On the battlefield, all sorts of obstructions – physical, mental, electronic, and others – can separate an attacker from their target. The two that matter most are Soft Cover and Hard Cover.

Soft Cover includes smoke, foliage, trees, blinding light, dust clouds, low hills, and low walls. As the name implies, Soft Cover isn’t solid enough to reliably block enemy fire, but it does cause visual interference or profile reduction sufficient to make aiming difficult. Any time a target is obscured or obstructed somehow, it has Soft Cover, adding +1 Difficulty to any ranged attacks.

Hard Cover includes ruined buildings, tall walls, bulkheads, reinforced emplacements, and destroyed mechs and vehicles. Hard Cover is solid enough to block shots and hide behind, and adds +2 Difficulty to any ranged attacks. Characters only benefit from Hard Cover if they are adjacent to whatever they’re using for Cover and are the same Size or smaller. A Size 3 mech couldn’t get Hard Cover while hiding behind a Size 1 rock, for example. If a character is obscured by Hard Cover but isn’t adjacent, they don’t get Hard Cover; however, they might still get Soft Cover.

Characters can only benefit from one type of Cover at a time – their benefits don’t stack.

Unless specified, characters never grant Cover to objects or other characters. Some mechs, however, are specifically built to block enemy fire and can grant Cover; these mechs typically have the guardian trait

Checking for Cover

To determine if a character has Soft Cover, simply draw a line from the center of one character to the center of another. If a line can be drawn mostly unbroken, it’s a clear shot and neither character has Soft Cover. If the line is significantly obstructed or is broken up by smoke, trees, or fences the target has Soft Cover. Targets also have Soft Cover if they are obstructed by objects that would give Hard Cover, but which they aren’t adjacent to.

If a character is adjacent to Hard Cover, they benefit from that cover against all characters – except for characters that flank them. When using a hex or grid map, targets are flanked if it is possible to draw a line that is totally clear of Hard Cover between one of the spaces occupied by the attacker and one occupied by the target.

If you aren’t using a grid or hex map, draw a straight line where the target touches the Hard Cover, as in the figure below. If the attacker is over this line, fully or partially, the target does not benefit from Hard Cover.

If a character in Hard Cover could shoot over, through, or around the source of their Cover, the cover does not block their line of sight or obscure their attacks. Characters can shoot over Cover or Objects smaller or the same Size as themselves without difficulty