Making a Mecha Break tier list is surprisingly tricky, especially when so much depends on the skill ceiling required to play each Striker—what the game calls its mechs—and how well you've learned to use their abilities. Some of the best mechs, like Tricera and Stego, have extremely simple playstyles, and you don't even need to do that much to be good.
But if you pick a sniper like Aquila or Narukami, a melee-mech like Welkin or Panther, or even a flying mech like Falcon or Skyraider, you'll have a higher skill ceiling to contend with as you get to grips with your chosen Striker's playstyle. There are no mechs in Mecha Break that I'd call bad—hence why there's no C in my tier list—but tankier mechs like medium, heavy, or ultra-heavy definitely seem to have a straightforward advantage.
That said, all Strikers have weaknesses and counters in Mecha Break, and that's not even taking into account the different modes you can play and their specific objectives. Tricera, for example, has a big advantage in game modes focused on holding territory. Rather than maining a single mech, it's definitely best to experiment and adapt your Striker or team comp depending on the mode.
In the following tier list, I'll rate each mech based on how good I think it is, but also take into account how easy it is to pick up and play.
Mecha Break tier list
Tier |
Striker |
|---|---|
S |
Tricera, Stego, Aquila, Inferno |
A |
Narukami, Welkin, Alysnes, Pinaka |
B |
Panther, Hurricane, Skyraider, Falcon, Luminae |
S-tier
Tricera (Ultra-Heavy Defender)
Imagine a mech that can transform into a turret with shields on every side, unloading four Gatling Guns and a Howitzer into foes. Oh, it can also heal itself with Repair Drones, as well as its allies. Tricera is both strong and easy to play, especially in a game where so many modes involve capturing and holding positions.
Fortress Form allows Tricera to turn into a shielded turret, complete with Escort Drones that can shoot down missiles (which its Gatling Guns can also do), while Repair Drones top off its health when it enters Fortress Form after taking damage. All this amounts to a strong and self-sufficient Striker that's often hard to counter.
Stego (Ultra-Heavy Attacker)
Similar to Tricera, except for favouring Rocket Pods instead of Gatling Guns, Stego can also turn itself into a Turret Form with a stasis shield that protects it from the front. When you combine its Rocket Pods, Rapid Rocket Pods, and Micro Missiles (a barrage that can target multiple enemies), Stego can output a scary amount of blast damage. It may not have Tricera's Repair Drones, but its Jamming Haze Diffuser is arguably better, creating a smokescreen that prevents enemies from locking on and replenishes armour for itself and nearby allies.
Aquila (Heavy Sniper)
While Mecha Break only has two sniper mechs at launch, the better of them for my money is Aquila. This Heavy Sniper has a whole toolkit of abilities that makes it annoying to deal with, including a Mobility Kit that lets it hover in place and snipe midair, a sniper mode that allows it to manually aim (which acts as a hard counter to many other lock-on baiting abilities), and a hard-to-dodge Pulse Claw it can fire out that seeks enemies up to three times and staggers/immobilises them if it hits.
Add to this, Aquila's Mobile Beam Cannon does direct damage to health, and its Multilock Radar lets you auto-target and shoot up to six separate enemies in its field of view. It's true that Aquila struggles to escape quite as easily as Narukami when closed into melee, but it is tankier and still has tools (like the Pulse Claw) to impair melee attackers.
Inferno (Ultra-Heavy Attacker)
Unlike its rocket-blasting counterpart, Inferno is an Ultra-Heavy Attacker who specialises in energy damage, and is a pretty hard counter to both Stego and Tricera when they turn into tanky turrets. Inferno can simply blast them with its Focused Emitter, creating a high-damage beam that's perfect for shielded and stationary single targets. The only disadvantage with Inferno is that (except the Focused Emitter), a lot of its DPS requires you to get close to enemy mechs.
If you can do that and survive, though, the Charged Splitter's shotgun-esque spread will do a lot of damage, as will the Split Emitter's multi-target beams. One of Inferno's tools for staying alive is the Booster Kit, which massively buffs energy and fluid armour regen, while also making Inferno untargetable while dashing thanks to the optical decoys it creates in its wake as it dashes.
A-tier
Narukami (Light Sniper)
Though not quite as strong as Aquila in my experience, Mecha Break's second sniper, Narukami, is all about invisibility. It can deploy Decoy Drones that create a copy of the mech and make you invisible when near them, and it can also activate Optical Camo Dome to turn itself and allies invisible. Though it can't position quite as freely as airborne Aquila, its Traction Grappler can attach it to walls and the sides of structures where it will turn invisible for sniping, and it can even use this ability to grapple incoming enemies and hop over them.
While an invisible sniping mech with auto lock-on sounds strong, Narukami isn't too hard to counter. There are abilities that reveal invisibility, such as Falcon's Recon Kit, and others that either prevent lock-on, such as Stego's Jamming Haze Diffuser, or bait it, as with Hurricane's Decoy Drones. Good Narukami players will be annoying to deal with, but its squishiness will be a deciding factor, especially when confronted by Brawler mechs.
Welkin (Heavy Brawler)
Speaking of melee mechs, Welkin might be my favourite Striker in all of Mecha Break, a Heavy Brawler whose kit is extremely fun to use, though hard to master. Welkin is essentially all about hunting ranged-focused mechs and locking them into melee. He has a number of tools to accomplish this: his Jamming Pulse Ejector stuns and staggers enemies at close range, disabling their drones, but even more important is the Duelling Forcefield, which creates an energy cage trapping enemies inside.
