Anyone tried a 'heavy science' build yet or another unusual build?

[Eightball]

One of the things I find myself doing when I play games like Skyrim, F4 and now Starfield is thinking ahead to what unique builds I want to try.

So I am curious if anyone has tried some builds such as heavy science or social yet and if so how is it going?

[vosveldon]

I am still early in the game and will probably start over in order to do a pure science build focused on Surveying/Scanning skills, as well as Geology, Botany, and Zoology. Eventually I'll probably take a few Outposts skills as they pair well with the Science ones I chose.

[VoidEngineer]

I have not bought the game yet. How strongly do combat skills affect your ability to be effective in combat? If you're going pure science, I figure that is probably a highly relevant point to discuss.

[Blackened Halo]

I am doing a pure science build.

[Chaosium]

For the moment my only "combat" skill is maxed out Sneak (which isn't as busted as in Skyrim, they learned a bit lol), the rest is in tech/science for the time being, I don't feel like struggling a lot for now, to the point that I'll probably need to switch to Very hard if I were to pick skills that make me even stronger

[VoidEngineer]

Originally posted by Chaosium:

For the moment my only "combat" skill is maxed out Sneak (which isn't as busted as in Skyrim, they learned a bit lol), the rest is in tech/science for the time being, I don't feel like struggling a lot for now, to the point that I'll probably need to switch to Very hard if I were to pick skills that make me even stronger

How big is the nerf? Why did you max it out?

[Eightball]

Combat skills, at least on 'normal' (so you give X1.0 dmg and the enemies also give X1.0 dmg) are not make or break so far for me. By modding and looting I have been able to keep my damage potential to what I need for the challenges so far. I do make use of explosives a lot!

Some science perks are needed to grow/raise certain things in your base as well as some other science perks giving you a better chance to get rarer minerals and animal drops and some are needed for the most advanced base modules.

Having played for a bit now I think a pure science build is more then feasible as is a pure social build. Both would prove and interesting approach to the game.

[BSNB]

Ballistics to level 3 is my only combat skill besides fitness 1, stealth 1.

[VoidEngineer]

Nice! Useful info. I'm planning to pick the game up once they add DLSS and will probably try a mostly science build too.

[ZombieHunter]

I did a heavy science and ship building build for outposts and ships. I did not have many issues in combat and I only unlocked lasers 2 in the combat section.

[VoidEngineer]

Is there a level cap or can you grind up to eventually max out every skill?

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Skjarl:

Is there a level cap or can you grind up to eventually max out every skill?

No level cap.

[tools guy-kun]

Originally posted by Skjarl:

Originally posted by Chaosium:

For the moment my only "combat" skill is maxed out Sneak (which isn't as busted as in Skyrim, they learned a bit lol), the rest is in tech/science for the time being, I don't feel like struggling a lot for now, to the point that I'll probably need to switch to Very hard if I were to pick skills that make me even stronger

How big is the nerf? Why did you max it out?

I think in Skyrim the multipliers to bonus damage were the “issue.” I think you could’ve reached as much as x10 or higher (could be wrong, it’s been a while), whereas in this game it goes up to x2.5 max from maxed Stealth alone.

I think concealment boosts it up even more, unsure actually.

Despite Stealth giving lower multipliers in this game, I’m still able to one shot most enemies, or at the very least take a great chunk of health out in a single shot with a modified revolver with no rare/epic/legendary traits on it. It’s still useful in this game, and a bit more on the modest side in my opinion.

[VoidEngineer]

Is it only useful for a single alpha strike or can you re-apply it against others during the fight? How may combatants tend to be involved in fights anyway?

[ostar]

Originally posted by tools guy-kun:

whereas in this game it goes up to x2.5 max from maxed Stealth alone.

Yea. And concealment bumps it up to 4x for ranged, 10x for melee. Not sure if that's additive, multiplicative, or just the end-number.

[Eightball]

@Skjarl The number of combatants really depends on the POI or the mission (or your 'traits') and also it can affect how the combatants react.

You can face a small army, be rushed by robotic foes and stalked by a few bounty hunters. Y

You can run in guns blazing, be a bit more strategic and hack turrets and robots to do your bidding or just clear then entire POI one stealth kill at a time.

Or, just bribe, incite and persuade your way through.

It is also easy enough to up the combat challenge without upping the game's difficulty setting by merely picking a higher level system to explore.

Each system, at least early on, has a lvl rating and although enemies will still scale up if you are a higher level than the system they will never get too high in a lower level system.

All-in-all there is some fun to be had.