Why play anything but Skeletons?

[Puff]

Curious of peoples opinions

[Puff]

I mainly just like skeletons because I don't want to lose tons of hp by the environment or get eaten by animals and constantly have to fill my inventory with food. (which by the way costs way more to get food than it ever will cost to spend on a skeleton bed)

I want as little down time as possible so I can just run around the map fighting stuff and exploring and looting. That's more fun to me than making a personality out of a flesh bag and trying to roleplay. Gameplay more than Roleplay.

[SmallGespenst]

Messaggio originale di Puff:

What? No. I'm saying Blunt damage is less commonly used as a weapon type than Cutting weapons are. The majority of blunt weapons used are very low tier and almost useless weapons. But there are plenty of higher damaging cutting weapons used. And most armors provide a significant bonus to cutting resistance vs blunt resistance.

blunt damage is present on literally every non-katana weapon in the game. armour cut resistance will convert some cut to blunt damage, so as long as you have armour you'll be stacking up that blunt damage.

[Puff]

Sure, very small amounts of blunt damage will add up. Good thing Skeletons have double the hp on every limb to soak up all that extra nonsense.

[Puff]

I'd say the biggest downside to playing skeleton is that a lot of weapons have bonus damage to robots. And sometimes that really hurts. Still will never outweigh the benefits though.

[Puff]

What got me started on this whole thread was

#1 Never get any solid answers, just more of "play how you want, don't worry about whats best" kind of answers which is basically the same as saying nothing at all.

#2 I saw a very highly rated and downloaded mod to double skeleton health as a "balance" which I found to be hilarious.

#3 The more I look up questions about this, the more I see people saying Skeletons are bad. And then they provide no answers (at least not any of the ones I want) as to WHY they could actually believe an 80 health character with 75% more armor coverage on the head, and a shirt slot is better than double the health and all the already stated bonuses.

So I thought I'd ask on the community forums, and a bunch of you immediately started responding, which honestly blew my mind. I figured I'd get one or two half ♥♥♥♥♥♥ responses in the next 24 hours. But everyone contributed a good point and I thank you.

[BALTBVLL]

I've found skeletons to be more of a hinder to me than anything. HN attacks you on sight which is very annoying and makes early game alot harder. The fact that first aid for skeletons is alot more expensive and harder to come by than bandages and a piece of bread for shek. Beds for skeletons are far scarcer. The debuffs are also very annoying. I wont get into minmaxing and specific stats but theres alot of downsides to skeletons and i usually try to not pick any up in my squads until lategame when you can afford to train them up without getting your ass beat.

[Puff]

Well, personally I know of a good amount of locations to just find skeleton repair kits immediately. And also know of a ton of locations across the map for beds. And not having to worry about environment damage is a MAJOR buff early if you know how to use it. And I also have no idea why anyone goes near holy nation territory in the first place...

[BALTBVLL]

Messaggio originale di Puff:

Well, personally I know of a good amount of locations to just find skeleton repair kits immediately. And also know of a ton of locations across the map for beds. And not having to worry about environment damage is a MAJOR buff early if you know how to use it. And I also have no idea why anyone goes near holy nation territory in the first place...

HN is a good gateway to get to alot of places in the world, they also patrol around alot, and settling in HN territory is generally pretty safe. HN provides free food and healing for Humans aswell which is a nice. If you cant go through HN you're gonna have to take other longer routes than can get you killed if you dont micromanage running, and generally take a longer time.

[Shidan]

From a statistical standpoint, Skeletons are purely worse in direct combat compared to most other races when it comes to stronger opponents. I have an arena where I run various combat tests, pitting teams of NPCs against each other and the like.

In this arena I have run a number of racial tests. The main one being a team for each race in the game, with identical skills and equipment where possible, and no bonuses against race or armour on the weapons. Literally the only difference being race, and armour when a race supports more slots.

Hivers get wiped against literally any other team. Princes and workers handle better than soldiers thanks to the helmets, but their low HP means they're gone quickly regardless.

Skeletons can't stand against either Humans or Shek. They last a lot longer than the Hivers, but the lack of armour for the shirt and head mean they get taken down.

Humans and Shek are close, but the Shek almost always come out on top. The extra HP combined with the full armour means they've got more survivability than the humans, and that gives them the edge they need.


One thing Skeletons are good at is endurance. Even though they lose their fights, all of the KO'd Skeletons will usually have their limbs intact, and not be dying. They will live to fight another day. Compared to the other races, who more often than not are either dying or missing limbs.

They also excel in the early game combat, when armour matters very little. In those days the extra HP is worth FAR more than any garbage armour you might be able to put in your slots. This is one of the things that often leads to the concept that Skeletons are better than the other races.

So I wouldn't call them a "bad" race or anything. They have plenty of good points. But they are lacking in late game combat ability, which is generally what people are referring to when they say they are bad.

[Puff]

Well they have everything I desire. I like no down time, no extra damage from environment, high HP. I will win 90% of the fights I get into, and the 10% I don't win I just heal up once they finish beating on me and then I go finish them off because they're all hurt and bandaged.

So I get 2x the HP, freedom of movement without environment, ability to almost instantly heal back to full (extra life) almost like my squad is twice the size.

Fighting in an arena doesn't really show the strengths vs weaknesses unless you have them fight and bandage and wait a minute and re-engage like you would normally play them.

[Kasterjojo]

Overall I think a lot of good comments were made here. A very good conversation for anyone involved. I say that regretting what I said earlier. @puff I never wanted to come across like I did. This topic blew up and I loved it.

[Puff]

:D I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. And of course it wouldn't be a good post without some Shidan in the mix.

Hope whomever reads this sees what I was looking for for so long.

[Grigsey]

Messaggio originale di Puff:

I mainly just like skeletons because I don't want to lose tons of hp by the environment or get eaten by animals and constantly have to fill my inventory with food. (which by the way costs way more to get food than it ever will cost to spend on a skeleton bed)

Food is like super duper easy to get tho. Stealing from bars, even with a completely fresh character is very very easy. It's usually how I level my steal stuff-fu skills early on. Buying a bull or garru with selling the bounty you just stole and then using it's massive pack to keep stealing will cause you to never want for food or spend money on food, ever.

But totally get that you want one less thing to think about/deal with and that's cool. Besides how plausible is it to burgle the same bars for ALL their food and booze constantly?

I do love me some skeletons tho. Martial Arts master skeleton was one of my fav. duders I've ever had in a playthrough of Kenshi.

[Puff]

Yeah after starting the 20th playthrough by just stealing 2 million dollars worth of stuff in 4 hours and then buying full set of masterwork stuff is really not the go-to anymore.

[Grigsey]

Messaggio originale di Puff:

Yeah after starting the 20th playthrough by just stealing 2 million dollars worth of stuff in 4 hours and then buying full set of masterwork stuff is really not the go-to anymore.

lol true that. I recently did the UC start where the backstory is "noble took house cuz jerk" aaaaand 3 days into it became the richest person in the UC, with a bigger and swankier house than I assume my character had before.
Also I have Emperor Tengu's sake. All his sake.

Wait... buy masterwork? Surely you mean buy with the five finger discount!

Tho the equipment grind up I prefer to do by crafting my own usually. Gotta have some goal to work towards :) Besides, money is for the goat army.