MechQuest Gameplay and Interface Guide

MechQuest Gameplay and Interface Guide by Seiyou

Table of Contents

Introduction [A]
Game Controls [B]
Main-Screen Interface [C]
Character Information [D]

In-Battle Interface and Gameplay [E]
Item Shops [F]
Inventory [G]
C-Mail and the Galactic Map [H]
Conclusion [I]
Credits and Log [J]

Introduction [A]

Note: At this moment, this guide is incomplete. Thanks for you patience!

Welcome to MechQuest, the Fantasy/Sci-Fi Web RPG. In this game, you play the role of a university student, destined to defeat the Shadow Scythe. But there’s one small problem; you have no idea how to play! Well, just hop in your mecha and strap on your flamethrower; this is going to be one fun ride!

If you wish to jump directly to a certain section, look to the Table of Contents above. Using Ctrl + F, search for the letter in brackets that corresponds to the desired section of the guide. Can’t find a certain screenshot? Most images will be linked in the bolded headings of each section.

If you’d like to add something to this guide, or even make some corrections, feel free to pm me! :)

Game Controls [B]

Mouse Point and Click: This is the main tool used for playing the game. You move your character by clicking on any area, and they will move as close as possible to that point in a straight line. It is also used to click buttons, both outside and inside of combat.

Arrow Keys: The arrow keys are only used in select minigames, such as the Labyrinth. What each key does depends on the game, but it is mainly used for moving your character during the minigame.

Main-Screen Interface [C]

The Main Menu

This is the opening area of Soluna City, and is your default area once you complete the Dropship. Here is a description of its options, from left to right:

1) Battle – This launches the quest Anything Goes, a random battle. After you complete the quest, you mech will automatically be repaired.

On Planet Zargon, the Battle button will appear like so. This button lets you switch between your Mecha and your character for walking. It is currently only available on Zargon.

2) Mission Log – This is where you can launch New Releases and more! There are several options under the Mission Log, as listed below:

News! – This brings you to the New Release Interface. It holds clickable buttons that will lead you to each new release. For example, the “Monthly Rare” button will warp you to a shop containing the mecha of the month within it. It can be very useful for traveling to releases outside of Soluna, as it is free and will not cost the usual 1,000 credit fee. (I will go more into detail about its purposes later in the guide.)

Newest Release – This button will transport you to the newest Planet, free of the 1,000 credit fee.

Captain’s Club  – This button transports you to the Star Captain’s Club, where Star Captains can buy exclusive weapons and accept exclusive missions.

Ballyhoo – This will send you to Ballyhoo, where you can view ads to receive credits and varying amounts of Nova Gems.

“Normal, Hard, Extreme”  – These are difficulty levels. The higher the difficulty, the stronger the enemies are; however, they also reward you with more credits and exp. Only Normal is available to Free Players.

3) Your Arsenal – Want to equip something for your character? Here’s where to look! There are also several different sections in this menu, listed below:

Mecha Hangar – This opens up your Mecha inventory. Here you can equip different mecha for you character.

Equip – This opens your Weapons Inventory. You can also equip Energy Blades here.

Uniforms – Transports you to Laser Eye for the Space Guy Clothings.

Energy Blades – Transports you to Light’s Sabers.

Starship – If you are a Star Captain, transports you to your starship.

Save Hometown – If you are a Star Captain, you can save locations as your hometown with this button.

Become a Star Captain – Loads the MechQuest upgrade page.

4) Shops – Opens up the Tek’s Mechs shop interface. Rare weapons will be sold here.

5) Travel – Loads the Galactic Map, which allows you to travel to other planets, provided that you have repaired your Starship (A story quest). If you are non-Star Captain, there will be a fee of 1,000 credits.

6) Hide – Hides the main menu from sight. It will remain hidden even after logging out and traveling to different planets.

Also note the screen with the yellow exclamation point seen directly above the character. This is the C-Mail screen, which has a variety of features. It will be explained in a later section.

Options

Below the toolbar, and to the right of the character info bar, you can see a button labeled as “OPTIONS”. This opens up an option screen, where multiple game features, listed below, can be adjusted:

Volume

Sound and Music

The game’s resolution (High/Best/Medium/Low)

The Options menu has a variety of other functions, as well:

Toggle Color Custom on and off (Star Captain only)

Teleport to your hometown

Visit MechQuest’s homepage

Return to your character list (All unsaved progress will be lost).

The New Release Interface

Below the Options button you will see one labeled “NEWS.” This will allow you to open the New Release Interface anywhere in-game, though attempting to do so in battle is not recommended. Here, recently released missions will be listed on the right. You will also be able to jump straight to the newest Planet from here, just like the New Release button in the Mission Log.

