best armor and wep for mid and late game?

[DarNock]

got to the point where i need to buy blueprints but i'm not sure which ones to get. I'd like my farms and everyone to wear something more than just cloth. I was told sabers are really good against humans and thats mostly what I fight. I'm in the area to the hub so I have access to all those towns.

What are some blueprints I need to stock up on

Thanks!

[Irkandr]

may be all?
masterworks samurai + mfsterworks mercenary for "tanks"
masterworks dustcoaters + mw leather + mw strawhats + mw wanderers for damage dealers)

[Greb]

Early on you'll probably be fighting low armour opponents such as Dust Bandits and Hungry Bandits and the like, where cutting damage is probably best. Guardless Katana for the attack bonus, Foreign Sabre for the defence bonus or everyones favourite Desert Sabre for its attack bonuses against evil beasties.

In the mid-game? I'd probably start using a Nodachi or a Naginata for the reach and big sweeping attacks that can hit multiple opponents. They're kind of like training weapons until you characters are strong enough for heavy weapons.

Later on you'll want to start considering the bigger hitters, if you can carry them. I personally consider the Falling Sun the best weapon in the game, since its top version in Meitou grade has something like 2.60 cutting and 2.00 blunt damage on it, although some people consider the Fragment Axe to be superior but that is 80% blunt with 3.60 blunt damage, with a tiny bit of cutting at 0.60 (the Meitou version anyway) - plus the Meitou Fragment axe weighs 76kg while the Meitou Falling Sun only weighs like 40kg too.

Also, getting your hands on the Meitou Fragment Axe requires you to KO (through combat - good luck with that - or assassination) the leader of the Shek faction who has diplomatic status, whereas getting the Meitou Falling Sun you have to defeat or assassinate KO someone found in a very dangerous location, protected by 120 soldiers. So yeah.

Really heavy weapons though, so you might want to wait until you have a good amount of Strength before trying to use them, plus the higher your Strength the faster you can swing them. Heavy weapons are amazing for destroying groups of enemies, which tends to be the biggest threat of all especially in the late game.

Honestly though, it's probably better to specialise rather than generalise and keep swapping out weapons. Try to have one character using one weapon type, another using the other, especially since there's only one Meitou version of each weapon type so spreading around the skills can be a good idea.

Don't overlook Martial Arts. It's probably the most powerful thing in the game at the top end of the scale, capable of punching a Samurai in the throat and killing him in one shot etc.

[Fatbill]

There is really no "best", it depends on what skills you want a toon to develop.
Heavy weapons tend to hit the hardest, when you also have a very high strength, but they take a long time to train and are marginal until then. Plus they attack less often.
Martial arts are very powerful, again, when skilled up past 50 or so, but weak until then, and there are some heavy penalties if you try to use MA and heavier armor.

That said, the best QUALITY weapons, Meitou grade, are all looted from boss type NPCs.

Personally, most of my guys in the main squad are mix of sabers, hackers, and a couple polearm and katana users. They wear medium class armor. I have a few heavy weapons guys that wear heavy armor, and one MA guy in armored rags. My two archers wear mercenary leathers.

The point is there is no one answer that covers everything and most people choose a mix of all that, because some weapons are better than others at different things.

Cheers.

[HMG-CoA]

TRANSLATE TO ENGLISH

Bueno te contare, desde mi experiencia, todo depende de qué quieras. Por ejemplo si tu grupo de luchadores esta formado por gente muy fuerte en ataque y defensa puedes usar las armaduras samurais que son durisimas y muy pesadas así que protegen muchisimo, en terminos generales esas son las mejores. SU DESVENTAJA es que quitan bastante ataque cuando estan con el set completo, quitan -12 en ataque que siempre es importante, no protegen contra el acido y necesitan de guerreros fuertes.
Otras opciones, si tus guerreros son de artes marciales o ladrones usar ropa de tela es muy util con una camisa de malla. Otros tipos de armaduras como las que usan los algunas facciones menores son buenas pero no se igualan a la de samurais. Mas importante aun que la armadura es la calidad, las que son especialista u obra de arte de cualquiera que sea son muy muy buenas, igual que con las armas.
En mi juego, mi equipo esta formado por gente fuerte, por ello todos menos el luchador de artes marciales llevan armadura de samurai tipo obra de arte. Lo que si varío para no pederder tantos puntos en el ataque son los cascos (helment) ahí si se encuentran una gran variedad diferentes a los de samurais que son tambien muy buenos. Tambien aprende a hacer ropa contra la lluvia acida para cuando tus personajes viajen por el mapa (si son humanos) y no se quemen.

[Uncle Karl]

i like spiked clubs, makes my guys look like a bunch of ruffians

[wordwaster]

I use a mix. My exploration squad as a couple of people for each weapon class. My tank uses a foreign saber and full samurai armor. my heavies wear mercenary plate instead. My archers use Drifters leathers and jittes for backup. polearms and hackers use white plate armor. Katana use dust coats.

