Store Page
Kenshi
All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews
Kenshi > General Discussions > Topic Details
Watokosha Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:25am
Best way to level stats without mods?
So i've been trying to figure out a good way to improve the stats of my crew without having to resort to using any of the special training mods (strength bench/dexterity) because I like the idea that they need actual combat experince to get good at combat. also the risk vs reward fighting is fun i think.

Anyone have any recommendations on what to fight after you are done with starving/hungry bandits, and dust bandits ( i set up my first base in the border area so got plenty of them).

Also, have any tips for doing it with out getting your guys completely decimated/crippled?
The author of this topic has marked a post as the answer to their question.
Click here to jump to that post.
Originally posted by Zourin:
Melee Attack/Defense/martial arts - Backpack full of ore, go out, and pick 1v1 (or 2v1) fights with bandits. It's called 'weight training'. You basically want to stack every penalty you can find on yourself

Strength - Load up your rookie with a backpack full of ore and assign him a haul job to keep him moving. Make sure the pack isn't equipped so he doesn't dump the ore out. That, or you can just equip a heavy or blunt weapon. Or both (staffs for laborers isn't bad).

Athletics - Assign a haul job. This is why you shouldn't build a base 'optimally' like having resource refineries next to the mines.

Dexterity - Assign a slash-dominant weapon such as a katana, saber, bladed polarm, or even hackers. Get into fights with hungry bandits or capture prisoners 'for training purposes'.

Toughness - Get your butt kicked repsonsibly. The idea is to take damage and NOT get killed or amputated. Give a prisoner a rusty-quality blunt weapon, just to be safe.

Precision/Crossbows - Give your trainee a low quality Toothpick or Junkbow and let him follow your combat group around. Give him the opportunity to put rounds into your (much more competant) fighters.

Turrets - DON'T DO IT UNTIL YOU'VE TRAINED PRECISION! Seriously. Shooting your own allies in the head with a mounted harpoon that can do 100 damage is stupid, and you're stupid for doing it now that I've told you not to put a rookie on a harpoon. Give them a normal mounted crossbow instead if you're desperate..

Stealth - See Athletics, but turn Stealth Mode on and come back a week later. Best trained if hauling in and out of a city. Less effective in an outpost where everyone already knows you're wierd.

Thievery - Steal things from out in the open. Cups, plates, value doesn't matter. This is the 'hard way' compared to stealing something, dropping it, and picking it back up again. Items in containers are NOT for training purposes!

Assassination - Pick a 2 on 1 fight, and have your trainee sneak and assassinate while the other blocks/taunts. After each attempt, break and re-engage stealth. it helps a LOT to have a training dummy to kickstart this skill.

Lockpicking - Pick locks on shop doors at night. Plenty of practice, fairly low risk and penalties if you're caught. If you're having a 'thieves night out', have multiple thieves pick the same lock together if it's particularly hard, they'll all share attempt xp.

Farming - Agriculture and milling.
Medicine - Aside from mending poor life choices, you get this skill from crafting items at the medicine bench.
Crossbows - make crossbow bolts until you can at least make standard weapons. This will take a LONG while.
Robotics - Make robotic stuff at a robotic stuff bench.
Science - Electronics bench, I think.
Labor - srsly?

General rookie combat tips:
- Keep a medic out of the way in reserve. .
- Buy sleeping bags. Seriously. Stop bleeding out in the middle of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nowhere and rest properly when travelling.
- River Raptors and hungry bandits are ideal training targets early on.
- Pay attention to weapon bonuses. Flesh cleavers may be a best all-round weapon, but they can't hold a candle to polearms against non-humans.
- Don't underestimate the power of bowmen in a formation. Once trained, they can be absolutely devastating. I took out both the leaders for the Dust Bandits and Band of Bones AND their camps in open combat with only 3 crossbowmen. Sure, they weren't rookies, but they had to start somewhere.
< >
Showing 1-15 of 19 comments
Larus Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:36am 
Originally posted by Watokosha:

[...] getting your guys completely decimated/crippled?

That is exactly what you want in order to improve toughness ;)
#1
titanopteryx Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:38am 
Traditionally capturing a bandit, equipping him with a bad blunt melee weapon, and using him as a punching bag works. As your guys train on him, he'll be getting stronger too so you can keep going. Don't try to fight the bandit with him weaponless. An unarmed bandit will be continuously increasing his unarmed skills if you do that. That can create a monster.

I haven't tried that in a long time though. I don't know if that still works.
#2
Rommel Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:39am 
Use only light armor till you got your stats where you want em. Get your butt kicked a lot{not joking there} to raise your toughness and of course to get the strength up weight yourself down
with stuff. Never use Hvy armor till you got your stats up high and get a few guys up in the sneaking stats so you can steal and get bounties the easy way......
#3
Rommel Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:44am 
Originally posted by titanopteryx:
Traditionally capturing a bandit, equipping him with a bad blunt melee weapon, and using him as a punching bag works. As your guys train on him, he'll be getting stronger too so you can keep going. Don't try to fight the bandit with him weaponless. An unarmed bandit will be continuously increasing his unarmed skills if you do that. That can create a monster.

