Heat

You must make a Heat Check when you Push your Mech. You also must make a Heat Check if your Mech reaches its Heat Capacity or starts the turn at Heat Capacity.

To make a Heat Check, roll a d20. If the result is equal to or under your Mech's current Heat, your reactor has overloaded. A roll of a 20 is always a success, as your Heat Capacity can be higher than 20. You must roll on the Reactor Overload Table p. 235 to see what happens to your Mech. This can result in your Mech shutting down, losing Systems or Modules, or even being destroyed.

You should add any Heat to your Mech as a result of using any Systems, Modules, or Abilities before you make the Heat Check. For example, if you shoot a Red Laser which has the Hot (1) Trait and decide to Push the roll, you gain 1 Heat from the Red Laser and 2 Heat from the Push. You should then make the Heat Check.

If making multiple attacks in a single turn, resolve them each separately. For example, if you were to fire the Red Laser twice, resolve each attack and any Pushes separately, then move onto the next.

To reduce your Mech's Heat, you must fully shut it down and rest for 1 hour as a Long Action. If you do this it resets its Heat back to 0 at the end of the hour.

Whilst Shutdown, a Mech cannot take any actions and gains the Vulnerable Trait meaning it automatically takes 2× damage from any attacks against it that hit.

Some Systems and Modules, such as Heat Sinks and Coolant Flow Manifolds allow you to increase the Heat capacity, or vent Heat more efficiently on your Mech.