What are the best traits for this B41 so far?

[Khammul]

The title perfectly describes the intention of the thread, collect good builds and ideas for characters

Im interested in both builds of the unemployed (typical build full of positive / negative traits) and builds designed for specific occupations.

[mixnix]

I'm 70h in, with an average survival chance of 1-2 Days. Tried many traits. Also with maxed strength and edurance. The RNG bite happens to fast, Z's are scuttered everywhere, mostly not able to avoid them. I belive now, it depends on luck to survive for longer?

[Brainslug]

It doesn't. Avoid Zs, lure them away. Leave urban centres early. I usually survive at least a month, no matter which traits I chose.

If you struggle try burglar, you can hotwire cars then and a car is the best survival tool in that game.

[Khammul]

For me, its easy to make "OP" builds for unenmployed, this will make your life easier at the beginning, and even make an impact in the mid/late game. For example:

Good traits:
Cat's Eyes (-2) Early/mid/late game
Brave (-4) Early/mid/late game
Lucky (-4) valuable at all stages of the game too
Fast learner (-6) +30% experience gain on all skills but Strength and fitness, possibly the best trait in the entire game
Organized (-6) +30% capacity on all containers. Make your life easier, specially on early stage of the game
Thick skinned (-8) it was a must have, but it is too expensive for a small bonus on def right now, but for new ppl is, probably, a must.
Athletic (-10) +4 fitness and more mov. speed. Is good for early and mid game, because you wont need to train fitness, which takes way too long.
Strong (-10) +4 strenght, and you can carry more weight; just the same from athletic, never train strenght. Too valuable.

Total: -50 / -42 without Thick Skinned

Bad traits:
Unenmployed (+8)
Short sighted (+2) free points
Slow Reader (+2) free points, but many ppl dislike this one
Weak Stomach (+3) free points, just dont eat root food
Pacifist (+4) Since you will get fast learner, because is the best trait in the game, it wont hurt that much (-25% weapon skill experience) and you dont want to fight a lot in this game ...
Prone to Illness (+4) free points, but be careful during winter
Smoker (+4) free points and good for roleplay
High Thirst (+6) free points
Slow Healer (+6) free points

Total: +39

For reaching 50 or 42:
Thin-Skinned (+8) ~+10% chances of catching zombification, but since you dont want to pick risky fights in this game is bearable
Underweight (+6) you can gaing weight easily
Very Underweight (+10) just loot on day 1/2 a supermarket, eat a lot and make excercise

I think this really help to start a new game and also in late stages of the game. But i only know how to properly do an unemployed build, thats why i wanted to start this threat, in order to get some nice and inspirational builds with some occupations or even different unemployed interesting builds for specific roleplay/game mechanics, like for example a nomad playstyle, etc.

[loganjamesalex]

build is just role-play, any build works. just watch someone play some of the challenge starts on youtube on B41

Edit: lately I have been trying it as an overweight lumberjack just for funzies, personally I like to keep at the same build until I am satisfied. I almost always pick smoker just for the extra points no matter what I choose but I smoke in real life.

[loganjamesalex]

Originally posted by mixnix:

I'm 70h in, with an average survival chance of 1-2 Days. Tried many traits. Also with maxed strength and edurance. The RNG bite happens to fast, Z's are scuttered everywhere, mostly not able to avoid them. I belive now, it depends on luck to survive for longer?

i'm only 50hrs in, like 15hrs in B41 and i have no trouble surviving at least 5 days as long as I am not really tired or unlucky. I find myself running out to remote locations though.

[mixnix]

Originally posted by loganjamesalex:

Originally posted by mixnix:

I'm 70h in, with an average survival chance of 1-2 Days. Tried many traits. Also with maxed strength and edurance. The RNG bite happens to fast, Z's are scuttered everywhere, mostly not able to avoid them. I belive now, it depends on luck to survive for longer?

i'm only 50hrs in, like 15hrs in B41 and i have no trouble surviving at least 5 days as long as I am not really tired or unlucky. I find myself running out to remote locations though.

Right for reaching these rare remote locations you need the Luck-trait. With that trait I can get a car really quick. Then we need to loot some buildings and Zs first, to get enough survival material. No option to avoid all Zs on way, so you have to kill some to get those materials.. as i mentioned, there will be always one Zombie who will troll the survival system by biting you in to your groin while you hitting him with an axe, lol

[Animalman]

You don't need all of the traits, but useful traits are Strength, Underweight and strong combo will deal with zombies just fine if you maintain fighting condition.

[_TheBunnymaster_]

Good lists here, but I'd stay away from short-sighted IMO since it affects vision and cannot be corrected over time.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by _TheBunnymaster_:

Good lists here, but I'd stay away from short-sighted IMO since it affects vision and cannot be corrected over time.