I haven't tried that in a long time though. I don't know if that still works.
Oh and get a few guys trained in unarmed combat....i got 4 and damn they kick some butt lol!
I just pick 3 or 4 guys and never put a weapon in there hands{it's good to get their STR. up high}
#4
XheadshotX Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:46am 
strength probally the easiest

load up on iron ore look at character stat and wait till it says 25% xp. then pick up a dead body to get the 50%.

in squinn for example can walk gate to gate or in front on the gate hitting shift click 10 times and sneak.

this might take a few days but you can get your strength up really high with this method by high i mean 60-70 range.
#5
XheadshotX Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:48am 
dex

best way for me is to use katanas. this is a fast weapon. use this on melee guys.

on archers i like to kill a group and have camp beds set up for party to heal between waves.

i usually leave the archers up and assign them the job of attacking enemies. they will fire bolt after bolt i use toothpicks and they will try to hit the guys crawling away after a fight usually missing 90 percent of their shots. every reload every bolt fired they are leveling up their perception dex crossbows.

#6
XheadshotX Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:51am 
toughness probally the hardest to level up

if you want cheese kidnap prisoner put in cage. a high level boss ie dust king or something will level you up faster since your fighting a guy stronger. you put the best gear on them. and a healer to heal you.

or maybe have multiple dust bosses and let one guy in at a time to fight the 3 guys.

what i did was set up 6-7 sleeping bags on either side of the entrance to squinn and set spawn rate to high and just fight battle after battle this will at least get you in the mid 20's.

probally going to have to fight some harder enemies to get above that. but have them fight injured staggered wounded. they gain toughness that way.
#7
XheadshotX Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:52am 
piss off the holy nation so they send squads of troops to your town and fight those paladins they are harder than dust bandits.
#8
XheadshotX Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:52am 
anger*
#9
XheadshotX Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:56am 
i personally had my A team fighting skin spiders 3-5 at a time with camp bed nearby next thing i know i had 15 spawn on me and eat my team alive and stand right next to me killing the others as they each got up one by one.

so just make sure if your training toughness the enemy can't eat you or enslave you etc. and have some form of healing nearby. your base is nice b/c you more than likely have beds there that heal at a much faster rate than camp beds.

sometimes you might be unconscious for a day or two with campbeds.
#10
XheadshotX Jan 1, 2019 @ 10:03am 
lets say you have a squad of 12 guys. you could send one guy in at a time to fight till unconscious then send the next in. then bring your 10 guys that are alive to kill thte enemies and save your friends.

and maybe next time send a different guy in to take the punishment.

the only way i can think to avoid total risk of loosing a limb is to turn that off in the options never to dismemberment but that is kinda cheating a little so up to you.

i guess you could send them in one at a time to fight a leviathithan. maybe a baby by herself.

sounds like you might be in the holy nation territory get them to fight you and that will be a step up from dust bandits and allow you the safety of your base to heal up.

another strategy would be go adventuring with your A team and have someone with sleeping bags and when you find a good enemy that you can fight and get your stats up with plop down thte bags and go at it.
#11
XheadshotX Jan 1, 2019 @ 10:06am 
archers and healers will probally need the most help on toughness. while in a small base in a town where my researcher was learning science plans i threw a few enemies in there and locked the door so he would get some combat experience and not be so far behind the others. but once i started my permanent base i found another permanent researcher to stay home. and can leave another guy to help heal and beat the enemes in case you loose the fight.
#12
iokimg Jan 1, 2019 @ 10:12am 
My preferred method for str and athletic training is to build a long base and put storage on the side opposite side of the resource or machine.

For example, ore mining on the left side of the base, processor on the right, steel bar storage on the left, weaponsmiths on the right, weapon storage on the left.

I assign people that need training to auto-inventory different storages and machines causing them to constantly run from one side of the base to the other, and if they are doing str training I put a trader's backpack full of weight in their inventory. I also like to make other people's last job be following one of my trainees so they never go aimless, they train until their normal job is required to be done.

You can do this in towns also with purchased houses. The Hub is great for this training and it's almost criminal how easy it is to semi-afk your way to becoming super strong in Stack.
Last edited by iokimg; Jan 1, 2019 @ 10:12am
#13
Watokosha Jan 1, 2019 @ 1:14pm 
Lots of great tips, thanks guys!
#14
Croak Jan 4, 2019 @ 6:30pm 
As for perception, it's kind of an exploit right now but if you set a job to man turrets often times your guards will be "engaged" with nothing, causing both their Perception and turret skill to constantly rise. Realized it after leaving some new recruits on my entry killbox turrets and checking what skills they had after a few days only to realize suddenly they all had 90+ Perception.
#15
< >
Showing 1-15 of 19 comments
Per page: 1530 50

Kenshi > General Discussions > Topic Details
Date Posted: Jan 1, 2019 @ 9:25am
Posts: 19

Discussions Rules and Guidelines