What is the highest speed possible?

What is the maximum speed in MechWarrior Online? I know the light mechs easily go beyond 120 kph.

Solution 1:

Gauging by the Pirate's Bane Locust, which is the fastest 'Mech in the game that I know of at 163 kph tweaked, it's going to be about 163 kph. The Pirate's Bane uses the largest engine available (given tonnage restrictions) on the lightest chassis possible. It simply does not currently get faster than that. The 'MechLab will not let you equip an engine with a rating higher than 190 on a Locust, which the Pirate's Bane already has.

However, if you want to see what should be possible according to the rules...

According to tabletop rules (which MWO strives to adapt closely), if I remove all weapons from the Locust chassis, the biggest engine I can fit is a 260 XL engine, which is 13.5 tons. To calculate our speed in tabletop terms (hexes per turn), divide the rating by our tonnage. 260/20 is 13 Walk MP. At a run, we can do 20 MP, since run speed is equal to walk speed times 1.5. I can already tell this is insanely fast (like, faster than most VTOLs in BattleTech), but let's convert it to real-world units for clarity. I've seen a few different ways to convert hexes travelled to km/h, but the one I prefer to use is simply 12.5 * MP. So, our maximum speed possible on a 20-ton chassis (with 4 tons of armor still remaining) is... 250 kph. Now that's fast. The other conversion method is 16.2 * rating / tonnage, which results in 210 kph -- less fast, but still faster than any 'Mech I've ever heard of.

Solution 2:

The Locust tops out at 165kph with full speed tweak regardless of chassis. If the Hero commando hits 170+ then the Locust falls to second place. MASC doesn't count imo as it isn't sustained speed throughout a match, even if the momentary (safe) boost places it in the lead in terms of speed.