Mortar Strike

The Mortar Strike is a gadget usable in the Bad Company series as well as Battlefield 2: Modern Combat and Battlefield Play4Free. It is the Bad Company series' equivalent to Battlefield 2's Artillery strike.

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

Mortar Strike
Kit	Support
Ammunition
Starting ammunition	1

In Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, the Mortar Strike is issued to the Support kit and takes the form of a small walkie-talkie, the appearance of which differs between the Xbox 360 and Xbox/PS2 versions of the game. Holding the trigger will cause the player to press a button on the communicator and say "Requesting mortar strike at these coordinates!", to which they will receive the reply "Coordinates received, strike is inbound." (or the Arabic/Chinese equivalents) if the target is accepted and the player has Mortar Strike ammo remaining. In order to fire, it is necessary that the player's crosshair remain focused on the same spot while holding the trigger until the strike has been called in (making it possible to move forward and backward while calling the strike, but not sideways). Shortly thereafter, several shells will begin to rain on the targeted area for a few moments, and the player will need to find an ammo crate or pick up another support kit with an unused strike in order to call in another. Killing 5 enemies and no allies with a single mortar strike will award the "Expert Use of Mortar" medal and achievement (separate ones for Campaign and Multiplayer) on the Xbox 360 version.

Interestingly, the voiceover when requesting the strike is tied to the kit the player is using, not their current team, meaning that picking up a fallen enemy's Support kit will cause the player to speak in the enemy team's language and voice when requesting the strike if the "Use Army Language" option is active.

Battlefield: Bad Company

A Mortar Strike hits 'Preston's Cafe' on Acta Non Verba on Conquest mode in Battlefield: Bad Company

In Battlefield: Bad Company, the Mortar Strike takes the appearance of a GPS called the MRTR-5. The player will push a small, dark green button to start transmitting the coordinates. Once the coordinates have been received, a barrage of 120mm Mortar shells will shortly commence. This barrage is very effective against soft targets both in the open and in cover, as well as moving targets. However, the Mortar Strike's effectiveness is lowered when used against vehicles, as they can withstand more damage and can get out of the coordinated area before it takes a significant amount of damage.

In singleplayer, the MRTR-5 is first found in the mission Acta Non Verba, when B-Company get an objective to neutralize a threat on the nearby bridge. This item is also found in later missions in the campaign.

In multiplayer, the MRTR-5 is an unlockable for the Support class. It can effectively take out buildings and large groups of enemies, putting a rainstorm of spread out explosives over a certain area. Although it has a high effectiveness against players and buildings, it has little effect against armored targets, damgaging them no more than beyond 80%. Its recharge time is slightly longer than its singleplayer counterpart.

Mortar strike remote

Designating the location for a mortar strike

Mortar strike

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Render of the Mortar Strike.

The Mortar Strike binoculars in first-person view.

Mortar Strike procedure sound.

"A fully automated Indirect-fire Weapon System. It can target, direct and adjust firing solutions for 120mm mortars. It acts as a force multiplier for small units that do not have heavy weapons support."

— In-game description

In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the Mortar Strike takes the appearance of a laser designator used by the Recon class in the Battlefield: Bad Company. Similar to Battlefield: Bad Company, a barrage of 120mm mortar shells will fall from the sky. Unlike Bad Company, however, mortars are effective against hard targets too, although the duration of the strike is shorter.

In multiplayer, the Mortar Strike is the second unlockable for the Recon class, and if selected, it replaces the C4 normally available to the class. In order to use the Mortar Strike, the laser designator binoculars must be equipped to lock onto the target and the fire button must be held down for three seconds. A few seconds later, the bombardment will arrive, dealing damage to nearby enemy units.

This is typically useful on smaller areas with close M-COM stations such as Isla Inocentes, as the player has a very high probability of killing some enemies. On a map with a good area for campers such as the Pit in Port Valdez, multiple players are usually there, so there is a good chance of killing people and destroying the base as well in one well placed mortar strike. The mortar strike is most effective when called on an objective that has just been armed to deter, injure or kill any enemies trying to defuse it.

The Mortar Strike does have a delay between marking the target and the mortars landing, so mobile targets must be led or they'll escape the bombardment area.

Peak damage is 1 meter from ground zero, damage drops gradually to 6 meters

Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam

The Mortar Strike is issued for the Recon kit along with the TNT. It works exactly in the same way as the original game.

Tips

• Mortars are fairly effective at destroying objective buildings, but require that a shell actually hit a section of wall. With enough mortar bombardment, a building will collapse and destroy any M-COM stations inside.
• When targeted at a multistory building, some mortar shells will detonate in the lower floors as if they have a delayed detonation.
• Be very careful when hiding in a bush and using the mortar strike. It is easy to accidentally "target" a leaf from the bush that is in the player's field of vision, causing the mortar strike to fall directly on the player's position.
• Occasionally, while a bombardment occurs, the smoke from a shell will go through a building or cover, even though the floors above are solid and the shell detonated earlier.
• If a player plans on using a mortar strike to defend a charge that has been planted, it is sometimes wise to call in an earlier mortar strike in order to destroy any surrounding cover that may protect potential diffusers.
• The mortar can be designated indefinitely, but the time between it can be used is one minute.

Battlefield Play4Free

The Mortar Strike in Battlefield Play4Free

In Battlefield Play4Free, the Mortar Strike is a gadget available for the Recon kit. It can be obtained spending training points in its specific Tier 3 training option, called Mortar Strike. However, it first requires 10 training points to be spent in its previous Tiers, as well as on any training required before obtaining the Mortar Strike.

Trivia

• Flynn, and sometimes the announcer of the mortar strike, will say, "Sending in some '60 Mike Mikes." In multiplayer, they may also be referred to as "65 Mike-Mike" shells. This is wrong, as the shells are actually 120mm ("Mike Mike" being a way of saying "mm" using the military's phonetic alphabet).
• While inside a building, it is possible to see that when a shell strikes the roof, the smoke trail following it will pass through the building, regardless of whether or not the shell had already detonated.
• The zoom level of the binoculars in Bad Company 2 is that of the player's primary weapon, being dependent of the optic equipped. This means its magnification could be anywhere from non-magnifying to 12x zoom.