A build to have almost any skill possible in Wasteland 2 : DC

[Boul-2-Spairm]

Hi everyone :)

The build I will post here is really something that I did for the challenge of making a playable team, while exploiting the game's balance weaknesses by using every optimisation exploit that I know. My thing with RPGs is about making characters that are both overpowered and versatile. I did this for Arcanum, the Fallout series, Skyrim (before the removal of the level cap), and am now doing this for Wasteland 2. These builds usually don't happen by mistake and are really concerning players who are trying to make them, so it's not a critical imbalance that can ruin a normal player's game, but they are overpowered since they exploit everything that you normally just randomly find in your first games (like... the 20 first times you play the game)

This build will allow you to do most of the side-quests that are skill-dependant, and it can be justified with role-play. It may be useful for players who don't wanna do the game over and over to know every bit of it (sometimes, we have a life outside gaming :) ), and who want to actually do the game, without looking at the lore on the internet. I played it as a good-aligned team, but nothing prevents you form using this build differently. You'll see that many non-combat skills are only raised to level 9 : this allows, for each skill, to have a decent 25% chance against the hardest attempts, that can be further raised by the use of trinkets (which you'll have by the time you reach level 9 in a skill, so you'll be practically a level 10). The stats presented here are those of level 50 characters.

Some things can change, since this exploit relies on some quest items or traded items such as books : shoud you choose to proceed differently for role-play reasons, the spirit of the build would remain the same, and become just slightly different. Books still play a huge role in this build, since it helps you reaching the final desired level while saving the biggest amount of points possible. Trinkets help you have a practical level in a skill, but can't unlock perks, so I used them scarcely : the cleric's cross and the akita figurine are the only ones I relied on, to use this build, since they are always available at specific shops. But trinkets will help you reach a practical level 10 in a specific skill if you randomly find them. I recommend to keep every trinket related to your skills (unless they are redundant, of course), and to constantly wear those you need for a fight, changing trinkets only when meeting a specific challenge that needs a practical level 10.

I didn't use the "delayed gratification" quirk at all : the goal was to have extremely powerful characters while having as many skills as possible, and there are enough characters in the party to favor quirks such as "disparnumerophobia" instead. But "delayed gratification" could have been a good idea if the challenge was to use less than 7 people in your team :) .

The goal was to have every usable skill, except BARTER (as, like in many RPGs, barter as a separate skill ends up being as useless as a "share" button on a porn-tube... the main reason being that at the end of your journey, your party will be swimming in cash, and there are only a few games that are an exception to this "rule"). It is possible to use trinkets to optimize this build even further, but I used trinkets to increase some stats or critical chances.

If you are interested by other builds I made for other games, just let me know : my thing is really about finding that kind of exploits, and hacking the game's mechanic is usually a good way for me to understand the way developpers wanted their game to be played.

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STARTING SQUAD :

1 - A cult-leader's charisma and almost genius-level intellect :
- QUIRK : disparnumerophobia
- STARTING STATS : 3 CRD, 3 AWA, 3 SPD, 8 INT, 9 CHR, and the rest at 1
- LVL 10 skills: handguns, surgeon, field-medic, leadership, kiss-♥♥♥, (raise surgeon to level 7, use a book to attain level 8, and use the "cleric's cross" trinket to attain level 10 ; raise field medic to level 9, and then, the trinket will raise this skill to level 10 ; use a book to reach level 10 once you reached level 9 in the three other skills)
- LVL 9 skill : Computer Science (use a book to reach level 9 from level 8)
- extra skill : spend the remaining points in... I don't know... barter ?

This character can hack computers, smooth-talk people, and heal anybody in the party, and she is also a great leader.

