BattleTech is the long-lived turn-based tabletop wargame that has been around since 1984. However, development studio Harebrained Schemes launched a Kickstarter campaign for a turn-based strategy game based on the BattleTech franchise for $1 million, and it succeeded. BattleTech was released for PC in 2018, and a trio of downloadable expansions was released over the course of 2018 and 2019.

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Harebrained Schemes added support for mods with the third DLC, Heavy Metal, showing the company's openness to third-party mods. That's always a welcome attitude for gamers, as there is room for improvement with every game. There are some killer mods for BattleTech out there that can take the game to new and exciting places, many of which can be found on Nexus Mods.

Updated December 20, 2021 by Josh Davison: Harebrained Schemes' BattleTech remains a popular and thriving turn-based strategy game, in which players get to wage epic war with an army of suped-up mechanized war machines intended to wipe their enemies from the map. With any popular PC game, there are plenty of modders out there who customize the game, iron out the bugs, and improve the overall quality of life of the game. Thankfully, BattleTech mods are plentiful and well-made. There are plenty to dive into, so it's well worth seeing what's new in the world of BattleTech mods. With that in mind, a few new entries have been added to this list.

13 TommyGunn's Targets Provides A Chance To Test Weapons & Upgrades

TommyGunn's Targets Battletech Mod Screen Cropped

This mod comes from users TommyGunn and theisey. It's a fairly straightforward mod that nonetheless provides a useful tool to BattleTech players. The TommyGunn's Targets mod introduces dummy targets for players to test out weapons modifications when customizing their mechs' load-outs.

To make this odd as efficient as possible, the dummy mechs are given maximum armor and minimal weapons. This allows players to lay into the mechs without fear of reprisal.

12 The Melee Mover Mod Allows Manual Adjustment Of Combat Tactics

Mech slicing through another mech in BattleTech videogame

This is a prime example of a quality of life improvement implemented through BattleTech mods. The Melee Mover Mod, created by user Morphyum, allows the player to move their mechs to different positions while engaged in melee combat with enemy mechs.

The AI can already do this, but it's an option that BattleTech players were unable to access without mods like this. It's such an obvious thing that it almost seems like an oversight in the base game, but thankfully, there are BattleTech mods like this to improve on such issues.

11 Real Hit Chance Lets Players Know What Their Odds Actually Are

Real Hit Chance BattleTech Mod Screen Cropped

This is another mod that addresses some of the oversights in the base version of BattleTech. The Real Hit Chance mod by user casualmods fixes the game so that it displays the actual chance that an attack has to hit. The base game displays inaccurate data in this regard, as it doesn't address the to-hit roll correction.

Like the mod above, the Real Hit Chance mod also improves the quality of life of the game. It allows players to get a better idea of the likelihood that munitions will hit home, rather than leaving a mech unscathed.

10 The BattleTech Mod Manager Makes It Easier To Use Other Mods

BattleTech Mod Manager Cropped

Many games, especially ones with a vibrant modding community like BattleTech, benefit from a great mod manager that allows players to view and implement the specific Battletech mods they want to use during a play session. Thankfully, there is the BattleTech Mods Manager from users Wpnx330 and nofear001. This mod allows players to do just that: manage and use the mods that they've downloaded. Furthermore, it seems to be a necessary mod to use multiple mods at once while playing BattleTech, which seems difficult and spotty to do otherwise.

9 The BattleTech Save Editor Lets Players Customize Their Campaign

BattleTech Mod Save-Editor-Cropped Cropped

Players will almost always appreciate more options from their game, especially in a game that often requires trial and error like BattleTech.

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The BattleTech Save Editor, from modder JWolf1672, gives players options to change things such as funds, items, star system location, pilot skills, and faction reputation of a specific save file from within the mod. The modder does want players to make a backup of their save data before using the Save Editor, as there have been some issues in altering with the mod. It still has some kinks to work out.

