Best follower to replace Angela Deth?

[Valkurm Emperor]

So i got to the canyon of titan and she left. I was useing her for the brute strengh and weapon smith skills. Who nearby would be a decent replacment? I already have with me Vultures Cry and Scotchmo.

Back at ranger HQ have ralphy and chisel.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Closest answer to the original question is that there aren't any recruits at all nearby until you leave the Canyon and have basically finished clearing up Damonta. Everybody else who might follow you around in that area of the map will be an uncontrollable NPC temporarily along for some side-quest.

That said, you should be able to do it with six. You don't *need* Brute Force to proceed (although some of the *optional* areas in Damonta will then require explosives to breach -- maybe buy dirty grenades from the Monks if you don't have a fair bit of TNT). Without WS, you will have to delay modding and you won't make quite the obscene profit from the area -- by the time I returned to Ranger Citadel, I was carrying almost 300 weapon parts to sell to Melson. :o)

My six included Ralphy (not only because of toaster repair, my only Ranger with it, but building up Brawling -- at Brawling 10 he eventually basically gets guaranteed critical hits every swing, and unlike all other melee forms you add your character level to the base damage so it gets rather brutal) and Chisel (whom I focused on blunt and energy).

The one you can get in Damonta is... peculiar, but you *may* decide that he's better than nothing. You may have some trust issues with him; you'll see why when you meet him.

[Ino]

I'm honestly surprised at all the people who take Ralphy. I think he's absolutely crap, and it's not worth bringing him along just for dealing with toasters, found it easier to just give someone else toaster repair, or if you're desperate not to raise anybody else in toasters, you could drag Ralphy around after you've already been somewhere and noted the toasters you didn't pick up. I just don't see toaster repair being worth carrying Ralphy around for, I guess you can make an argument with Brawling 10, but that argument assumes it being worth dragging Ralphy around to add 9 levels to Brawling, which even if you dump everything he gets into it, will take him until level 20+ to reach Brawling 10, assuming you give him +1 int at level 10. At which point I suppose you'll also be giving him +1 speed so he can actually attack at level 20.

Honestly for what he brings though, I don't find him tempting, at 7 AP and 11 CI, as a brawler. No grip tape means it takes 4 AP to strike with Rebar Knuckles, which gives Ralphy one hit at a time during this entire leveling process. 11 CI means he's so slow that it may not even matter, as the enemies will all be dead by the time he gets in range and gets a chance to attack.

If you're going to take Ralphy, sacrifice the 2 skill points he put into Brawling, and give him a gun instead. IF You're going to take Ralphy.

[Sentient_Toaster]

*shrug* I've got Ralphy with 12 CI, 8 AP, 2.5 combat speed so he can close the distance, 110% chance to hit with Toxx Claws (4 AP), 105% chance that it's a 2.9x crit doing 145-147 damage per (guaranteed) critical hit and a penetration 7 (same as the best ARs). That's better damage/AP than almost anything that isn't an explosive, a well-modded assault rifle on burst, or a shotgun defending a choke against a whole horde of enemies trying to enter and with no cover.

And quite a few enemies will close the distance to you, anyway...

[Baron01]

Main advantage of Ralphy is his low level, which means you can turn him into whatever you want. Will he ever be offensive monster similar to Angela Deth? No. Can he be valuable party member that will take spot Angela's spot after her leave and bring his own expertise, yes.

He is lvl5 I believe, which means you can alter him to your liking. You will add 1 INT at lvl10, 1 PER at lvl20 and 1 SPD at lvl30. This will give you 8 AP / 12 CI / 2.0 Combat speed character that is highly usable. Brawling is lvl9+1 from skill book, Energy weapons are at lvl8, Toaster repair at lvl6 and Animal whisper is at lvl3. He can kick some ass. I like to have my melee guys in middle of combat queue as I certainly do not like to send them to the front early on. I use them to mop up whatever is left standing after my AR, Sniper and Energy weapon users tore into them.

[Cutlass Jack]

I never understood people's like of Ralphy either. His only real advantage is that he's easy to get early. At best I find him a placeholder til I find someone else I'd rather have around. Which would last until Scotchmo down the street. Except I just dont trust drunk NPCs going rogue with shotguns. :P

Rose and Vulture's Cry are the two best right now in my opinion. Because both have exceptional intelligences and you get them early enough to make them into nearly anything you want.

Pizepi Loren (Darwin) tops my list after them. She's visually distinctive with a personality I really like and has a skillset I find useful for the time I get her. She's got something of an old tech bend in her backstory, and I already had most tech skills on others. So she made a more logical Toaster Repairperson than Ralphy.

In my game, Angela's slot just became rotational after she left. I'd use it to try out new people, but generally no one had skills I really needed enough to keep full time other than the ones above.

[Gwtheyrn]

I liked Ralphy because you can mold him to your liking. In my game, I abandoned the brawling (because he's too slow) for heavy weapons and toaster repair. He's a bad ass standing at the front with a machine gun, and with fair strength, he can use heavy armor and take soak up some damage. He's proven very useful to me.

Pizepsi Joren is my all-around best NPC, though.

[Harrison11106]

Messaggio originale di Gwtheyrn:

I liked Ralphy because you can mold him to your liking. In my game, I abandoned the brawling (because he's too slow) for heavy weapons and toaster repair. He's a bad ass standing at the front with a machine gun, and with fair strength, he can use heavy armor and take soak up some damage. He's proven very useful to me.