[DarNock]

wow, this seems to be complex, i like it :)

if my "farmer" is decked out in plate mail, is there any plenty to him for farming and doing labor?

[wordwaster]

No penalty to labor or farming.

You can see all the penalties\bonuses when you hover the mouse over the armor.

[August]

No armor(excepct with +to perception) + crossbow if you prefer hit and run strategy. if you have high enoght running speed - this is absolute best you can do midgame.

[ImNotVeryNice]

I have all 58 of my people in full masterwork samurai armor, falling sun, and katana for backup weapons.

[Gopblin]

1. Heavy armor isn't worth it unless Masterwork or at the very least Specialist grade, because it gives combat debuffs and doesn't mitigate much damage at Shoddy/High grade. Medium armor is pretty much never worth it because of poor coverage and minor combat debuffs.
So, light armor (even Assasins rags maybe) until you can get good heavy armor and have the STR to wear it.

As for the specific armor, yep Samurai is probably best because it gives OK coverage and doesn't debuff dex, even though it debuffs damage. Breastplate doesn't cover arms, and Crab armor debuffs Dex a lot. Of note, Chainmail is probably not worth is at Masterwork level because cutting damage is almost all blocked by outer samurai armor anyway, and blunt resistance is pretty much the same as Leather Turtleneck which doesn't debuff Dex.

2. Polearms for the win in early-midgame. They're light and fast, AND have awesome reach and good AoE, AND do roughly equal Cut and Blunt damage (=train both STR and DEX), AND penetrate armor, AND do 50% bonus damage to animals (AKA Beak Things, the only thing that can reliably chase down midgame chars).

Really, what's not to like? Carry a longsword or katana for indoors and you're golden.

Length is under-appreciated by many because it doesn't show up in a tooltip, but there is a lot of value in damaging the enemy before he can even swing his sabre, or hitting your comrade's opponents with AoE swings. There is a reason polearms were by far the most prevalent infantry weapons in history.

Lategame probably switch to heavy weapons if fighting a lot of heavily armored enemies or alpha beasts.
But this works best if your guys are in a group and/or you're not using extra combat slots mods, otherwise heavy weapons are slower and somewhat prone to getting stunlocked.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by DarNock:

...What are some blueprints I need to stock up on
..

Samurai Armor, Samurai Legplates - Heavy Armor
Samurai Cloth Pants, White Plate Jacket - Medium Armor setup (Some prefer other pants)
Dustcoat, Drifter's Jacket, Assassins Rags - Various Light Armor uses
Leather Turtleneck - Must-have shirt.
Chainmail/Blackened Chainmail - For your really capable heavy "Tanks."
Leather Hiver's Shirt - Forget what it's called. But, you'll want it as it has no penalties for your Hiver characters.
Masked Helmet - Great overall Helmet, suitable for just about everyone. Samurai Helmet for your uber Tanks when they get high enough Stats. A case could be made for some others.
Iron Hat - Very useful for Ranged characters. Put a backup Masked Helmet or Fog Mask in their pack, just in case.
Plated Boots, Drifter's Boots - Good boots for Hvy and Med Armored characters, respectively.

Fog Mask - IF you can find it, get it. It's very rare. Other than that, a Police Helmet or Swamp Ninja Mask will suit you for Dust Storms, etc. Until then, some Light helmet armors have reductions there for weather/gas/acid effects.

Hackers of all types, especially Long Cleavers and Paladin's Cross - Good DPS Weapons
Polearms, specifically the regular Polearm and Heavy Polearm. Nanjinata has uses too. - Regular Polearms are good DPS weapons.

(The theme above is Armor Penetration.)

Heavy Weapons - Planck is a great Heavy, Axe is decent too, Falling Sun is the most powerful base weapon in the game, but takes a heck of a lot of stats to keep wielding it effectively in combat. The mid-grade Falling Suns are excellent because of their bonuses and relatively lighter weights.

For Sabres, regular Ringed Sabre is a good defensive weapon that still has good damage. Foreign Sabre has some nice perks compared to the others, IIRC. Desert Sabres, IIRC, have good bonus damage for specialty uses.

Katanas - Regular Katana, Wakizashi are both good, especially for backup weapons. There's a good argument for bonus attack and DPS output against humans of guardless Katanas for unskilled users like laborers and farmers you haven't gotten trained, yet.

You'll also want the Old World Mark II bow, Ranger, and of course, the Eagle's Cross. Toothpick is great for its fire-rate, too. The rest aren't worth being able to make. Also make sure you have all the Ammo blueprints, too.

You can find most of these if you go hunting for them. Mongrel, Scraphouse, World's End and then shop all the Waystations and other Merchants you visit frequently.

[Yoshikami]

There's a lot of risk to Heavy Weapons though right? If you take a hit to the midsection, a penalty to Strength occurs. Penalty to Strength means lower swing speed. I think Hackers and Polearms are much safer bets.


