>>23453644
>>23453677
Atmospheric reentry is another big deal and they can survive some heat if treated, gundarium alloy, etc. They still get totaled there but that's an extreme case. Explosions seem to be more about both the beams and reactor's Minovsky Particles being of a similar sort, thus while real-life fusion reactors wouldn't explode, the leftover fuel gets cooked off by the beams in a way it wouldn't if other projectiles including missiles that don't contain Minovsky Particles were used.

Then mechs explode due to vulcan fire. And there's scenes where missile explosions cause them to explode anyway too. I guess the logic (if there is any) is the outer shell is relatively fireproof so long as you don't nail the reactor. Which is honestly a gamble unless you've got an in-depth understanding of your enemy mech and where the reactor's located OR if he's carrying other propellant that would go up in flames too. Some random new mech developed by an enemy faction nobody ahs the blueprints to could very well have the reactor located in a weird place or propellant tanks like the Sinanju where Full Fruntal successfully fooled Banagher into thinking he hit him via explosion size.