Completely agree.

Also instead prone to illness get slow healer. Prone to illness combined with weak stomach means you die should you misclick to eat rotten or overcooked food, if you dont have antibiotics. Also prone to illness during winter or certain conditions means you will get a cold likely which develops into something nasty. And you die again without antibiotics, which is damn rare. (just spawned in the pharmacy in WP and did not see a single one, before i was forced to mae a hasty escape due to all the alarms being triggered by the zombies. Playing hobo style now, living on the bridge in a car.)

[_TheBunnymaster_]

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

Originally posted by _TheBunnymaster_:

Good lists here, but I'd stay away from short-sighted IMO since it affects vision and cannot be corrected over time.

Completely agree.

Also instead prone to illness get slow healer. Prone to illness combined with weak stomach means you die should you misclick to eat rotten or overcooked food, if you dont have antibiotics. Also prone to illness during winter or certain conditions means you will get a cold likely which develops into something nasty. And you die again without antibiotics, which is damn rare. (just spawned in the pharmacy in WP and did not see a single one, before i was forced to mae a hasty escape due to all the alarms being triggered by the zombies. Playing hobo style now, living on the bridge in a car.)

I use both regularly. In addition to rotten or overcooked being an issue, poisoned food (foraged or otherwise) is a real issue and herbalist should either be a starting skill or a priority at the beginning.

[Outthere]

Top tier: Stout, Strong (huge buff to combat ability and carrying capacity)
Really good for their cost: Outdoorsman (QoL), Nutritionist, Wakeful
Useful: Amateur Mechanic (rush hotwiring), Dextrous (QoL), Brave (combat consistency)
Okay but not worth the cost: Fast reader, Speed demon, Herbalist, Keen Hearing

Fitness ones are great because training fitness takes forever, but I tend to play slow so low fitness doesn't affect me as much. Anything with first aid, disease, or zombification rate is useless. The stuff that gives +1 skill is mostly useless, only good for roleplay. Hunger/thirst is nice but not necessarily worth the points. I've never gotten food poisoning because it's easy to train foraging and I don't eat rotten food so Iron gut is useless to me.

Not sure: Thick skinned, Adrenaline junkie, Eagle eyed, Inconspicuous, Graceful, Lucky

[Laires]

If you are aiming for long-term survival where your build starts paying off in several weeks or even months, I would highly suggest something similar to this build:
blob:null/dd73bd63-45f8-4712-a8d2-da31415e459a
Profession: Repairman
Positive traits: Athletic, Keen Hearing, Fast Learner, Brawler, Amateur Mechanic, Gymnast, Sewer, Inconspicuous, Wakeful, Dexterous
Negative traits: Thin-skinned, Feeble, High Thirst, Slow Healer, Hemophobic, Smoker, Prone to Illness, Pacifist, Claustrophobic, Weak Stomach, Cowardly, Slow Reader

Food can boost your strength higher if you stuff yourself before a fight and later on when you find dumbbell or barbell you can easily level it up permanently. Try to combine it with reading books while your character is exhausted from the training for maximum time efficiency. I would always try to focus on high Fitness and low Strength for these reasons.

Keen Hearing is a must-have on any build, without it you are blind to what's coming up behind you and kiting without it is always making me nervous. If you intend on surviving long and have fun around zombies, this one perk will save your life countless times.

Fast Learner, Brawler and Gymnast as well as Repairman profession will ensure your success in combat with zombies. Short Blunt for general looting, Axe and Long Blunt for clearing hordes. (You can go for Spear build instead and take out the Brawler entirely. Brawler is definitely the one perk you can switch for something else or to remove some negative traits you don't feel comfy with.)

Amateur Mechanic, Sewer are the long-term investment traits. If you don't mind gathering many cars and practicing on them to level your mechanic skill for weeks, you don't need the exp boost for it, but since it's one of the skills that has uses even at level 7+ and is annoying to level up, it's just nice to have a default boost to the exp so I can reach that point faster and start gathering and installing all the performance type parts. Sewer on other hand is just min-maxing on armor that may save my life some 5-6 months in a playthrough and then I will be glad I took this 4 point positive trait. It also combats the Thin-skinned negative trait. You are less likely to be bitten or scratched in the first place thanks to all the leather straps you put on your clothes.

All the negative traits require you knowing how to play around them and what they cause. Some of them are harmless, some of them require adjustment to your playstyle and some define your playstyle. Pick what you feel comfy with and if you are comfy with all the negative traits, add some you haven't ever tried but think you can handle. The more negative traits you learn to live with, the more positive ones you can add to make your playthrough easier.