Must-Have for expedition teams?

[Goodly Iguana]

After many hours of trial and error i've finally got a modest outpost set up and hit a wall where I need the more advanced science books. I'm worried about leaving my base semi-undefended though and aren't sure what I should bring with my away team other than food and a couple medkits each ?

[Pyrrhus]

You can leave your base. If you keep captured wild animals at your base, be sure you have at least one character present at your base all the times or captured wild animals would disappear. One character with low stats won't be able to defend base when raid event is triggered but could hide somewhere in or around the base to wait out until your main party gets home.

Depending on stats of your characters, you might need to bring sleeping bags if your destinations are too far from bars or beds. Adv medkits are better, heal faster, so get them. Robotic kits too if you have skeletons or robotic limbs. You should have pack animals, like bull or garru, to store stuff. You could carry them to speed up travelling.

[Kannon]

With the way base mechanics work, you are better off leaving base empty of characters than leaving a few guys inside. Raids and events cant proc if the base isnt loaded in RAM, neither can random bands assault and rob or take it over.
Feels gamey but if you can't take on a huge raid with a few defending characters, you'll just run away in most cases so it's not like the end result is very different.

Food and meds is all you really need. A couple of back up limbs are also good, as in many dangerous areas limbs pop off pretty fast, especially from hivers. Legs as a priority, right hands as well.

[Jayne]

Sound silly, but backpacks or a pack animal if you don't have them already. Nothing more painful than having to leave behind loot.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Goodly Iguana:

After many hours of trial and error i've finally got a modest outpost set up and hit a wall where I need the more advanced science books. I'm worried about leaving my base semi-undefended though and aren't sure what I should bring with my away team other than food and a couple medkits each ?

Backpacks, of course.
Sleeping bags.
Some fabric or animal skins and the knowledge of how to build the appropriate tent. (Very useful for certain regions.)
Pack animals - You'll want them for carrying all your loot.
Extra Ammo.
Bandages/kits. Don't forget Skeleton kits, too, if you have any. (Not a bad idea to have a few in case you meet a recruitable skeleton.)
Food! You need enough to last you several days and you should have plans to resupply where you can. (Friendly/Neutral towns/Tech Hunter bars/trading posts)
A few extra weapons/armor/toothpicks in case you find a good recruit.
You may also want ways to mitigate dust already equipped or in character's inventory.

Be sure to uninstall any campfires/tents/sleeping bags when you leave. It'll help prevent duplication of bases/bugs.

Defense: You have to make a choice, but you really need those books else you're just not going to be able to build up your base very well.

Have you already experienced any Raids at your base? If so, did your characters handle it well?

Defenses? Turrets? How dangerous is your location?

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/kenshi/images/b/b8/Kenshi_all_in_one_map.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20190327232444

[Duskmare]

I disagree with a few of these guys above. In my opinion they're way overstocking. Extra weapons and armour? Spare limbs? Tent materials?

Nah. I would recommend the basics: Have guys with weapons their proficient with and armour that gives them decent coverage and damage reduction without too many stat penalties, backpacks included. I think all my guys have either thief backpacks or light thief backpacks. They can be expensive in the early game though.

As for what to actually take in their inventories (in order of importance):

1) A medkit or two. (I like everyone to have at least a small one, but you can trade with a downed character, so you only need one or two and if your medics go down you can still have someone take it off them and medicate.) Obviously a robot kit if you have skeletons or prostetics.

2) Extra ammo for any crossbowmen. Pretty self explanatory. Also give them a side arm and have them train at a combat dummy at least for a few levels incase they run out.

3) At least one sleeping bag. If you have a pack animal then stack them to 5/6. There's been a good few times when I've had to wait 4 times as long to get some legs healed up and characters conscious so that I can continue on my journey without leaving people behind.

4) Food. This is less important since you come across a lot of loot and you'll pass by a lot of villages. So you can always buy a stack or two of meatwraps or whatever in exchange for some rusted bandit swords.

