Some Smoother Gaming Tips and Ranger build guidelines

[exoduss123]

Here is some info about Wasteland 2 builds , game mechanics , tips and tricks .
I play only on Supreme Jerk now but started with ranger for my first time,
And no you dont have to MinMax CI to play on SJ you can go with Roleplayish builds and do just fine even while Iron Maning ,
I find that ranger difficulty was perfect for first playtrough , seasoned being stupid because it heals you to full way to often , and supreme jerk is the way to go if you want to enjoy the game second time and definetly not suggested for first playtrough .
Some General Guidelines into each attribute , then some decent ranger builds and recruitable npc info and then finally Soft skill caps and skill point requirements.

P.S. Wall of Texts bellow aren't edited and formated yet , i am going to do that tonight.

[exoduss123]

First of all i would like to begin with attributes .
Attribute points in WL 2 is your bread and butter , failing to set proper attributes at level 1 will haunt you for the rest of the game ,
game is definetly unforgiving here , so you better get them right .
You get 21 Attribute point to spend at lvl 1 meanwhile every stat will have atleast 1 in them at beggining so you can say you get 28 Attributes at lvl one + 1 Attribute every 10 lvls up to lvl 50 ,
it Rounds up to 32 Attribute Points for your final ranger build at lvl ~41.
( Be aware that you probably will never get to lvl 50 , and all builds are optimized for lvl 41~ rangers thats the level you get before endgame most certainly )
Coordination - Your Main Action Points booster ( 2 Coord = 1 AP ) , however - unless you are building 10 AP sniper you should not start with more than 4 Coordination
everything above 4 is considered a waste atleast at lvl 1 ( You might increase it as you level up to get more AP's for your raising needs of it for example AR user 8 AP at lvl 1 enough for 2 Famas shots , raising it to 9 ap at lvl 20(+2 Coord from attribute points u get at lvl 10 n 20 ) so he can fire burst headshots with 7 ap + 2 for HS assault rifles , and then raising it to 10 AP at lvl 40 so you can equip Engagement Rings trinket ( One of the best ingame -1 AP + 3 CI ).
You need to be aware of what weapon skill you gona give to your ranger and then set your Coordination so you have right number of Action Points for your weapon
( NOTE : ACTION POINTS are very important but you need to know how much AP your weapons are gona use , and then build accordingly ,
your ranged chars dont need to move at all when combat starts so they should have exact number of AP your weapon takes to fire Burst or Headshot , no more no less everything over that is complete waste as saving AP's for next turn wont help you at all )


Luck - "Dump bla bla stat bla bla" its false . Luck is not a dump stat however you dont need more than 1 ranger with high luck , and Scotchmo is just perfect for that role ,
so you may consider luck dump stat in terms of that you should never give it to your starting rangers, as they can be given better combat stats than luck , and just grab Scotchmo as early as lvl one , he then will handle all your looting ,
that will round up you ton of Manglers , Sabot Rockets , Med Packs , Grenades and stuff that otherwise you would need to buy for scrap
( ITS REAL , Opening Containers with more luck has chance for "lucky finds" just u dont see them as u did in D:OS , but you still get extra Loots with high Luck, its obvious after you go trough High Pool / AG Center with scotchmo and carry 5 rocket launchers at the end of it )

Awareness - God amongst WL2 attributes , clear advantage over any other stat because 1 Awareness equals 1 Combat Initiative , more CI you get more often your rangers act ,
look at it like this : Ranger with 20 Ci gets two turns meanwhile ranger with 10 CI will get one turn ,
Rangers with high CI will most likely act when turn begins and another time when turn ends , thats why CI is so Important and strong .
This is where you should put all your spare attribute points ( especially those you get while leveling , so you can keep up with California enemies ) .
High Awareness and CI allows you to ignore Strength unless you are playing melee ofc , basicly Str is dump stat unless you go melee ill explain more later , some people tell that you need higher STR to get more HP but thats not true,
you need High Awareness to act first and take less damage not high str to soak bullets with your squishy rangers , its just wrong way of thinking that high HP is needed because you get hit hard ,
good thinking is i dont need high HP because i shoot bastards before they react .

Important : Before moving to STR Speed and INT it is very important to know that thease three stats combined together and divided by 4 will equal in bare Action Points , another reason why you shouldnt invest in CO more than 2 or 4

[exoduss123]

(STR+SPD+INT) / 4 = ACTION POINTZ , You need to make sure that your rangers build follows this rule from LVL 1 , all thease stats should be given at lvl 1 and left there, because STR and INT gets you bonuses after every LVL up
and after you got enough Speed for your ranger needs, Awareness is way superior to speed in terms of CI )

Strength - so yeh .. strength - its complete dumpstat for any ranger that is not melee , with 7 rangers you can carry anything , especialy when you can turn weapons into weapon parts reducing their weight by half atleast,
rangers that use Ranged weapons should have either 1 or 2 Strength depending on your Speed and Intelect so that total sum of those stats could be divided by 4 .
however when you get to building Melee Rangers ( They are really strong and having 1 is crucial to any party ) there is where STR kicks in , its godlike stat for Melee , and id say 7 STR is bare minimum for succesfull Melee Ranger ,
reason for 7 STR is so you can have some spare points left for Awareness and higher CI or you will skip turns , but i find that in this game as melee you have to skip first turn anyway or you just gona run infront of 10 ranged guns and die .
So i prefer building Melee with 9 STR and a bit less awareness . Having high STR is too important for melee to skip as it increases your CRIT damage ( not crit chance but crit damage ! ) at lvl 10 Brawling you crit 100% of the times think about that.
As i said before adding STR to carry more weight is useless with team of 7 , and saying that STR makes your rangers tougher is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thinking WE DONT TANK BULLETS YO i really like how WL is using logic here and encouraging players not to tank freakin burst shots from minigun .
Dont even think about putting more pts in STR so you can give better armor to your ranged characters ARMOR IS DUMP stat er.. item ... er is just DUMP dont do armor pls not in this wasteland .
Especialy when those armors that require high STR still give you movement penality .... making it even useless on melee chars because its better to Hit n Run to hide without armor
than waste your combat speed on it and be able just to Hit and Stand and Soak DMG . Especialy when any Energy Weapons enemy will 1shot you for that armor :D

