Viable Solo?

[orbajo]

So I've put about 9 hours into the game and I love it, my current squad is 4 people, have a house in Squin with ore storage, food storage and material storage. While I have one assigned to mining and storing ore and my other 3 out and about, I've noted switching back and forth is really slow. I have a laptop I bought earlier this year which is NOT a gaming laptop but I can play most stuff pretty decently on it. This game just feels like it's cooking my laptop- and I understand why with all the systems that are going on and things the game is keeping track of simultaneously.
I can see later on how this would get even more taxing with more and more people in separate squads and stuff of that nature.
So my question is this, is it viable to have a fun experience with this game with just a solo character? I doubt it's possible to solo everything but if I could get to a point of being able to defeat small groups by myself and join up with other factions in their wars it seems like it could be pretty cool. If the answer to this is yes, what is the best race/subrace do you guys think? I'm definitely open to stuff other than just human, but if it's simply not doable I understand.
I just really want to sink a lot of time into this, but I feel with my laptop the best option is solo for now. I'd much rather do that than just not be able to play the game at all. Any input is appreciated!

[Shidan]

A solo game is 100% viable. My main save with over 1,000 hours on it is a solo game, and as of yet there is only one thing I've never been able to beat (except with cheesy exploit-y tactics).

Your standard game solo is a fair bit more challenging early on, but when you become strong it feels very rewarding. You have to pick your fights carefully at first though, or you'll be reloading a lot when you inevitably die.

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

i tend to do mostly solo as well

[Shidan]

As for races, a shek is technically the strongest character race in the game, for a solo that extra HP would be a godsend. A solo skeleton can be a major powerhouse, but despite the significant bonus to HP, they are lacking in armour slots and will generally lose compared to a fully equipped shek with equal stats. Skeletons will have an easier early game though.

My solo is a human though, and one of the strongest NPCs in the game is a hiver, so all races could be viable with enough work and good gear. You don't need to feel like you could only pick one of the "best" races.

[orbajo]

Originally posted by Shidan:

As for races, a shek is technically the strongest character race in the game, for a solo that extra HP would be a godsend. A solo skeleton can be a major powerhouse, but despite the significant bonus to HP, they are lacking in armour slots and will generally lose compared to a fully equipped shek with equal stats. Skeletons will have an easier early game though.

My solo is a human though, and one of the strongest NPCs in the game is a hiver, so all races could be viable with enough work and good gear. You don't need to feel like you could only pick one of the "best" races.

I was not expecting these replies to be honest. Thank you, I do actually like Sheks so that sounds interesting.

[orbajo]

I am having the damndest time finding groups of bandits to train on, I swear on my first file there were more roving groups than there are now that I am solo... Any suggestions? Went with Shek, still around Hub/Squin/Stack area

[Instigator]

Originally posted by orbajo:

I am having the damndest time finding groups of bandits to train on, I swear on my first file there were more roving groups than there are now that I am solo... Any suggestions? Went with Shek, still around Hub/Squin/Stack area

You can tweak those rates in the options menu, I think under "gameplay".

[Lapom]

Originally posted by orbajo:

I am having the damndest time finding groups of bandits to train on, I swear on my first file there were more roving groups than there are now that I am solo... Any suggestions? Went with Shek, still around Hub/Squin/Stack area

Import your save and set nest multiplier to 4.

[Lapom]

Originally posted by orbajo:

Originally posted by Pomu:

Import your save and set nest multiplier to 4.

Did that, seems to have absolutely no effect whatsoever.

If you did it, you should see at least 3-4 nests when travelling the roads between Hub and Squin. You'll run into even more of them when you go South-east of the Hub into Dust King area.

Oh, if you want more roaming squads, go to options > gameplay > global population multiplier.

[ムUltrAム]

Duo is minimum to rescue your main charac

[Fryskar]

Originally posted by ム King Ultra ™:

Duo is minimum to rescue your main charac :dustwich:

You can do it solo, you just can't afford to get knocked out on low thoughness characters unless there are npcs nearby that will heal you. Or the attackers use blunt weapons.

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

United Cites is best area for solo play. as they will enslave you and heal you, beat you up when you try and escape and train your toughness while doing so.

[orbajo]

Originally posted by Hatsune Neko Gaming:

United Cites is best area for solo play. as they will enslave you and heal you, beat you up when you try and escape and train your toughness while doing so.

I will keep that in mind, that sounds lovely! We would only consider this a positive in Kenshi! haha

[EchoSON]

It is possible to solo everything
get good at picklocking, sneaking , assassination

A character with 70 in all combat stats can delete a group of weaker enemies
you can even solo a cleanser robotic unit in the bottom right of the map which drop Ai Cores , Or Leviathans in the top left of the map which drop pearls worth 12k each

Just gotto train train train
If you're like me and want to get to that stage 'quicker', there are mods which allow you to build training dummies for almost any skill.

There are some performance enhancing mods, which might help with loading etc

[kaiyl_kariashi]

the hardest part is surviving your first couple training sessions.

Once you're to about 20-30 toughness, you're very unlikely to die from full health unless there's carnivores around. (or you're fighting something that can deal 60+ damage after armor/toughness).

Best to play it safe and kite away and bandage wounds after you take hits, so most of your damage is already treated (at the bare minimum get the highest grade samurai leg plates you can find to give your legs as much protection as possible so you can kite)).

While mid-battle recoveries are the fastest way to build toughness, early on they're inconsistent in frequency and dangerous to take unless you've got a good system in place for it, but even just taking damage builds some toughness and it gets easier to take advantage of them once you've got about 15 toughness built up. (taking damage also builds melee defense skill, so you can quickly get to a point where fights become a bit safer and more predictable after a few training sessions. Obviously having a 2nd guy removes the risk of the strategy, but the kiting method is still relatively low risk, but will take longer since you can't have your 2nd guy stick the first in a proper bed for quick healing, and will have to wait until you regain consciousness to begin quick healing).

There's still risks involved depending on the amount of incoming damage, but it's much less as your recovery ticks will usually offset the deterioration of 1 untreated wound and let you recover enough to regain consciousness.

Assuming you've got a plan for making money, it's definitely advisable to get some specialist/masterwork armor prior to doing any dueling attempts as that can compensate for the low toughness to a degree. It's not strictly required (i usually go do my preferred training zone practically naked since hackers invalidate most low tier armor completely) but it's definitely riskier to do without and you definitely want to practice it a few times so you can gauge how risky sticking around and fighting till unconsciousness will be. (while slower, just taking a few hits and then running away and healing completely will also work, but is slower, as natural recovery can potentially get a mid-battle recovery tick depending on where the enemies you were fighting are relative to where you ko'd).

[orbajo]

Alright, so update. My Shek character is at at 30 strength, 40 something defense, 60 toughness, 40 something dexterity, 30 something martial arts and dodging. I have been basically only ever able to find groups of dust bandits (starving bandits hardly ever show up for some reason now although they did at the start) to train on in the borderlands, I did the United Cities thing for a lot of that toughness and barely made the journey back (now have a 30k bounty on my head for seemingly forever).
My question is where should I be heading to further my training at this point? I have a mask that prevents dust and gas, light armor shirt and chest armor as well as boots, and I have samuari platelegs as recommended by someone in this thread. I'm using a mix of a plank weapon for strength training for groups, and then martial arts on smaller duels with 1-3 people.
I can handle groups on dust bandits of like 4-5 rather comfortably, anything else I just kite. What's the next logical step up from dust bandits or... any insight on where I should further my training is appreciated.