As you make her reach level 50, spend 1 attribute point in CRD and awareness, and 3 points in SPD : thanks to disparnumerophobia, you'll have plenty of action points. At the agricultural center, use the "AKITA FIGURINE" trinket to use "animal whisper" on a cow to gain one point in coordination. This will give her many action points, and thanks to her use of handguns, she'll be able to deal a decent amount of damage against average ennemies, when she doesn't have anybody to heal.
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2 - The tank
- QUIRK : disparnumerophobia
- STARTING STATS : 4 CRD, 3 AWA, 9 SPD, 9 STR, and the rest at 1. I spent 3 levelling points in CRD, and 2 points in Awareness: by the end of the game, thanks to disparnumerophobia, this character will be impossibly fast, strong, and ruthless (especially with a weapon modded to cost lest AP per attack). I didn't spend any point in Luck, because at a high level, it's not that relevant compared to an extremely high skill. You can of course change some of these stats.
- LVL 10 skill : blunt weapons : spend only 36 points in each to reach level 9, and use books to reach level 10
- LVL 9 skill : brute force : spend 30 points to reach level 8 (that's enough for the final perk and for most challenges), and reach level 9 with a book
- LVL 8 skill : Hard ♥♥♥ (allows new dialog options, and allows the "bloodthirsty" perk to make him an even more formidable killing-machine... sometimes, you'll perhaps need a trinket to access some minor dialog options). Use a book to reach level 8 once you reached level 7
- LVL 7 skill : Field Medic (allows him to heal himself, and grants him the perk "stimpaks", that makes him self-healing) Again : spend the points to reach level 6, and then use books for both of them.
- extra skill : You'll normally have 2 points left. I personally chose to spend them in surgeon : since this character can travel the battlefield very fast, and is likely to cheat death a lot, it can be good to give him a skill that allows him to revive a fallen-down healer.


This produces a character that is dealing tremendous outputs of damage at close range... Roleplay wise, he's an idiot giant that vows a cult to his leader, and they protect each other... This character is nearly unstoppable. I'd recommend maxing blunt weapons to 4 at his creation, and using one point wherever you like then (Field medic if you want supplies to sell or to use, or hard-♥♥♥ if you want to use this skill early-on, brute force isn't totally necessary at the beginning since you can have Angela Deth as a temporary follower during the beginning of the game).

You can, of course, spend more points in Hars-♥♥♥, instead of field medic, if you prefer, but then the build is less combat-oriented : both choices are okay, depending on what you want.

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3 - The walking onslaught
- QUIRK : disparnumerophobia
- STARTING STATS : 6 CRD, 9 AWA, 9 SPD, and the rest at 1. I spent 2 levelling points in coordination, and I used the "Akita Figurine" trinket (purchasable from the first seller at the beginning of the game) to use "animal whisper" on a cow to reach 9. Thanks to "disparnumerophobia", this character will have 10 points in three attributes, and you'll have 3 extra points to spend in strength, to avoid being slowed down by the weight of the weapons, and to be tougher...
- LVL 10 skills : heavy weapons / submachineguns / demolitions... Each time, spend 36 points to reach level 9, then use the unique book that is specific to each of these skills.
- extra skill : one level in surgeon with the 2 remaining skillpoints... That's gonna be useful if somebody needs to be revived while your healer is away.

Don't spend any point in "luck" : you'll be able to read the "killing for morons" book, and this book will allow your character to make only critical hits, even with weapons that don't make critical hits... Using this exploit will virtually grant you a 10 in four skills... This character is tough enough to sustain many hits, and is the one that deals most of the team's damage, thanks to this unique book, and thanks to the highest combat initiative, speed, chance to hit, and amount of action points that a character can achieve...

SMGs are a good thing when you have several opponents that can be killed more easily than with a heavy weapon

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4 - The sniper
- QUIRK : Disparnumerophobia
- STATS : 9 COORDINATION, 3 LUCK, 6 AWARENESS, 6 SPEED the rest is at 1, and when you level, spend skillpoints to reach 9 speed, and the rest to reach 5 luck. Then, you can earn an extra point thanks to the AKITA Trinket you can buy from the first trader in the game, that allows any character to use the "animal whisper" skill... You can then convert goats or other animals to raise a stat. I chose goats for the first sniper, since there is one that can be directly converted at the begining of the game to have +1 awareness.
- LVL 10 skills : Sniper rifles, handguns : use a book to attain level 10 once you reached level 9.
- extra-skill : whichever you like, depending on the perks you want to use, but I spent points in "surgeon" (in case your whole team is molested in a fight, with only one of these two surviving).