8 Commander Portrait Loader Allows Player Customization

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Speaking of customization, having more options for the identity of the player's mech commander will always be regarded as a positive. The Commander Portrait Loader mod from users Morphyum, Callyste, and Jamie Wolf brings some much-appreciated options for BattleTech players to customize their commander's portrait. Players can upload custom PNG images to change their commander as well as choose from one of 26 voices for the commander

7 BattleTech Enhanced Brings New Options To The Player

Battletech-Enhanced-Cropped Mod

BattleTech Enhanced by user Mharius does something fairly straightforward yet greatly valued – it adds new gear for the player to use on the battlefield. The mod adds things such as Experimental Ferro-Fibrous Armor, Experimental Jump Jets, and Scaled Heat Sinks that can greatly change the way the game plays. Furthermore, it also increases the odds of finding rare gear on the black market, meaning the player can find some cooler things more often throughout the game.

6 Hangar Of MWO Stompyness Brings New Mechs

Hangar-of-MWO-Stompyness-Cropped BattleTech Mod

BattleTech is a game about mech combat, and the cardinal rule for mech combat is the more different kinds of mechs, the better. Thankfully, there is a mod for that as well – the Hangar Of MWO Stompyness mod from PGI, Crackfox, and mattyxr. There are some caveats to this one. This mod does require BattleTech Performance Fix, from modder m22spencer, and ModTek/the BattleTech Mod Manager as well as the three major DLCs for BattleTech. Furthermore, the new mechs will not appear in the shops, only on the battlefield.

5 JK_Variants Mod Adds New Mech Variants To The Game

JK-Variants-Mod-Cropped BattleTech Mod

This is a rather influential mod in the BattleTech mod community, as many other mods use this one as a base or jumping-off point for their own modifications. Plus, this mod has exclusive variants that are used for other mods that add new lore to the game. The JK_Variants Mod comes from user Justin Kase. It adds over 100 mech and vehicle variants across Campaign/Career and Skirmish modes. It is a massive expansion that adds more flavor and personality to BattleTech.

4 The Community Assets Bundle Brings It All Together

Community-Assets-Bundle-Battletech Mod Cropped

Community Assets Bundle by Bt-Modders-Community and LadyAlekto is a massive project that adds all assets custom-made by the BattleTech modding community. It shows the dedication and creativity that the community around BattleTech mods has, and it's quite impressive. It's an ongoing project, needless to say, and it has been updated as recently as March of this year.

3 RogueTech Makes BattleTech Into A Roguelike Game

Roguetech-Mod-Cropped BattleTech Mod

RogueTech mod by the RogueTech Crew and LadyAlekto is a particularly ambitious modification to BattleTech. Every game has a mod that greatly amps up the difficulty for a new challenge, and this is BattleTech's premiere nightmare-mode mod.

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RogueTech aims to make BattleTech into more of a roguelike game. Enemies have stronger gear and generally do more damage, and having to start again from square one at least once is pretty much a given for anyone using this mod.

2 BattleTech Extended 3025 Is A Community-Made Expansion

BattleTech Extended Commander's Edition Mod Cropped

BattleTech Extended 3025 Mod by Haree78 and TheHaribo and uses a lot from the JK Variants Mod by Justin Kase. This is another incredibly ambitious mod that expands on the story of BattleTech, particularly focusing around the years of 3025-3057 of the BattleTech continuity. It also adds new mechs, vehicles, and factions to further immerse the player in this branch of community-designed BattleTech history.

1 BTA3062 Pushes BattleTech Further Into The Future

BattleTech 3062 Mod Cropped

This is another ambitious mod for BattleTech that adds more story and new mechs, vehicles, and all manner of things to BattleTech. It wants to go further into the future than vanilla BattleTech, and just may succeed. BTA3062 has its own Wiki by bloodydoves, arguskos, the RogueTech Crew, Justin Kase, and many others who can be found on the credits of the Nexus Mod page. However, this mod cannot be downloaded from Nexus Mods like the other Battletech mods on this page. It can only be downloaded from the BTA3062 Wiki.

BattleTech is available for purchase on Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux.

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