We all have stories of facing three times our number or fielding four heavies against eight Assaults. That’s normal and why we never go straight forward out of the starting gate. :)

But what are the enemy, weight independent, that truly scare the crap out of you at various stages of the game? For me…

Early game: A pair of FireStarters scares the crap out of me.

I usually run Mechs that emphasize high damage at this point in the game. Lots of SRMs and Medium Lasers which leaves all my Mechs running hot. They usually shoot twice and then melee once to cool down. During my current Career mode, I’ve been running into pairs of FireStarters quite frequently. With the high risk of overheating and the subsequent down time of repairing one of my few strong Mechs, these buggers are the current bane of my existence.

Early and Mid game: LRM and SRM Carriers.

I hunt 60 ton vehicles with a red hot passion. :)

Early and Mid game: Sniper Turrets with 4 ACs or 2 PPCs.

Shots from the fringes that you don't even see coming. Ugh. And done after you've already jumped behind the enemy, so now you've exposed your weak rear armor.

All game: Anything with an AC20.

What more need be said? So much damage. From the mid game Hunchback to the end game King Crab.

Either model of Hunchback at any point in the game. They are tough enough to get in close and the AI does not care about surviving so they will mess your lance up if ignored.

SRM carriers are horrifying if they get the first shot.

Jager A's, ridiculous long range and will rip you from any range.

I don't see then very often but Stalkers are downright nasty.

Yeah, Hunchbacks are terrifying. :)

I've actually noticed that the AI is much more hesitant about racking up the overheating of late. Enemy often "pull their punch" so to speak to keep from redlining. I felt like AI controlled Mechs used to overheat all the time during my first couple of playthroughs with Patches 1.1 / 1.2. But that could just be my imagination.