At level 50, you'll have 10 CRD, 6 LCK, 8 AWA, 10 SPD, 2 STR, 2 INT, 2 CHR, and all that without any trinket : this produces two snipers with lots of action points, initiative, and range, and a better-than-average critical chance (4 more LUCK doesn't matter that much at the end, compared to skillpoints, trinkets and things like that. I focused on SPEED instead of AWARENESS for the extra AP)

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FOLLOWERS :
Followers in this game all have a questionable attribute optimisation (they always have one or two attribute points that seem out of place), so I chose them depending on the skills I could give them, as it was relevant to that build. The followers that I chose and the characters that I created are depending on each other, skill-wise, but I also avoided followers that are temporary, or that can turn against you (I'm not saying their names for spoilers, but you know they're not on the list)

From the begining, get Angela at the citadel, and once in the wastes, head northish to the "nomad train camp" (watch out for radiation clouds : pass through those marked with a 1, to make sure your rangers survive without having to reanimate them). At the nomad train camp, recruit Scotchmo and Ralphy : Scotchmo is ok to follow you, and you need Angela's brute strength to save Ralphy. You can, of course, stay here for a while and do some quests, or start doing the main questline. Scotchmo and Ralphy will be your friends forever... You'll dismiss Angela later in favor of the final follower (or earlier, if you prefer recruiting other temporary followers).

1- Scotchmo :
- STATS : spend points wherever you want by level 20, but level 10's point has to be in INTELLIGENCE to gain an extra skill
- Lvl 10 SKILL : shotgun (without a book, because the leader already used it)
- Lvl 9 SKILLS : safecracking, lockpicking, alarm-disarming (using skillbooks from level 8 to reach skill-level 9 will do the trick)
- Extra skill : you'll even have 16 points to spend wherever you like... This build even allows redundancy, and you can spend, say, 14 points in Field Medic and 2 points in surgeon, so that scotchmo can revive a dead friend (even if it's not his job, because sometimes the main healer can't be everywhere) and partially heal that friend.

2- Ralphy :
- STATS : he will also benefit from an extra INTELLIGENCE point at level 10 to have another skill.
- Lvl 10 SKILL : Assault rifles (his attributes suit that skill), and he can benefit from books.
- Lvl 9 SKILLS : toaster repair, mechanical repair, animal whisper (same thing again : use skill books once you reach level 8)
- Extra skills : you can exploit what he already has and raise "brawl". He's not a great brawler, but he's decend, and his skill can help in close-quarter combat, against average foes.

3- Pizepi Joren :
Pizepi needs a high CHARISMA check to be recruited (22 from what I read, some say it was 20, so I'll stick to 22 to be sure). You can get dog collars, melons from the AG center, or anything to raise your stat. Getting her is not a problem at all, considering your leader and Ralphy already add a high Charisma to the team together, and that the remaining 4 persons add at least 4 more points (disparnumerophobia is relevant in this build).

- STATS : too bad some character-designer spent an extra intelligence point for her at level 10, this is completely irrelevant and not worth it, considering the huge amount of skills you already have at hand... Buuuut, it could be a direction to explore if you were to modify my build, just for the challenge of using less followers.
- Lvl 10 SKILLS : energy weapons, smart-♥♥♥,
- Lvl 9 SKILL : weaponsmith, perception,It is capital you have a perception of 10 to find the book "killing for morons" that makes the third ranger's stats relevant... If you don't want to MAX this stat, whatever the reason, use a trinket to find the book.
- extra skill : whichever you like


There we go, a fine build, for fine people... :)

[GrailQuest]

Or, just hack. http://gq-game-mods.blogspot.ca/2016/06/wasteland-2-character-hacking-and-respec.html