That's pretty much it. If you're going somewhere with acid rain then I'd recommend a longcoat/dustcoat and iron hat or armoured hood. Together they'll negate any acid damage. I think moving a bit then sticking up a tent and healing for a few minutes would be needlessly tedious. Plus, if you get ambushed while recovering then your guys will probably end up fighting in the acid rain too. It's just not a good place to be without full acid protection.

Pack animals are massively helpful. Personally I think bulls might be better than garru since they have a much higher damage potential. I frequently see them deal 130 damage per hit. The only advantage garru have is that they can stack items to 6 instead of 5. Either way I'd recommend taking at least 2 pack animals. Also make sure to have stolen items or unstackable items in your people's inventories since you can carry more by putting stacks in the animal inventories.

If you pick up a new recruit just remember the start of the game. Send them running to your base and they'll probably be fine. Or hand them the next horse chopper and armour you find on a bandit and take them along for the rest of the ride set to passive or block or something. (Or just don't bother like I do and let them get some toughness EXP then carry them around, hahaha.)

[cdplayer906]

Originally posted by Kannon:

With the way base mechanics work, you are better off leaving base empty of characters than leaving a few guys inside. Raids and events cant proc if the base isnt loaded in RAM, neither can random bands assault and rob or take it over.
Feels gamey but if you can't take on a huge raid with a few defending characters, you'll just run away in most cases so it's not like the end result is very different.

Food and meds is all you really need. A couple of back up limbs are also good, as in many dangerous areas limbs pop off pretty fast, especially from hivers. Legs as a priority, right hands as well.

this is the most important response. don't leave anyone at your base, as it will keep the chunk loaded and active, unless they can defend against the strongest raid you come against in your region.

the second point is spot on too. the only 2 necessities are food and meds, but i too carry spare limbs. legs are the most important for constant mobility since the arms can be rotated to stop bleeding out

[Chill°bucket]

A muscle (wo)man/skeleton*In/Beep*In which carries a garru*In which carries everything you need...

[bunny de fluff]

You will want one sleeping bag per squad mate . You will sleep a lot to recover from injuries, unless your team is end game Town taking gods.

[happy]

did not read all the post, but I confirm:

-food
-medkit
-splintkit
-2 bags, the ones that stack items are best
-a sleeping bag per 3 team members.

sleeping bags and splint kit often are the things you forget- at least in my case.

[Goodly Iguana]

I only found out some bags stack items two days ago, are there more other than the wooden one ?

[Kohwalter]

Originally posted by Goodly Iguana:

I only found out some bags stack items two days ago, are there more other than the wooden one ?

Yes there are. But they are rare and can only be acquired by stealing/killing traders (orange backpack)...

However, wooden backpack is one of the best packpacks in the game without stealing or killing merchants. Just give one or two guys the Large Backpack to carry any equipment you loot. Everything else put on the wooden backpack since it can stack at least 9 units of each item (minus equipment).

Pro-tip: The combat penalty it gives is actually good for training, since it "reduces" your level in that stat. The only malus is the negative combat speed.

[bunny de fluff]

the backpack and traders bags are good for weight training while you are in your base. Outside of your base, you would want your bags to be as empty as possible and preferably without any penalty to skills whatsoever, that's why you should use the black colored Thief bag for expeditions.

[biochimera]

Heh reading through everyone's responses I feel like I go light. I usually load up one or two characters with food, have everyone carrying thieves backpacks, have a few characters with some splints, medkits and repair kits, some others with wooden backpacks if there's not enough in my squad to carry all the loot home otherwise and off we go. I also accept though that if a fight goes bad then my squad is likely to be limping back home or to the nearest settlement to rest and recover. The only time I go harder than that is when I'm going after bugmaster, as my squad gets really badly mangled on the way in and taking him down, so they need a breather before escaping Arach. The guy Buggy wants to beat down might theoretically require more of a set up as well but I usually don't find that to be the case, just chill in the dome before him where his minions are and keep smacking them down, it tends to be okay. It also helps I always build a base in sonorous dark before heading into the ashlands.