This lets Welkin 1v1 them and deploy its AoE attacks, such as the whirlwind spin on its Heavy Battleaxe, and the Boomerang Drones which spin around Welkin and damage enemies when the forcefield is active. Unlike Panther, who has no ranged weapons, Welkin also has a Heavy Howitzer to use and a Defense Forcefield to block attacks when approaching enemies, inflicting interference on them if they're close, and helping him reach melee range more safely. All in all, this amounts to an aggressive, tanky melee mech who's often quite tough to handle.
Alysnes (Medium Attacker)
This Medium Attacker is a bit of an all-rounder in terms of kit, able to blast enemies at range with charged shots from its Energy Autocannon and Gauss Cannons, or wield a Battle Halberd and Complex Shield (for blocking attacks), as a strong melee combatant. Thanks to its Armor Purge ability, Alysnes is quite a survivable mech when played well, able to create a disrupting explosion when armour is expended, before re-equiping it with an Airdrop Kit. It can also parry melee attacks with the Complex Shield, performing an automatic Battle Halberd riposte. All of this makes Alysnes a pretty versatile and tanky all-rounder.
Pinaka (Medium Support)
Though lacking the varied offensive capabilities of other mechs, Pinaka is Mecha Break's most consistent healer. Unlike Luminae, this mech doesn't have to awkwardly switch between two different states or rely on lock-on to heal—it can deploy up to four Repair Drones to heal itself and allies, Rapid Repair Grapple towards allies and follow them around to continuously heal them, or even provide an Emergency Support Drone that shields and heals when it or allies are about to go down.
It can also deploy a Cover Airdrop to block enemy fire, which even deals damage and staggers enemies if it lands on them. The only downside to Pinaka is its lack of a long-range weapon, but its Splitter is basically a shotgun at close range. Pinaka is best used supporting a strong melee mech like a Welkin or a Panther, but more generally, you'll want to stay close to your team to avoid getting focused by enemies.
B-tier
Panther (Medium Brawler)
The most melee of all melee mechs, Panther doesn't have a single ranged weapon, instead requiring you to switch between using a Lance for thrusting charges, or a Shield Blade for quick three-hit combos. Annoyingly, you can't use its Complex Shield with the Shield Blade, but Panther has other tools to stay survivable and actually reach melee alive. Its Reinforced Complex Shield blocks damage and stops you getting staggered, but it also has a Booster Kit that restores energy and shield, with up to three uses that replenish over time.
Considering melee builds consume a lot of energy, this is pretty clutch in terms of staying alive and aggressive in the fight. I still don't think Panther is either as fun or strong as Welkin, but if you enjoy melee mechs and want something a little more mobile, with less of Welkin's ability admin, Panther is a solid and straightforward choice.
Hurricane (Ultra-Heavy Defender)
Though Hurricane is an Ultra-Heavy Defender like Tricera, it has a slightly more varied kit of drone-based abilities and a focus on energy damage. It can deploy Decoy Drones that bait enemy auto-targeting, a Defense Field Drone that creates a bubble that blocks ranged fire for itself and allies, plus Turret Drones that periodically attack nearby enemies or shoot down missiles. Hurricane's main Energy Blaster weapon can do AoE DoT damage when charged, and its Focused Emitter can fire an array of energy beams that target multiple enemies.
This mech is definitely a good pick if you want a defender with a slightly more varied playstyle than Tricera, though he will feel a lot less tanky by comparison, especially when a melee mech gets up inside his bubble shield.
Skyraider (Medium Attacker)
As one of only two flying mechs in Mecha Break, Skyraider is definitely easier to pick up and play than Falcon, partly due to increased tankiness, but also a more versatile set of abilities. Skyraider is all about rockets, firing AoE Energy Missiles, Jamming Missiles that block energy damage, as well as a Missile Dispenser which fires a barrage of micro-missiles similar to Stego (though this is only available in Aerial Assault Form).
Just like Falcon, Skyraider has access to all the same special evasive manoeuvres while flying, making it perfect for speeding by entrenched mechs and unloading ordinance onto them, dogfighting with other flying mechs, or harassing annoying snipers like Aquila and Narukami. As a flying mech, Skyraider has a significantly higher skill ceiling than most others in the game, but it feels like a good stepping stone before graduating to Falcon.
Falcon (Light Attacker)
Considering this tier list also reflects how easy a mech is to pick up and play, I think Falcon is pretty tricky to rank. As with its fellow flying mech, Skyraider, it has a very high skill ceiling in order to play well, but that's made even harder here by its reduced tankiness as a Light Attacker. On the plus side, it seems to be performing a lot better now than in the previous betas, where Skyraider was the undisputed king of the skies.
I still think Skyraider is the best way to learn how to play a flying mech before graduating onto Falcon once you're used to it, considering Falcon's main damage (Heavy Missile Launcher) is only available in its Winged Form. It also has a Recon Kit that is a hard counter to pesky Narukami's invisibility. Flying mechs have a bit of a strange role in Mecha Break and act more like damage supports for the rest of the team, generally harassing, but also hunting down and occupying annoying outliers.
Luminae (Light Support)
Though Luminae undoubtedly has its fans (everyone loves a healer), it can feel quite a clumsy mech to play due to its mode-switching mechanics. Luminae has two states, Support Mode and Corruption Mode, which change its abilities from healing into DPS. You can't damage enemies while in Support Mode; you can't heal allies while in Corruption Mode, meaning its playstyle is all about switching modes on the fly to deal with any given situation.
If you can get beyond this, though, Luminae has a very versatile kit. Its Drone Launchers heal yourself and allies, or deal direct HP damage in Corruption Mode. It also has a Haze Diffuser that produces green smoke that heals allies (or damages enemies in Corruption), while the Support Jetwing gives energy regen (or disrupts enemies in Corruption). Luminae definitely isn't as consistent a healer as Pinaka, but if you want to deal more damage while also healing (and enjoy mode-switching as a mechanic), Luminae might be a better pick for you.
