Question about Blood

[cockadoodledoo]

Starting a new Solo Run this time with Blood, so I have 2 questions:
1. Which Perks are the best for him (currently torn between Agility or Strength Line)?
2. Is there any way to improve the damage from his throwing Knives skill?

Oh and if you have any other tips regarding his playstyle please let me know.

[Goldias]

I started with hit and run, fast runner and frogleaping, then invest the rest in strength perk. True strike and line breaker is better for melee.

True strike can be used with his knives.

Also did solo run with blood but did it on easy and skip a lot of hard battles so may not be useful tips.

[cockadoodledoo]

Thanks for the reply, I fiddled around a bit with it and tried out True Strike (all Melee attacks are crits) and all of the sudden his Throwing Knives Crit all the time, I thought they were not considered melee, strange, but I take it.

[Trolleur_Durden]

I've played extensively with Blood and tried various builds, here's my advice:

With Martial art as a starting perk, Full body contact as a prepurchased Health perk and excellent mobility provided by his unique perk, Blood is meant to be a melee character first and foremost. His throwing knives aren't meant to be his main source of damage, it's merely a small "bonus damage" thanks to his Throwing perk, which allows him to throw the first knife each turn for only 2 AP. And no, there's no way to mod his unique endless knives, sadly.

However, at the beginning of the game, he still lacks a couple key perks that truly unlocks the melee gameplay, which is why it's best to play him as a midrange shotgunner and grenade thrower early game and slowly transition into full melee as he gain levels. And ofc, you will also need a machete.

Basically, his playstyle should be :

-Close the gap with the target(s) with Flying daggers.
-Deal damage, either with a shotgun or a melee weapon.
-If needed, throw a single knife for 2 AP.
-Run to a cover thanks to free move AP provided by either Breach and clear after a shotgun attack or Hit and run after a melee attack.

Regarding his build, I tend to go for either medium or heavy armor, because his unique perk serves more or less the same purpose as Fast runner. You lose your free move AP when you attack and you get some free move each turn anyway, which makes Fast runner quite overkill and obsolete on him most of the time.

Here's what I would take :

-Hit and run
-Sudden strike
-Killing spree/Ironclad (depending of your armor choice)
-True strike
-Linebreaker
-Frogleaping
-Lightning reactions

The last two perks aren't really mandatory, so feel free to take anything else that suits your fancy, like Dex perks for a better stealth game or some Health perks in order to get more beefiness.

[cockadoodledoo]

Thank you very much for your detailed response!

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

-Close the gap with the target(s) with Flying daggers.
-Deal damage, either with a shotgun or a melee weapon.
-If needed, throw a single knife for 2 AP.
-Run to a cover thanks to free move AP provided by either Breach and clear after a shotgun attack or Hit and run after a melee attack.

Funny thing is, I ended up doing exactly this intuitively. Though sneaking in a knife throw now and then I did not consider, thanks for the tip.
As for the Perks, hmm I might f*d this one up, I ended up with True Strike (which is good) and Anatomical Precision (which is debatable, though it seems to increase its Throwing Knife damage significantly but I am not sure if this is truly the case).
The previous Solo-playthrough with Shadow was fun, but tbh I am enjoying this run even more, Blood is such a fun char to play.

One last question, I noticed that using his Throwing Knives for Melee does less damage than using a Sharpened Knife. Which leads to the question, shall I go for a Machete or The Thing or stick with the Knife (I love the low AP-Cost of Knives)?

[Trolleur_Durden]

Anatomical precision makes a lot of sense with True strike on paper, but empirically, it's absolutely overkill. True strike alone is more than enough, since a machete guaranteed critical strike to the neck kills basically everything in the game. On the other hand, Linebreaker is basically the equivalent of +4 AP, which allows you to kill one more target during a killing sequence.

You should experiment with endless knives's neck strikes, maybe they can one-shot too with Anatomical precision, which would allow you to also carry a shotgun for more versatility.

Regarding your last question, I have never noticed a difference between a sharpened machete and the Thing, both one-shot everything when you target the neck.

[cockadoodledoo]

Thanks again, yes well, you are right it probably is overkill, on the other hand this way I can stick to Knife only, which somehow would be fitting for Blood. On a pure aesthetics level I am no fan of the Machete anyways.

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

You should experiment with endless knives's neck strikes, maybe they can one-shot too with Anatomical precision, which would allow you to also carry a shotgun for more versatility.

I will experiment a bit and let you know how it goes, one-shotting with endless knives's neck strikes might be very helpful in the "end-game". It would basically mean killing opponents with 1AP in the ideal scenario.

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

Regarding your last question, I have never noticed a difference between a sharpened machete and the Thing, both one-shot everything when you target the neck.

Thats true the difference is not noticeable, even Siegfrieds really tough Über-Soldaten usually die with one strike.