Urbanmech
The Urbie is what happens when a mech designer wants to make the ultimate assault but only has enough materials on hand for a 30-tonner. Often considered a meme in other areas of BattleTech due to its hilariously small STD60 engine propelling it to an impressively bad top speed of 32kph (20mph for you space-yanks), it is actually a viable chassis in MWO with its improved engine cap and outstanding durability.
The Urbie is still slow for a light mech with its engine cap of only 180, putting it on par with medium mechs (the Street Cleaner hero features a blisteringly moderate 210 cap.) Going about the speed of many medium mechs, and having insane durability due to its small round shape and generous quirks, the Urbanmech plays most like a medium - it is not a true light mech. And that is why the Urbie is one of the only lights that can justify and make use of all three engine types - XL gives you a little bit of extra tonnage and LE gives you bonus survivability, while the K9 hero has the unique ability to run STD and zombie with its CT hardpoints.
Despite being well known for its tankiness, the Urbie is only strong on the outside. On the inside it is sensitive and vulnerable so don't hurt its feelings or make it overheat. In other words it has no structure quirks, so with normal 30-tonner internals an overheat can be instantly fatal, and open components will evaporate quickly.
A unique feature of the Urbanmech is its 360???? torso twist. Now while you may think this li'l guy spins me right 'round, Urbie, right 'round like a record, Urbie, right 'round, 'round, 'round... but it can also spin left. This ability to spin non-stop makes it possible for the Urbie to run in any direction at full speed while still facing directly toward the enemy. This makes it excellent at kiting slower mechs and for fighting those faster right-up-on-ya mechs. Just remember, the pelvic plate doesn't twist along with the torso, so if you find yourself running directly away from a smart enemy while facing them, they can still shoot you in your wee bum parts where you have no structure quirks to save you. For this reason you might consider running higher back armour on the CT compared to other light mechs.
Currently most good Urbanmech builds only run MPLs, sometimes with Machine Guns. However with its engine options and hardpoints across the variants it can run many different weapon combos including missiles and even somewhat large ballistics without being a complete meme. The arms house most and in some cases all of the firepower, so while this gives you a very wide pitch range you'll need to be careful to protect the arms which can be fairly large relative to the rest of your mech and therefore pretty vulnerable targets.
| Variants | LA | LT | CT | RT | RA | HD | JJs | MASC | MaxEng | Accel | Twist | Pitch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 UM-R63 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | FALSE | 180 | 50.0 kph/s | 360o @ 139.5o/s | 25o | |||
|
UM-R60 | 2 | 4 | 4 | FALSE | 180 | 50.0 kph/s | 360o @ 139.5o/s | 25o | ||||
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UM-R60L | 4 | 2 | 4 | FALSE | 180 | 50.0 kph/s | 360o @ 139.5o/s | 25o | ||||
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UM-R68 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | FALSE | 180 | 50.0 kph/s | 360o @ 139.5o/s | 25o | |||
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UM-R80 | 0 | FALSE | 0 | 0.0 kph/s | 0o @ 0.0o/s | 0o | ||||||
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UM-K9H | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | FALSE | 180 | 50.0 kph/s | 360o @ 139.5o/s | 25o | |||
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UM-SCH | 3 | 2 | 6 | FALSE | 210 | 50.0 kph/s | 360o @ 139.5o/s | 25o | ||||
|
UM-R80(L)H | 0 | FALSE | 0 | 0.0 kph/s | 0o @ 0.0o/s | 0o |
UM-R60
4 Ballistic right arm and 2 energy left arm variant.
Simple and probably the best build with medium pulse lasers and heavy machine guns. Range is not great but it can put out a decent amount of hurt quick and keep it up. The jump jets and max light engine let you get in and out pretty good. Can easily swap to regular machine guns and standard engine, or to xl engine and add ams if you prefer. Can handle standard heatsinks if you want to save some cbills.
Build that gives you some range and a bit of sustained firepower. Peak and shoot the large lasers, if someone comes after you, use your unlimited twist to keep distance and lmg plus lasers to maintain fire.
UM-R60L
2 Ballistic right arm and 4 energy left arm variant.
Almost like a mirror of the R60 mpl hmg, this gives you 4mpl and 2hmg to give you better quick alpha but at the cost of sustained firepower. Play this more back by peaking in and out of cover. Use your heavy machine guns while peaking for mpl shots and when enemies are right on you but be careful not to stare to much, don't let the enemy focus out your components. Again engine type can be changed but you may need to also change armor type.
