Mechs of different chassis that are rotated by the developers every two weeks.

These are useful if you want to test a new chassis before you commit to spending Cbills on it, but are primarily used by new players to accumulate money for their own Mech; use of a Trial Mech is free. The drawback to using a Trial Mech is that you cannot customize them.

Otherwise, Trial Mechs operate exactly the same as purchased Mechs and will earn both Cbills and experience points (check Chapter 6) Experience Points ).

 Protip: Purchased and customized Mechs are ALWAYS superior to Trial Mechs! Apart from that I’d like to mention, that your earnings at the end of a game are determined by your actions during. An easy method for gaining Cbills fast is to achieve as many “kill assists” as possible. For each kill assist you’ll get credited 7.500 Cbills. Kill assists are awarded if you manage to hit an enemy Mech prior to a team mate destroying it. This means, for example, if you were to achieve five kill assists you would accumulate 37.500 Cbills. Whilst this doesn't sound like much at first, it will add up over the course of a few games and it is relatively easy to make sure that you hit as many different enemy Mechs as possible. The basic amount for completing a game is 25.000 Cbills regardless of the outcome. If you want to maximise your earnings, it is important that you do not attempt to win by capturing the enemy base. This is especially true if your team has the lead on kills - you have a good chance to easily pick off the remaining Mechs and collect extra Cbills in the process. In this situation, enemy Mechs are essentially free money and experience points on legs, so collect ‘em all!

Cadet Bonus
During December 2012, the Developers introduced the “Cadet Bonus” system. This was done to ease new players into the game and reduce their time spent piloting inferior Trial Mechs.

New players will benefit from a Cbill boost during their first 25 games, regardless of the outcome. The amount is 424,492 Cbills for the initial game, but will reduce with each subsequent match. This will grant new players an additional 7,981,686 Cbills in total by the time they have completed their 25th game, plus their normal game earnings.

The Cadet Bonus ends after the 25th game, after then earnings are based on performance on the field.

This makes the path to owning your very first Mech quite short.

Mech Credits
“MCs” are bought with real life currency.

This can be done directly via the MW:O homepage or from within the client via the “ADD MC” button.

You can use them to buy Mechs and other vanity items, but not to purchase weapons or equipment.

As a workaround, it is possible to buy a Mech with MCs and then immediately sell it and all of its components in return for Cbills. This is quite inefficient however, since you only get partial value in return for the sold Mech.

Alternatively, you can purchase a Hero Mech. These 'Mechs are unique models of that have their own layout, unique skin, and earn an extra 30% bonus for games that they are used in.

Apart from that MCs can be used to buy additional Mechbays or to buy or top up a premium account. With a premium account you will receive 50 % extra Cbills and experience points (XP) at the conclusion of each match. It is also possible to convert any accumulated XP into General Experience Points (GXP) by using MCs. You can learn more about the use of GXP in Chapter 6) Experience Points ).

Premium time can be exchanged for MCs from within the game client. Obviously, you will have to buy some MCs first and then click the “ADD TIME” button.

 Protip: It is wise to invest MCs into new Mechbays or premium accounts only! For 2500 MCs you will not be able to directly purchase a decent Mech and its necessary components to successfully customize it, but you WILL get a 30 days lasting 50 % Cbill and XP-boost. The Cbill-boost will generate an average of an additional 60.000 Cbills per match, meaning after 100 games you have accumulated 6.000.000 Cbills in addition to your regular earnings. 100 games sounds like a lot, but they go past very quickly. ;) The XP-boost will grant you about 200 - 400 more XP each match and is especially handy when you’re about to level up your different Mech chassis (check Chapter 6) Experience Points).