MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries

Developers
	Piranha Games
Publishers
	Piranha Games
2021-2022	Sold Out
2022-2024	Fireshine Games
Engines
	Unreal Engine 4
Release dates
Windows	December 10, 2019
Reception
Metacritic	73
OpenCritic	73
IGDB	73
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC, Expansion pack, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Vehicle combat
Vehicles	Robot
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	MechWarrior

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is a singleplayer first-person vehicle combat game featuring robots or 'mechs', and is the first 'mainline' singleplayer game in the MechWarrior series since MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries was released in 2002.

The game was initially announced on December 3, 2016 and was set to be released in 2018. In 2018, the scheduled launch was delayed until 2019, and was made available to pre-order for a planned Steam release on September 10, 2019. On July 25, 2019, Piranha Games announced that the game would release "exclusively" on the Epic Games Store and pre-order players could apply for a refund. Pre-order players also received access to a closed beta, which became available on November 26, 2019.

The game was released on Epic Games Store on December 10, 2019. The game was later released on the Microsoft Store on May 7, 2020, and unlike the Epic Games Store version, did not support mods.

Modding is supported with an official Mod Editor tool, which requires a valid game purchase on the Epic Games Store. Mods can be hosted and downloaded through the related page on Epic Games Store, accessible from the launcher. Nexus Mods also has an active modding scene.

General information

Official FAQ

Official Discord server

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Epic Games Store		Requires Epic Games Launcher to be running for co-op. Jumpship Edition also available.
GamersGate
GOG.com		Jumpship Edition also available.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Microsoft Store		Included with Xbox Game Pass for PC. Xbox Play Anywhere. Jumpship Edition also available.
Steam		Jumpship Edition also available.

The Dropship Collection includes the base game, Heroes of the Inner Sphere expansion and Digital Extras Content.

The Jumpship Edition includes the base game, Heroes of the Inner Sphere and Legend of the Kestrel Lancers expansions and Digital Extras Content.

Essential improvements

Skip intro video

Delete or rename video files
Go to <path-to-game>\MW5Mercs\Content\Movies. Rename or delete piranha-logo-sound.bk2 and legalsplash-pc.bk2.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	DLC include new campaigns, missions and 'Mechs.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Digital Extras Content
Heroes of the Inner Sphere
Legend of the Kestrel Lancers
Call to Arms
Rise of Rasalhague
The Dragon's Gambit
Solaris Showdown

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\MW5Mercs\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\ %LOCALAPPDATA%\MW5Mercs\Saved\SavedHOTAS\HOTASMappings.Remap
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/784080/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\MW5Mercs\Saved\SaveGames\
Microsoft Store	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\PiranhaGamesInc.MechWarrior5Mercenaries_\<string>\LocalCache\Local\MW5Mercs\Saved\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/784080/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Gameplay settings.

Display settings.

Graphics settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor		Vert- gameplay. See Field of view (FOV).
Ultra-widescreen		Vert- gameplay with an FOV slider to compensate. See Field of view (FOV) for more.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		60° to 120° for Mech Cockpit Field of View and Mech Third Person Field of View. See Field of view (FOV) to increase beyond 120°.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		The game doesn't handle HiDPI properly, so you have to Change high DPI settings in game executable properties to override scaling behavior and set it to Application
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		2x-16x
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Options to choose are Low, Medium, High and Maximum. DLSS 2.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Uncapped.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the engine page to force native HDR output, or the glossary page for other alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)		Ray traced lighting and shadows.

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 4 page for more details.

Field of view (FOV)

Modify config file to increase Mech FOV beyond in-game settings
Open the GameUserSettings.ini configuration file using a text editor. Find the following lines within the file: MechCockpitFieldOfView=120.000000 ThirdPersonFieldOfView=120.000000 Change the numbers to any desired FOV value. Save and close the file.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Vertical and Horizontal axis. The sensitivity can only be changed for the missions. Between the missions when you are running around in the dropship the game will use hardcoded values.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		A gamepad cannot be used to navigate menus, and during out-of-mech FPS sections, only strafing works.
Controller remapping		Face buttons and d-pad can be remapped, but movement and stick functions cannot be changed. For unsupported HOTAS controllers, see HOTASMappings.Remap in Configuration file(s) location on how to add support.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		Controlled by Invert Y Axis for mouse and keyboard bindings. Inverting mouse look is necessary for look controls to be non-inverted on a gamepad.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Mixed input causes problems for controller bindings - for example, the D-pad shortcut menu resets when there's any mouse input. Recommend binding all controller buttons to MKB inputs except the left analog stick so you can retain analog movement on a controller.

• 

  Mouse and keyboard bindings.

• 

  Gamepad bindings.

• 

  Joystick bindings.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Sound Effects and Voice.
Surround sound		7.0 surround.
Subtitles		Gameplay and in-engine cutscenes only.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Russian
Polish				Fan translation; Nexusmods.
Spanish				Fan translation, download nexusmods.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play		4	Co-op

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11, 12

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX	3
Audio	Wwise
Cutscenes	Bink Video 2

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7, 8.1, 10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i3-7100 AMD Ryzen 3 1200	Intel Core i7-6700K AMD Ryzen 7 1700
System memory (RAM)	8 GB	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	55 GB	55 GB (SSD)
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 AMD Radeon R9 280X DirectX 11 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

A 64-bit operating system is required.