The BattleMech Manual is a hardcover BattleTech rulebook that covers game rules for BattleMechs (only) in a concise and clarified fashion.

The Manual is intended as a self-contained rulebook for players who wish to focus on BattleMech combat, with an emphasis on tabletop gameplay (as opposed to being a reference manual like previous core rulebooks). While it thus leaves out all other unit types, and was deliberately written to be as concise as possible and to eliminate rules vagaries, it is not intended to be a purely introductory product. It contains a few pieces of equipment from Interstellar Operations, many pieces of equipment taken from Tactical Operations, and a few of the optional rules found in that book and Strategic Operations. No construction rules are included. In terms of product progression, it is meant to slot in between A Game of Armored Combat) and the full tournament ruleset of Total Warfare. Its general layout matches that of the rulebook in A Game of Armored Combat.

New rules appearing in the book are limited to simplified rulesets for fire and smoke; artillery, mines, and airstrikes; and a few terrain or weather conditions. Additionally, the BattleMech Manual features a Design Quirks section that brings together all 'Mech-based quirks published to date, updates them, adds nine new ones, and then applies the result to an included list of all 'Mech units in the game released prior to Technical Readout: Prototypes (when quirks first began being added to each Technical Readout unit entry). As such, the BattleMech Manual provides an official quirk listing for all 'Mechs published prior to TRO: Prototypes (though it only lists quirks present on every example of a machine; quirks applicable only to individual variants were left out).

While the rules were reworded and their layout changed, the base ruleset included in the BattleMech Manual matches that of the fifth printing and later of Total Warfare, with later changes introduced in one being mirrored in the other as new printings of each are released.