There's also that Topper Katana. Only 15% penalty against armor but since it is a katana, the attack speed must be insane. Stagger enemies all day, every day.


I say Martial Arts is the one true way to fight though. Hahahaha.

[Gopblin]

^Agree with almost everything by Morkonan.

Some notes:

- I'm not a big fan of "common" hackers (Combat Cleavers and Paladin's Crosses that are so easy to loot of HN characters) due to their short length and lack of combat bonuses. IMO Long Cleaver (<= error corrected) is clearly the best due to its reach and damage.

- Crab helmet is unquestionably the best in game because it gives very good protection and the only thing it debuffs is perception (i.e. ranged combat). Not terribly common but then not exactly as rare as Falling Suns either.

https://kenshi.fandom.com/wiki/Crab_Helmet

- Cargopants (sneaky chain) give good crossbow resist and don't debuff anything except stealth. Good if you run a lot of crossbowmen or play with "more enemies have crossbows" mods.

- Polearms are probably best for farmers because of a massive attack bonus, low weight and long length (with micro, it's possible to strike and retreat without ever getting attacked by enemy with katana or sabre etc). Unless the farmer has like 2 STR, then yeah they probably need a Staff (1 kg weight).

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by LAXUS:

There's a lot of risk to Heavy Weapons though right? If you take a hit to the midsection, a penalty to Strength occurs. Penalty to Strength means lower swing speed. I think Hackers and Polearms are much safer bets.

There is a reduction in Strength due to damage taken, but it isn't instantaneous. It takes a bit of damage to cause.

Still, I'm with you on that as well - A character needs max Str, Robot Arms, Mastercraft Armors to have a chance of wielding an Edge-ranked Heavy Weapon through a combat encounter where you're actually expecting them to make maximum use of it. For regular fights, that's not a problem. But, for the fights where you sit back and say "AHA, I HAVE HVY WEPONZ! I WILLL WIN" then... things aren't as easy and a good Hacker would likely keep on keeping on dishing out damage even if the wielder gets their Strength debuffed.

There's also that Topper Katana. Only 15% penalty against armor but since it is a katana, the attack speed must be insane. Stagger enemies all day, every day.

Yeah, I'm experimenting with them. I switched the two Katana specialist I had over to Toppers. I haven't seen any significant differences, but I also haven't even done a lot of combat with them lately. Still waiting to see how they work out.

I say Martial Arts is the one true way to fight though. Hahahaha.

So darn hard to level in vanilla and without "cheesing" it. ((ie: Sticking a Beak Thing in a bedroll as a potential target or making a quality "Training Dojo." (The last isn't really possible in a Town, since they can run out the door.))

Originally posted by Gopblin:

^Agree with almost everything by Morkonan.

Some notes:

- I'm not a big fan of "common" hackers (Combat Cleavers and Paladin's Crosses that are so easy to loot of HN characters) due to their short length and lack of combat bonuses. IMO Combat Cleaver is clearly the best due to its reach and damage.

I haven't ever used them. I don't have anything against them, but their range is kind of low. A Long Hacker can easily dish out a lot of AOE damage. Love that "Baseball" swing... :)

- Crab helmet is unquestionably the best in game because it gives very good protection and the only thing it debuffs is perception (i.e. ranged combat). Not terribly common but then not exactly as rare as Falling Suns either.

https://kenshi.fandom.com/wiki/Crab_Helmet

But, there aren't any blueprints for that, are there?

- Cargopants (sneaky chain) give good crossbow resist and don't debuff anything except stealth. Good if you run a lot of crossbowmen or play with "more enemies have crossbows" mods.

A good point and a lot of people like them for those reasons. But, the Samurai Cloth Pants have Stomach coverage, which is pretty nice. Suitable either way, really, since Sneaky Chain Cargopants are great all-rounders. (Heavier, though, and that's why I first went with Samurai CP. For stronger characters, switching to Cargopants(SC) might be a good choice. It would definitely be a good choice if you're expecting to go against turrets, like maybe when hunting some named NPCs?)

- Polearms are probably best for farmers because of a massive attack bonus, low weight and long length (with micro, it's possible to strike and retreat without ever getting attacked by enemy with katana or sabre etc). Unless the farmer has like 2 STR, then yeah they probably need a Staff (1 kg weight).

Yup, good point.

At some point, all the different choices just mean you have a lot of opportunity for roleplaying. Min/Maxing is great, as we all know, but sometimes just sacrificing min/max for "Roleplaying Flavor" is good, too.

I've got a character who came to me armed with a Nodachi. It's crap. But, I keep him and his Nodachi upgraded because I decided "he thinks it is awesome" and that made the game more funnerer for me. :)

So, whenever the Weapon Smith starts upgrading everyone there he is standing in line, waiting for his Nodachi and telling everyone else how inferior their weapon choices are...