What is the highest speed possible?

Question

What is the maximum speed in MechWarrior Online? I know the light mechs easily go beyond 120 kph.

Answer 1

Gauging by the Pirate's Bane Locust, which is the fastest 'Mech in the game that I know of at 163 kph tweaked, it's going to be about 163 kph. The Pirate's Bane uses the largest engine available (given tonnage restrictions) on the lightest chassis possible. It simply does not currently get faster than that. The 'MechLab will not let you equip an engine with a rating higher than 190 on a Locust, which the Pirate's Bane already has.

However, if you want to see what should be possible according to the rules...

According to tabletop rules (which MWO strives to adapt closely), if I remove all weapons from the Locust chassis, the biggest engine I can fit is a 260 XL engine, which is 13.5 tons. To calculate our speed in tabletop terms (hexes per turn), divide the rating by our tonnage. 260/20 is 13 Walk MP. At a run, we can do 20 MP, since run speed is equal to walk speed times 1.5. I can already tell this is insanely fast (like, faster than most VTOLs in BattleTech), but let's convert it to real-world units for clarity. I've seen a few different ways to convert hexes travelled to km/h, but the one I prefer to use is simply 12.5 * MP. So, our maximum speed possible on a 20-ton chassis (with 4 tons of armor still remaining) is... 250 kph. Now that's fast. The other conversion method is 16.2 * rating / tonnage, which results in 210 kph -- less fast, but still faster than any 'Mech I've ever heard of.

Answer 2

The Locust tops out at 165kph with full speed tweak regardless of chassis. If the Hero commando hits 170+ then the Locust falls to second place. MASC doesn't count imo as it isn't sustained speed throughout a match, even if the momentary (safe) boost places it in the lead in terms of speed.

Answer 3

I love how everyone forgets THE fastest mech for a long time. The Deaths Knell (the hero of the commando chassis) with an XL 240 engine and speed tweak will run the fastest possible at 171.3. With this you can have max armor, 4 MLas or SPLas and good heat

Answer 4

Theoretically the fastest would be the Jenner IIC, excluding masc.

No masc: Jump jets grant a small +15kph horizontal thrust in addition to their vertical thrust [source]. This puts the locust at a disadvantage as it does not have jump jets. The Jenner iic, with a base speed of 151 [source], can mount jump jets. This means that the Jenner iic reaches a peak of 166 kph.

Including masc: I found no evidence in the BattleTech or MechWarrior online wikis that the Jenner iic is unable to equip masc. The clan masc mk2 grants +10% speed [source]. This is applied before the jump jets are added, so a grand total of 181.1 kph for the Jenner iic. This beats out all other mechs (that I know of), including a theoretical locust with IS masc mk1, which also gives +10% speed.

Tabletop game: Using the SSW application [SSW], I created for tabletop rules that goes even faster than Lucas Leblanc's theoretical locust. It has no armor, a small laser, and ludicrous speed. It also has no room for jump jets. It has a walking speed of 18, and a running speed of 27. However, because of its supercharger plus (CL) masc, it has a true max speed of 45 running mp.

To get this, use these setup parameters:

1. Rules level: experimental tech
2. Era: All Eras (non-cannon)
3. Tonnage: 20
4. Engine Type: (CL) XXL Engine
5. Gyro Type: Extra-Light Gyro
6. Cockpit Type: Small Cockpit
7. Enhancements: (CL) MASC
8. Walking MP: 18
9. Supercharger: yes, in LT

This results in a speed (without using the supercharger or MASC) of ~337.5 kph. With the MASC and supercharger, this mech has a speed of ~562.5 kph, or ~349.5 miles per hour. All that, with a small laser and no armor.

(Using an even lighter mech, absolute max so far as I can tell at 10 Tons is 54 using MASC and supercharger, which is 675 kph, or 419.4 mph)

Answer 5

With MASC, I get my Flea 20 up to 177. The MASC also helps with dodging and climbing walls like those found in Canyon Network.