A short guide for newbies

Here's a short guide for those who have recently installed Mechwarrior Online or are about to install it. Mind you, the guide is written by a fellow newbie. It is in no way comprehensive or thorough and covers only a few basic things that you have to know.

Play on steam
If you've already downloaded the game, check out this link. Or this one, if you don't want to move your files and prefer to install the game from Steam. Moving to Steam is a MUST if you intend to buy mech packs or pretty much anything else in MWO. The reason for this is simple: everything is way cheaper there.

Play the tutorial
Play the tutorial so you at least know all the basic hotkeys. No reason to spoil the fun for yourself and other players by trying to learn all of this during a Quickplay match. Also, remember that pressing F1 shows all the default hotkeys.

Save the money from the cadet bonuses.
The first 25 games you play you will get increased rewards. In the end you will have around 8 million C-bills.
My advice is to play with trial mechs until you're done with the first 25 matches. Also, it might be a good idea to buy some Premium Time. This will add 50% to the total amount you get in the end. More on this here.
DO NOT spend your money on engines. They're generally expensive and you probably don't know what you're doing exactly anyway. Buy weapons instead.

Save all the caches
Many people will tell you that caches aren't worth it. Don't listen to them. A cache key is only 25 MC, and you could win some pretty good prizes. Besides, caches are pretty rare drops, so it's not like buying keys could drain your wallet.
Here's what I got from the first 16 caches that I oppened (spending 275 MC in the process):
-50 MC
-2 days of premium time
-10 Advanced UAV's.
- Around 2 million in C-bill prizes and items.
Pretty good, I'd say.
Another thing I've noticed is that every time I pressed "Skip" while the cache prizes are in spin, I ended up with the crappiest item possible. Could be a coincedence, since getting crappy items is pretty common.


Don't get tricked into buying all 3 chassis versions in order to unlock the Elite skills for the mech.

It's not worth it while you're still new an exploring the game. Believe me, the Elite skills will not make you an unstoppable killing machine.
Mechwarrior is not about stats and equipment: it's about tactics, coordination and player skill.

That's all for now. I might update the guide later,  tho.