My character can't win a fight

[Karcel]

I spent some time fighting cannibals together with Deadcats. I was downed quite often which was fine. After a while I reached some decent stats for a few ingame days.
Attack 24, defense 23, strength 22, toughness 26, hacker weapon 16, Melee attack and defense both at 22.

I made my way towards the Flotsam ninja base to buy some stuff since I made quite a bit of money and stumbled upon a lone starving bandit. The stats were abysmal. Like 4 times lower than some of mine. I decided to attack and thought its goona be some easy exp for some of my stats.

I lost. My character lost against what is supposed to be significnatly weaker than me at this point. I didn't realize my character was this weak before because I fought in groups together with deadcats.

Melee defense and attack are way higher compared to the bandit. I don't get it. Why did my character lose? My armor, my weapon, my stats, everything was better, yet I lost.
What could cause this? Do I need like 50+ skills to take on a damn starving bandit?
The only other thing I noticed early was that my character is really slow. I have 36 atheletics and enemies with 10 run faster than I(not encumbered).

[holon99]

Weird. If this was a 1 against 1 fight, if you did not bear unreasonable weight,I see no reason why this should happen.

[ReD2222]

I wonder if your character was wearing a LARGE backpack on their back? (Cause with that thing on you you get -90% of all your melee combat stats (ranged is fine though) :D

[Gena Cider]

what kind of armor were you using? any backpacks? the bottom left of your screen show should your total stats with penalties and bonuses applied, so something could be lowering your stats and making you lose.

[Karcel]

Originally posted by antedeguemon447:

what kind of armor were you using? any backpacks? the bottom left of your screen show should your total stats with penalties and bonuses applied, so something could be lowering your stats and making you lose.

Plated Drifter pants, Drifter Leather Jacket, Northern Boots, Dark leather Shirt.
The jacket gives me +5 melee defense. Weapon is a Northern Axe, a weapon that was added with the Universial Wasteland Expansion and is part of the Stormijaz faction.

I have a Thiefs backpack that provides no negatives to my stats. The stats I listed in my original post were actually the stats I have with all the bonuses/maluses added/subtracted.

[rabureta]

What's your dexterity? If I had to guess it's a blunt/heavy weapon, which means you aren't leveling dex which is your attack speed stat, and you probably also don't have the strength to use a heavy weapon effectively which is an additional attack speed malus, and so you went into battle and got stunlocked before you could actually attack.

[bunny de fluff]

Mods are usually difficult.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Weapon weight x2 or blunt damage x40 is the amount of strength you need for a weapon, hackers usually need a fair chunk of strength.

You should be okay if the weapon is of similar stats to vanilla ones and is below Catun grade.

[rompier02]

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

Weapon weight x2 or blunt damage x40 is the amount of strength you need for a weapon, hackers usually need a fair chunk of strength.

You should be okay if the weapon is of similar stats to vanilla ones and is below Catun grade.

Hey. So a desert sabre weighing 9 kg with blunt damage of 0.21 would require what amount of str to be wielded effectively? Model Catun No. 2.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3113553929

[Rosh+]

if you're using 5x attack slots, and you aren't 90 in relevant combat stats with at least decent armor against more than 10 dudes, you're gonna go down, especially if you use martial arts.

however, doesn't seem to be the case here, check your encumbrance.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Originally posted by rompier02:

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

Weapon weight x2 or blunt damage x40 is the amount of strength you need for a weapon, hackers usually need a fair chunk of strength.

You should be okay if the weapon is of similar stats to vanilla ones and is below Catun grade.

Hey. So a desert sabre weighing 9 kg with blunt damage of 0.21 would require what amount of str to be wielded effectively? Model Catun No. 2.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3113553929

According to the wiki only 9 strength (rounded up) is needed, that character can wield the Meitou version without issue. Sabres are not very demanding on stats.

[Sparrowhawk65]

That bandit would make a good tank. Get him in your squad pronto.

[Karcel]

Originally posted by Sparrowhawk65:

That bandit would make a good tank. Get him in your squad pronto.

I have kept playing this character and increased the stats. Now approaching 50 strength, attack and defense soon. It has gotten a lot better since. I can usually take on multiple cannibals.

I wasn't encumbered like someone else said but I guess it was a display error.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

20 stats isn't much and is only about ~60% chance to block vs the average hungry bandit.

And they only need to land 1-2 good hits to cripple you enough to start a snowball.

Not sure about your gear stuff since some of it's modded and you don't list the qualities, though at lower grades, none of that stuff is particularly protective.

Also the speed sounds very weird as 15-20 athletics can outrun almost anything in the game unencumbered, except beakthings and enemies with even higher athletics.

Probably again something tweaked in the modding to make the game much harder.

Possibly that the boots you're wearing are reducing your speed, since they sound like a modded item.

~10 skills should be enough to win against a hungry bandit 1 v 1 with a reasonable degree of consistency, though it's still close enough that it can go either way.

vs ~20 stats, they need to get very lucky to win.


Though generally for going solo, you should definitely be 50+ and in really good quality protective gear. Or if packing light, simply avoid combat.

The weapon you're using is modded so I have no idea of it's requirements, and you might be lacking in strength for it, which could heavily sway things in the enemy's favor as it makes you combat performance much worse than your other stats would easily indicate.


(also enemies weaker than you are generally worthless for training purposes unless it's a non-SOL skill like Toughness (or training strength with a meitou fragment axe on fodder enemies)), and shouldn't be fought at all unless there some other useful purpose for doing so or they're too fast to avoid).

[Loot]

Most important stat in the game is Toughness, in my opinion. After hundreds of hours playing solo combat characters on 3x slots, Toughness gets me through a lot of fights. I usually micro my character to avoid hits, so I end up having to purposely train it to high numbers, but it can be done pretty swiftly if you go to the proper location. Athletics is second most important, followed by Dexterity and Strength. If you can't run from a losing fight, you've lost. Although, you can make up for it with Scout legs, as long as you don't go to the wrong area. You can easily get enough cats for 2 Masterwork Scout Legs, while levelling Toughness to 95 in the first 2 hours of the game. You'll also get most combat stats to 60-70 in the process.

Just gotta fight the Band of Bones guys outside Squin. It's a lot more difficult before 30 Toughness, as you'll have a high chance of bleeding out if you play on high death rate. Gotta kite them and bandage yourself to stop bleeding, before you let them knock you out. At a certain point, you can just let them knock you out without worrying about dying, and this is when you get to finally start training your combat stats. Once you've levelled up, bring back the 10k cat bounty, as well as all their gear to sell. After which, you should be able to hunt Berserkers for their 1-2k cat swords. Just gotta get a large backpack to keep them in. Don't be afraid to hire mercenaries. Although, Skin Spiders will kill them if you go too far, so keep that in mind.

[Slimane]

Having stats in the mid 20's doesn't change much. Unfortunately this game is all about fighting enemies that are way stronger than you are. If your stats are similar to an enemy the fight will be about luck and gear.

So about starving bandits: Just never fight them.

They are simply not worth your time. (unless your cheesing toughness by going down next to the large groups of them in Skinners Roam)

They're starving which means they're already low stats are even lower, which means you will get almost no xp for beating them.

Also you don't want to be training near cannibal lands, they will kidnap and kill you.

One of my favorite spots to level very fast is Stobe's Gamble. None of the enemies there will eat you, kidnap you or enslave you. Black Gorillo's have super high stats and are the best training dummy in the game IMO. You can also safely rest in Spring (the Anti-slaver city)

PS: Unless you post a screenshot of your characters stats + equipment, we won't really be able to tell you what went wrong.