The Story Guide

You’ll also notice a button labeled “Story Guide.” Clicking it will bring you to the Missions screen, which will guide you throughout MechQuest’s storyline. The Planets are listed in order according to the storyline, and clicking on a Planet’s name will bring you to a screen that tracks your progress throughout that zone. The “Go Now” button will transport you to that Planet, though with a 1,000 Credit fee if you are not a Star Captain. Once you have completed the storyline quests on that particular Planet, the Story Guide will tell you which Planet to travel to next.

Character Information [D]

The Character Information screen is one of the most useful screens you will ever utilize throughout playing the game. In order to access it, you click on your Character’s face Icon found in the bottom left corner of your screen. This is accessible at nearly all times; the only times it isn’t available is during your enemy’s turn, or during a scene that takes away the entire bottom bar.

At the very top left, you can see “Character ID#”. In place of the following ######’s you will see your character ID number, used to identify your character in order of creation.
Directly below that, in giant letters, is your character’s name. In this case, it is GEARS Student.

Below that is your level, your status, and experience. The status depends on what uniform you are wearing. The default is Mecha Pilot.

Mecha Stats

Next is the actual stats section, below the page break. Your mecha name is listed here (In the screenshot above, it is Katana V1), as well as all of its stats.

This is where one of 2 useful features limited to only this screen comes into play. The stats update even during the battle. This means that if your enemy hits you with a “-20 Bonus to hit” effect, your “Bonus” will change to reflect that. Check this screen often to see your stats and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Your equipped weapons and their damages are listed under the Weapons section. Equippable enemies will have their weapons listed under this section, as well.

Player Stats

To the left of these general mecha stats are your Player Stats. Mecha Stats and Stat Buildings contains more information. Bonuses from Mods will show up as a blue +#, where # will be the effect of the mod.

Below these stats, you see the Credit count (the currency used in this game), and the Nova Gem count (NGs for short; this is secondary currency). These can also be seen in the Inventory and Shop menus.

Resistances and Status Section

Finally, there is the “Resistances and Status” section. That giant blue orb will contain a Star Captain icon if you are a Star Captain. This section lists ALL of the effects on your mecha, and how long the durations are. It will also show innate abilities. Some examples:

“Immobility: #” will be listed here, with # being any number, according to how much Immobility resistance you have.

“Taking Fire Damage! # turns remaining” This is an example of a Damage Over Time effect, or a DoT. This means your mecha will receive damage at the start of your turn. The # of turns remaining will be how many of your turns must pass before the effect subsides.

There are MANY more effects that are listed here. For a list of all effects, check out Equipment Specials and Effects Guide. It will contain all the information you need.

Note that any effect that says “-20 to BTH” or something similar will also be reflected in your mecha stats section. All effects started in a battle subside after battle.

In-Battle Interface and Gameplay [E]

You can get into a battle in many different ways. The most obvious and easiest method is clicking the button labeled “Battle!” You can also encounter battles by running into enemy mecha that are on-screen, and also through buttons that may lead to battles (Such as the Knife & Spork, which sets you up against a chain of fights without saying “Battle!”)

When you DO get into a battle, it will look like the screen above. On the left is your mecha, and on the right is the enemy mecha.

Down the middle are the actual combat options. At the top of the screen, a little window shows the statistics of the current highlighted weapon/option (highlighted options are darkened, and look like buttons that are pushed in; in this case, it is the Smokey Flame Thrower). This window shows information in the following format (for weapons):

Name of Selection (Smokey Flame Thrower)
Damage (element) (8 – 12 Fire)
Energy Cost (23)
Cooldown (5)

Damage is the amount of health will be taken away in total if it is used and connects. Element is the element used, such as Ballistic or Laser; there are some enemies with resistances to certain elements, so be on the look out for that.

Energy Cost is how much EP will be used up; if you do not have enough EP, the option will be grayed out, being unusable for that turn.

Cooldown is how many turns you must wait before you can use that weapon again; if it says 5, you must attack or skip 5 turns in order to be able to use it again. Cooldowns do not carry over through battles.

Your weapons available are listed below in the following format:

Front Arm (Double Autogun)
Back Arm (Smokey Flame Thrower)
Front Shoulder (None)
Back Shoulder (Miscalibrated Sniper Rifle)
Body (None)
Head (None)

Only weapons with attacks will be listed here, and will be grayed out if you do not have enough EP, or if the weapon is cooling down.

The last buttons are the “Skip” and “Eject” buttons. Skip will cause you to miss a turn, but you do not use any EP, and regain EP equal to your EP Regen. Eject causes you to instantly lose the battle, so be careful when using it.

