Which Perks to buy/unlock

[SweetStarfieldFan]

So I have so many marines I have no idea what perks should I buy for them.
I can only buy the first two but I am not sure which ones are better than the other overall.
Is there a guide comparing them out or somethig like that?

[RobOda]

Basically; Top tier perks;

Sharpshooter (Accuracy +, the higher the better as you want to hit the aliens.)

Bold (Bravery + important for easier stress management.)

Team Spirit (on everyone if possible, 4 marines with this = 2 CMD point bonus, which makes the game so much easier.)

Unbreakable Will (ASAP if you can, it is immunity to tired/exhausted, so you can put your best marines in more often.)

Redemption - Depending on the negative trait the marine has, some you can ignore, some need to be removed asap. Remove anyone with accuracy penalties or cowardly etc etc.

Resourceful - Free ammo for the marine on rest, worthwhile so you never have to worry about ammo ever again (you can argue this is a situational one, but honestly it just lets you re-visit maps without having to worry too much about ammo resources.)

Fast - only really needs to be on one marine tbh, squad wide movement speed buff.

Then optionally if you don't get the above;

Tough (HP bonuses ~ can be rehealed, so better than the temporary armour perk below)
Hardened (Armour bonuses, it's okay but 1-3 points of armour that can't be healed is a bit meh.)
Looter (material bonuses, is nice but you need other stuff first.)
Dead Eye (Crit and dismember bonuses ~ you can argue it's worth taking ahead of the main ones, but general accuracy etc is better than crit hits, with the exception of Gunner class, which really likes dead eye as the Gunner gets a Crit bonus on the smart gun if I remember right.)

Quick Hands - again on the gunner is handy as you want that suppression fire going 100%.

Anything else is meh, or can be covered elsewhere.

[Bullied by Pigeon]

The one that removes tiredness should be first pick if it shows up or else you wil be spending a lot of time with debuffs..

[IAmSquidget]

Originally posted by Leo Major:

looter is good imo

I used to think so on my first 1-2 campaigns, but never took it again after that.

The main reason is because Unbreakable Will makes Looter (and other things) obsolete.

Unbreakable Will is THE meta skill. It allows you to run a much smaller roster of marines and concentrate XP on them. It means you never have to spend supplies on a C team of marines, or really even a B team.

Concentrating XP and supplies onto only 5-6 marines gives you a HUGE advantage.

TBH it is probably OP, because it makes several skills less useful, allows you to flat out ignore some events, and gives you a path to early Reprimand and Plasma.

[deepeyes]

Put unbreakable will as top priority, sharpshooter would be your second best friends.

Originally posted by Leo Major:

looter is good imo

For early game, yeah very useful.

[Haggis MechHaggis]

Originally posted by IAmSquidget:

Originally posted by Leo Major:

looter is good imo

I used to think so on my first 1-2 campaigns, but never took it again after that.

The main reason is because Unbreakable Will makes Looter (and other things) obsolete.

Unbreakable Will is THE meta skill. It allows you to run a much smaller roster of marines and concentrate XP on them. It means you never have to spend supplies on a C team of marines, or really even a B team.

Concentrating XP and supplies onto only 5-6 marines gives you a HUGE advantage.

TBH it is probably OP, because it makes several skills less useful, allows you to flat out ignore some events, and gives you a path to early Reprimand and Plasma.

this

[Crypto Gamer]

Unbreakable Will is number ONE as it prevent 15 accuracy and 10 bravery debuff+exhaustion including from events if you get it early you can intensive train with no penalty too for exp boost.

+It allows you to field A team more if you can avoid most injuries so you need to spend less materials on B and C team's equipment likely saving as much loot as 1 looter gives in extra during the whole game.

And as A team gets better you will have them injured less.=Xcom 1 colonel snowball effect.

You will likely never need C team cause of this perk.


Accuracy+5 is always nice dps boost,less ammo used stuff dies slightly faster so you might save health.

MUCH better than bravery+5 perks.
And you have to hit in order to roll for crit and such.

So it is normally the SECOND best perk.


Redemption can be number 2 to not worth it eg.-10% accuracy should be removed asap some can be left alone.

My A team has a lvl 10 marine with start everyone with 20% stress negative trait and zero bravery perks,equipment for whole squad and 2 sgts.basically with 2 you can likely manege stress very well and just rest once while.

None of them has minds of steel everyone is immune to tired......

The whole squad gained 2-3 trauma points with them from mission 6 to 11.
Which got healed easily.
SGT also gives the party WIDE 10 bravery........2 gives 20.......

Crit perk is not as good but for gunner it is more viable as his perk adds a flat+1% chance +smartgun shoots fast.
Sadly crit chance for weapons are hidden stat........

(But if its is like 0.5% then its get boosted by 38% at 3 perk cost not a big improvement and very RNG.)

It still results in less ammo used and likely saves some hp as stuff randomly dies faster.
I do not know if crit/disemberment only works on drone,runner, warrior or also for basic humans.

Accuracy works againts everything.
65% hits 30% more bullets(that can roll for crit) than 50% so 3 accuracy perks.

While 50% with 38% more crit chance for 3 crit perks which does not work on everybody.
So accuracy is way better value.

Not sure if gunner flat+ 1% gets the 38% boost hope it does.
Or if suppressive fire double bullets can all hit,crit or not....


Stress is an issue early game(pre sniper,reprimand) before the death clock starts.

Still if you want to spend less CP on reprimand you can get "minds of steel" so you can reach 100-199% and be fine afer mission.
That is CP saved for combat skills.

Also it seems stess dmg also builds vengenace bar so you might not always want to prevent that.

Team spirit is good as you want 4 marines per team to have it.

Smart ass if you do not use tecker for its drone scouting,lure skills.......

Early looter can be nice to unlock stuff slightly faster or use tools and sentries with slightly less care.

Resourceful is nice especially on 2 save system as you will likely rest more often.
It allows you to use more manual reloads(wasting bullets) so you need less in combat.

Fast:
I do not know if it stacks with recon's party wide fast so I did not take it as you always have recon with you.......

If it does stack and with enough you can outrun drones,warriors then maybe it has good value.......

It it does not stack with recon's one it is useless.

Quickhands I manual reload before tough events,coming onslaughts when marines are low on ammo and undetected.

But yes for gunner with suppressive fire might make a difference in the heavy scripted defence sections.

Otherwise it has less impact then crit perk and most defence sections have breaks where you can manually reload.

+armor perks are VERY good because of the immune to acid while armored this will prevent tons of dmg and medtime from acid.
Might have less value on+5 as armor last for 1 hit.

Health I did not take but if it makes you survive 1 more hit on+5 then very big value.


Bravery perks have value early game but later on you have reprimand and more surplus medkits.

And 5% stress armor it not that much.
So have very low value they should be 5% party wide stress armor.

Wounds at 1 hp not 2 is useless 99% of the cases you are dead or will have medtime for ages.

Maybe at +5 dmg if it can prevent a wound treshold it has some value.

+% vengenace bar not sure what contributes to the bar.
So no clue on its value........




Unlike most people I consider bravery+5 perks or equipment to be a very low value.
Should be party wide+5.

I think immune to tried needs to be nerfed to not make you immune to exhaustion.

Crit could get a small % boost and weapons should show crit chance.......

Fast could be clear about stacking with Recon fast or not and both should give actual+% MS boost value.

Looter could give 10% chance to gain 1 extra sample when looting any zeno sample so slight buff.
With 5 looters+50% chance.

Synths should only be repariable by Teckers or smartass marines.

Wound perk could give slightly increased chance for soldier to be "alive"when at 0 hp making them more likely to get a second chance.