Not meta but surprisingly not to bad if you want to run an Urbie with a big gun like in the lore. Swapped the ac20 for a lb10 and some more lasers and speed. This Urbie won't win many races but its fast enough to keep up with the pack and can put out some hurt. Bit light on ammo, though a bit of armor stripping would allow some more. If you want more DPS on the backups just switch to regular small lasers, either works with the standard heatsinks. Medium lasers can get you even more range but you might want to consider the R63 for that build.
A ranged trader with decently high mounts and some midrange punch, but lacking in DPS. Be mindful that all your weapons are in a single arm, and twisting to shield can be dangerous with your XL. Be mindful with your low speed and lack of ECM that you can't really escape ganks.
A midrange option with slightly small alpha but very respectable sustained output which is further boosted by the presence of quirked LMGs. Abuse the ability to poptart with these relatively short duration lasers and don't miss opportunities to deal critical damage with the LMGs.
UM-R63
3 Ballistic right arm, 2 energy in the left torso and 1 in the left arm. This has the benefit of letting you keep some weapons if your arms are shot off, however the torso weapons won't have as much pitch angle/speed.
Another mpl mg brawl type build. The R63's hardpoints are more even with 3 on the right and 3 on the left. Also remember that 2 of the energy hardpoints are torso mounted. Like the other mpl/mg builds you can make slight changes to run any engine type.
Similar to the other big gun Urbies but with some lasers in the torsos in case you lose your arms. Stick close to allies, and try to get to into optimal range for the MLs to minimize LBX spread.
UM-R68
2 Missile in the right arm, 2 energy left arm and 1 left torso. The only Urbie with missile instead of ballistic weapons.
This has low alpha for an SRM mech, but decent DPS. The range on the ER Smalls is nice so you can poptart from safer distances when you need to. If you get warm, just use the SRMs. You can swap to Light Engine by dropping Artemis, but the wider spread means you'll need to close distance more often to be effective. In this case you might want to use standard Small Lasers for the higher DPS in brawling.
A bit of a weak build, but with fast rate of fire. MRMs and lasers lack synergy, but it's not the worst with the shorter duration MRM10.
UM-R
UM-K9 "K-9"
The K9 is the original hero Urbie. Some people say it is the greatest mech ever made; these people are known as truthsayers. One of the ways it shows it greatness is through its built in bolt on police lights and siren which you can turn on at any time with the toggle bolt-on key. Another sign of greatness is the fact that It is the only Urbie that has CT hardpoints which when combined with a standard engine make it the most zombie of the Urbies. It is also the only Urbie with 5 energy hardpoints.
Pretty much all of the best builds on the K9 will be some form of 5mpl, and maybe some 4mpl 1ersl. Any engine type with a rating of 170 or 180 will work. Then just heatsink, jump jet, ams, and armor type to flavor. Use the more tightly spaced hardpoints and twist of the K9 to side peak and the mpl's quick burn to focus out components of enemy mechs. Use your speed and full 360 twist to dictate the engagement range based on your heat and the opponents build. You can fight decently far past optimal but if you can safely get to optimal then do so.
The XL engine of this build allows you to put in the most heatsinks, or other equipment. However it also makes the mech more fragile. You want to always be twisting and spread incoming damage the best you can. Losing your right arm won't be a big deal but anything else will be.
A standard engine build for maximum durability. Since there is no penalty for losing your right torso, you can freely use it as a shield. This build drops one MPL down to ERSL to fit the heavier engine without giving up sustained DPS or jumpjets, however you can drop a heatsink and JJ to run 5MPL if you really want to - you can even strip some armour off the right torso since it only serves as a shield anyways.
If you really want to use that 1b hardpoint you could run something like this. Though going rotary 5 and smalls or just not using the ballistic hardpoint and swapping the ac5 and an erml for a lpl and some heatsinks would probably work better.
UM-SC "STREET CLEANER"
The lesser of the hero Urbies but still an Urbie and thus good, the street cleaner has the unique privilege of a higher max engine (210 vs 180) and jump jet count. On the downside it comes at the cost of less hardpoints compared to the other energy/ballistic Urbies.
Similar to some R63 builds, this build has to give up an mg but gains higher top speed and jumping ability. Plays similar to other mpl/mg Urbies so just move in so that you can use your machine guns and try to spread incoming damage so you don't lose any weapons.
Use the benefit of a higher max engine to keep away from the enemy. Use the long range of the ER lasers to keep hurting the enemy.
Main goal is to keep at LPL range and focus components with the lasers. Use your limited ammo only when enemies are up close. Can drop engine a bit to get some more ammo and more jump jets if you prefer.
Bit of shorter range kite build. Runs cooler than a erppc builds but much less range. Use the higher top speed to get a bit closer but not let the enemy completely catch up to you. Stay somewhat close to your team and if you start to get chased use your twist to fire at the enemy while drawing them into your teams firing line.