What he wrote

[Zhorge]

Messaggio originale di Dan:

So i got to the canyon of titan and she left. I was useing her for the brute strengh and weapon smith skills. Who nearby would be a decent replacment? I already have with me Vultures Cry and Scotchmo.

Back at ranger HQ have ralphy and chisel.

I never get the mutant girl because I don't really pump up my charisma. I always have Scotchmo and Rose. (I've played Arizona through four times as I wanted to try different things out.)

That leaves Chisel, Takayuki, the worthless boy (Ralphy) and Lexcanium.

I use Lexicanium because he's got the highest intelligence which lets me ramp up his skills faster. The other ones all have low intelligence so they really can't do much but learn one weapon and one skill.

My party, once I lose Angela Deth ends up being:

4 Custom Rangers
Rose (Way better than Vulture's Cry IMO due to the very high INT)
Scotchmo (Cross trains to E. Weapons)
Takayuki (I give him points in E. Weapons.)

Once I find Lexcaniuim, I send Takayuki home.


Takayuki is wicked with the knife which starts at 5 or 6. And, surprisingly, a good knife can do some serious damage against robots when they get close. But with a 2 intelligence and starting at level 6, you're going to have to level him 14 times to get his intelligence to 4, what I consider the miniumum.

[Zhorge]

Messaggio originale di Baron01:

Main advantage of Ralphy is his low level, which means you can turn him into whatever you want. Will he ever be offensive monster similar to Angela Deth? No. Can he be valuable party member that will take spot Angela's spot after her leave and bring his own expertise, yes.

He is lvl5 I believe, which means you can alter him to your liking. You will add 1 INT at lvl10, 1 PER at lvl20 and 1 SPD at lvl30. This will give you 8 AP / 12 CI / 2.0 Combat speed character that is highly usable. Brawling is lvl9+1 from skill book, Energy weapons are at lvl8, Toaster repair at lvl6 and Animal whisper is at lvl3. He can kick some ass. I like to have my melee guys in middle of combat queue as I certainly do not like to send them to the front early on. I use them to mop up whatever is left standing after my AR, Sniper and Energy weapon users tore into them.

He's level 5 or 6. But with a 2 INT and no combat skills, he's a bear to make decent. Takayuki, OTOH, has Knife 5 or 6. So you can cross-train a ranged weapon (shotgun in my case) immediately and have a very good, very strong, very well armored short-range fighter.

I still dump him for Lexcanium when I get Lex.

[Zhorge]

Messaggio originale di Ino:

I'm honestly surprised at all the people who take Ralphy. I think he's absolutely crap, and it's not worth bringing him along just for dealing with toasters, found it easier to just give someone else toaster repair, or if you're desperate not to raise anybody else in toasters, you could drag Ralphy around after you've already been somewhere and noted the toasters you didn't pick up. I just don't see toaster repair being worth carrying Ralphy around for, I guess you can make an argument with Brawling 10, but that argument assumes it being worth dragging Ralphy around to add 9 levels to Brawling, which even if you dump everything he gets into it, will take him until level 20+ to reach Brawling 10, assuming you give him +1 int at level 10. At which point I suppose you'll also be giving him +1 speed so he can actually attack at level 20.

Honestly for what he brings though, I don't find him tempting, at 7 AP and 11 CI, as a brawler. No grip tape means it takes 4 AP to strike with Rebar Knuckles, which gives Ralphy one hit at a time during this entire leveling process. 11 CI means he's so slow that it may not even matter, as the enemies will all be dead by the time he gets in range and gets a chance to attack.

If you're going to take Ralphy, sacrifice the 2 skill points he put into Brawling, and give him a gun instead. IF You're going to take Ralphy.

I think Ralphy is the worst. If you're going to take someone who fights hand-to-hand, Takayuki is better. I think he starts with 5 or 6 in knives. Though I may be mistaken.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Messaggio originale di Zhorge:

I think Ralphy is the worst. If you're going to take someone who fights hand-to-hand, Takayuki is better. I think he starts with 5 or 6 in knives. Though I may be mistaken.

Blades... which do not scale well later on. Blunt offers far higher penetration (10 is pretty easily available as soon as you get to California just from randoms since sledgehammers are common there), and Brawling offers much higher damage per action point than almost every bladed weapon -- there's exactly one that's competitive with the upper-tier non-unique Brawling weapons even assuming mods on the blades, it's only available in Hollywood, and it requires turning in an object which AFAIK you can only get from one specific toaster back in AZ. Takayuki doesn't have Toaster Repair, unlike Ralphy, so you'll need to burn some points on another character to even have a chance of getting the necessary item even if you know the exact item and where to get it.

He's also lower potential, because he's past the level-10 stat point (starts at level 14) and needs to reach level 30 before he has an int of 4 for the second skill point. Ralphy can get the 4th point at level 10, so he effectively gets a lot more skill points and versatility.

[swordfish]

I found the Dr. at AG is the best follower as she does have 10 int, surgeon, and science. I gave her an assult rifle, and she doing great on Ranger Diffic.
Next two follower, it does not matter for me as I got the one from mines, and that tribe's leader. I gave them both ARs

[Zorop]

I absolutly love scotchmo. Once you get those doubleunder shotgun, you equip him with two of those and he become a bastion of aoe firepower.

[ko]

I'm rolling with Pizepi Joren from Darwin, she's good at kiss-ass which is useful and something I was missing in my party. She's very good with energy weapons and I've skilled her up with assault rifles as well for versatility. Good character for both RP and combat.