Each battle works like this: You and the enemy take turns (Starting turn is determined by who wins Initiative, which is affected by Luck and Reflex) attacking each other. The battle is over when one of the combatants is reduced to 0 HP. If you win a battle, you gain Experience and Credits; if you lose, nothing bad happens, but you are forced out of the quest (or back to the beginning) if you were in one.

Each weapon that you use will cost a certain amount of Energy, or EP. At the end of every turn, you will also recover some EP, known as EP Regen. The higher the EP Regen, the more EP you will gain.

When you are Stunned, you will be unable to move during the turns you are stunned. Your weapon cooldowns will still reduce, and all other effects take place (Effects wear down, you take DoT damage, you regain EP, etc). Be careful when you are stunned; it can very well be the end of the fight for you.

By perfecting your equipment set-up and forming a strategy, you can easily defeat enemies. Just practice (yes, this takes practice!) enough, and you will eventually get the hang of the battle system.

NOTE: There IS another type of battle; Energy Battles. It is explained in Energy Blades, Fights, and Uniforms, so just head over there if you want more information.

Item Shops [F]

Items are the most crucial part to all MechQuest battles. Without proper equipment, you will fail nearly all the time. In order to purchase items to equip on your mecha, you must visit a shop. Shops are located on nearly every single planet, containing a wide variety of Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes and Arms. Click on the link in the title to see what opening a shop looks like.

In this example, you see Tek’s normal Arms shop. On your left is your current mecha, with its current equipment. On the right, you see a list of equipment; those are all items you can buy. If you select an item, its appearance is added to the mecha on the left. You can also check out all of the details; Damage, Type, Energy Cost, etc., and there’s also a description, usually containing information about any specials the weapon may have.

You also see the number of Credits (or, for Nova Gem items, Nova Gems) it will cost. You cannot buy an item if you do not have enough currency. Another thing to note is that an item with a name outlined in Red is unusable on your current mecha (including lack of level), items outlined in Green cost Nova Gems, and items outlined in Purple are Star Captain-only. Please not that although you are able to purchase items outlined in Red, you will not be able to equip them until you are high-leveled enough.

You can purchase items by clicking “Buy”. If you click the tab named “Sell” at the top, you switch to your inventory, and can sell all non-default, unequipped items from there (You see the same details as from the buy menu, except you see Sellback instead of Cost). Click “Sell” to sell your items.

Inventory [G]

Once you’ve purchased your items, you can view them in your inventory to equip.

All of your items are listed here, along with any details pertaining to them. The layout is basically the same as shops. However, there are also additional tabs at the top, which sort your items:

All Items (Default)
Heads
Front Arms
Back Arms
Front Shoulders
Back Shoulders

Energy Blades

In addition to these tabs, there is also a Recycle Bin icon in the description of each item. These delete items completely, and you will not receive a sellback as if you were selling the item. Be warned when using this.

When you are viewing your Mecha inventory, you will instead see your mecha listed, with its HP, EP, EP Regen, and description listed.

Non-Star Captains can hold 30 items, not including default items, and 13 mecha, including the one you have equipped.

Star Captains can hold 30 items, not including default items, and 30 mecha, including the one you have equipped.

More slots for storage are available for Nova Gems.

C-Mail and the Galactic Map [H]

C-Mail is one of the most useful features in the game (aside from equipping and battling). There are several screens, so bear with me:

Newsfeed Screen
Jobs Screen
C-Mail
Galactic Map

The Newsfeed Screen just gives an overview of the week’s release. (For a button linking to the actual release, you must first open the New Release Interface as detailed in the post above.)

The Jobs Screen lists all of Soluna’s Jobs, along with your rank in that job. It can help in tracking down jobs you haven’t completed yet.

The C-Mail screen is interesting. You gain C-Mail when a new storyline quest is available. If you don’t know where to go, check C-Mail, as it is a more-than-obvious clue.

The Galactic Map is possibly the most useful feature of C-Mail. It allows you to travel to other planets, provided that you have repaired your Starship (A story quest). If you are non-Star Captain, there will be a fee of 1,000 credits.

There are other screens, as well. The Recruit screen is just a link to your referral; if people create accounts using that referral, you will gain a portion of their exp and credit earned.

C-Mail is the ultimate in travel and progress features in MechQuest. Use it well!

Conclusion [I]

The world of MechQuest is a vast and confusing. You are now, however, well-prepared for the journey ahead. Learn to use the interface well, and you will love the game. Of course, the more you love the game, the easier it is to play, as well.

Practice makes perfect. The more you battle, the easier it becomes. The more you use your inventory (and item shops), the more natural it will be. Use the systems available in-game, and you’ll breeze through the game.

If you are ever stuck while trying to accomplish something, just keep trying; if you truly cannot find the answer, ask in the MechQuest Q&A Section. MechQuest Guides andMechQuest Encyclopedia can help you, too.