How do I make my people stronger?

[Asher]

Boats I get. Upping my econ through smart trading is working out just fine. I'm playing this a lot like I would Starsector, which is really high praise especially for a solo developed game.

BUT where I'm confused is my individual units, only 5 of which I can bring with me onto the shore. Obviously there's the whole class tree system, and with enough XP I can climb my way up to better and stronger classes. Two melee, Two Ranged, and One Support seems like a basic but effective strategy.

But where I'm stuck is gearing and kitting out my people. Everywhere I go sells the same stuff. Everything I find is Iron based. Do I just need to be investing in ports and upping my reputation to access better gear? Is it based off on RNG from things that are self found?

[game-zerox]

Usually capitals and a few other ports sell better gear than iron and investing can unlock better and unique gear, but it's not limited to it.

Some gear get randomized in loot stash or random enemies, but a lot of set stuff can be found around the dungeons and various locations around the world. While iron and steel are low tier and you'll eventually find better gear, the real power gain is with exp and stars as they're what makes a character grow.

[wendigo211]

You get a lot of good equipment from beating dojos, groves and dungeons. Some stores, particularly the ones in hard to reach outposts, might have mithril or volskarn ore. The game doesn't explain this, but you can melt down equipment at furnaces in smithies to get ore and upgrade them with triggers and other augment items on the anvil.

[Gilmoy]

~~~~~~~~~~~~
A. Better Gear
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few ports sell Steel weaponry, which is +1 better than Iron.
It's always in a bag on a table labeled "Steel Weaponry", click to open and binge-buy.

• Port Otype, Market, Tavio
  
• Searth, Equipment, Slink
  
• Towerwall, Items, Olpha

Nobody sells Mythril or magical stuff outright. Instead, you craft it yourself.
Go play Grim wanderings 2, where fight-move-town-craft-craft-craft is the gaming loop.
I think a similar mentality works here. Offhand:

• Searth sells 1 (only) Mythril Vest (900), I dunno the restock rate
  
• Jascias sells 1 (only) Mythril Chunk
  
• rarely, you find 1 Mythril Chunk as loot drop
  
• put any gear into a lit Furnace (Smithy, some cafes) to reduce it to a Chunk
  
  • any Iron gear => 1 Iron Chunk
    
  • any Steel gear => 1 Steel Chunk
    
  • any Mythril gear => ??? (but the pattern is obvious)
    
• or, put any gear onto an Anvil (Smithy) and it opens a 1-box window
  
  • then insert any 1 Trigger, and it tells you what bonus it adds
    

~~~~

To craft your own from scratch, I suspect it follows the same general idea.

• probably put any 1 Kit on an Anvil, like Sword Crafting Kit
  
• it should open a window with at least 2 boxes
  
• 1 (or 1-2?) boxes are surely for any Chunk (all of the same type)
  
• 1 (or 1-2? oh plz) boxen are for Triggers, Itchy whatever, etc.

And that's how you craft something like Mythril Sword of Frost.
Go experiment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
B. Better Tactics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I take a different approach: I restart a max game, with all Options set to max:
Combat Difficulty = Intense (+60%), AI Speed/Skill = Ponderous, Survival = Sea Dog

Yes, all monsters do have +60% to their Physical and Mental Attack, and +60% HP.
I still win, using starting Sailors and such.
In fact, this end of the game is eerily beautiful, and finely balanced.

My idea is to use buffs, and tank up my guys. So far, it works.
An average fight can go 10-15 rounds. Then paying 1 round for a buff is a bargain.
Picture this:

• we stroll up to a Monster Den of 5 Splitworms
  
• combat! Rearrange? why, yes, we shall
  
• set up just beyond monsters' round-1 walking range ...
  
• ... in a daisy-chain of buffing, 1st buffs 2nd buffs 3rd buffs ... etc.
  
• R1: Guard (+ pass for the +3s), Guard, Guard, Guard, Guard
  
• R2: Swagger Backward (for them who have it), staying just beyond range
  
• if hallway chokepoint exists, we're now in it, they can attack only 3-abreast
  
• they see: Swag-Guard, Swag-Guard, Swag-Guard, First Aid Medic, caster
  
• we say: molon labe (come and get us)

Monsters complain: these hoomans have no weak targets to swarm, we nod.

Infinite variations exist.
Obviously, your 5 guys can't keep Sailor in 1 of 2 class slots forever.
So you won't always have Guard + Swagger. But the ideas persist.
Later, as you go class-(s)hopping, other Active skills will swap in and out.

On Veteran or Expert, you faceroll most fights in 4-6 rounds.
At this end of the speedrun spectrum, all buffs suck.
You'd rather just hit for a kill outright, than waste 1 precious round on a non-kill.

On Intense, that mentality ceases to work. But buffs truly shine.
I suspect that you must play at this level once to really appreciate buff math.

Also, class-hopping is far slower at Intense.
Instead, you stick with 1 class for 1.0 - 2.0k XP to level up Active skills.
Guard L1 for 68s is decent; that's 2 full 30s timeline cycles for the recepient.
But at L3 for +40s = 108s, it lasts 4 attack-cycles.
Then that guy can sortie far from friends, and not need constant refreshing.

One sleeper bargain deal is Warrior Brave, because it lasts 100s at L1.
That's already enough for a 4-attack sortie.
Then its XP progression is sub-linear(!!), costing 120, 200, 275, 350, dunno.
So it does make sense to pour 595 XP into it to get 160s Brave lasting 7 cycles.
Spam that onto everybody, and now we're Bra-gg-uards.

~~~~

And soon, we'll be Mythril Frost Braggards! I'm sure that'll work!
Anyways, this should gainfully entertain you for several dozen hours of tinkering.

[Faust]

Mythril gear can actually be bought without investing in that port in the northwestern corner of the map. Beyond that a lot of high end gear comes from exploration of unique locations. There's also the salvage station somewhere in the northwest quarter of the map, too, which can drop very high end materials for you to forge into gear if you last long enough.