Speed - if awareness is god stat in this game i can say that speed is 2nd to it or even equal . Combat Focused rangers , no matter Ranged or Melee should start with 10 Speed . Speed is GREAT ! 2 Points in Speed give you 1 CI,
Every point in Speed gives you Combat Speed that is crucial to repositioning , or geting behind cover and still being able to shoot atleast once , Speed is huge part of your action points pool, also speed gives you chance to Evade
( Evade is dumpshit and unreliable , you cant get it up to high percentage so just forget it )
meanwhile there is no doubt that 10 Speed is core of Melee build , ranged characters should have this stat as high as possible after they put pts in INT , Cord , STR , LK and Charisma .
For example AR user that might carry whole team on is shoulders want to start 10 Speed 10 Awareness resulting in 20 CI at lvl 1 ( he will act twice on every turn trough whole Arizona )

Intelect - Intelect equals skill points , skill points equal fun in this game simple as that , there only four possible INT choices anything other than that means ur wasting attributes for nothing :

1 INT Ranger - 2 Skill Points Per Level, Rangers with 1 Intelect will be those who carry your team trough combat , sacrificing INT and skill points they go for better combat stats( Speed and Awareness only ) either Ranged or Melee , and if you want proper combat ranger you should go with 1 INT.
With 1 intelect you get 40 x 2 + 17 + 12 Skill Points ( 2 every level , +17 from statues all arround game world , and 12 points you get at lvl 1 ) , Such Ranger should Focus on 2 Skills only , 1 of them being Weapon Skill
( lets be honest those weapon skills can only be either Assault Rifles or Brawling , why would u ever build Combat oriented ranger and not give him best weapons ingame ) , and another random skill ( i give Computer Science to brawlers because then they can hack robots being close to them ,
for ranged i ussualy go for Assault Rifle + Ass skill with 2 SP per level your able to keep both of thease skills decently leveled)
with 1 INT ranger you will have both of his skills maxed at arround lvl 27-29 , and then you can put rest of the point you get after lvl 30 Into surgeon and field medic or bartering ( always good to have multiple surgeons and maybe even field medics for endgame)

4 INT Ranger - 3 Skill Points Per Level , 4 Int is common for most rangers that arent completely combat focused , and its really the golden middle , you can max from 4 to 6 skills by the end of the game
( YES ! You can do this because only weapon skills has soft cap of 10 , most of the skills in this game is soft capped at 7 or 8 ( Some of them at 6 Demolitions and Perception for example ) and then u use trinket for +2 and book for +1 more )
You get 40 x 3 + 17 + 12

8 INT Vulture Cry.. i mean ranger - or how i call it Vulture's Cry tier ( she is only ranger i ever used with 8 int lol ) , well 8 INT SUX not as much as 2 3 5 6 7 or 9 INT but its crap , if you raise int from 4 to 8 in your build you might aswell just add it to 10 because only 2 attributes for aditional skill point makes 10 INT way more efficient .

10 INT Skill Mule - Self explanatory if you want 1 ranger to handle all those skills u dont want on your combat guys you build 10 int ranger and make him skill mule ,
he will be weak in combat for sure , skip turns due to his low CI and miss like some rookie scrub , but you know with 10 int and skill Soft Caps u probably can give him like 6-8 of them maybe even more if you pick stuff like demo , perception , first aid , surgeon , leadership thease are soft capped early . Gets ton of SP

Charisma - Yeh charisma... :D another considered dump stat that it really isnt , you want your leader to have either 4 ( 7 party charisma (4+1+1+1) is minimum for recruiting some very important companions like scotchmo or vultures cry ) or 7 Charisma
( 7 allows you to still have some kind of combatant ... who can be great leader with huge radius to cover all of your guys melee and snipers all together , and gets ton of exp trough leveling so has more skill points than other at all times , also unlocking you most of the charisma locked companions except maybe Gary "NaCL" Wolfe )
meanwhile other rangers should have either 1 cha each or random numbers of it if you want to meet some particular ingame charisma requirement . For example on my current playtrough my leader has 7 cha and 4 int , while all others has 1 charisma ,he is 4 levels higher ( 29~ when others at 25-26) than rest of my team and i got to recruit Pizepi ( 23 party cha locked ) .
Charisma increases your non combat exp by alot so give skills that are used out of combat to your charismatic leader to gain alot of exp such as Field Medic , Demolitions , Weaponsmithing.

[exoduss123]

Now some ranger builds :

20 CI 8 AP (+2 While Leveling), AR User , Godmode

CO 4
LK 1
AW 10
ST 1
SP 10
IQ 1
CH 1

Starts Game with 8 AP Enough to fire everything you get in Arizona assuming you wont be doing much of Headshot Bursts anyway ,
20 CI start means you will act twice while your enemy in arizona only once nothing can be better in this combat focused game ,
you will save ton of scrap/reloads/medkits while this guy/girl will carry your team's combat alone if needed to be , on my ironman run i had situations where my team is all dead from 4 to 7 turns and this ranger just wont give up carrying them .
At lvl's 10 20 30 and 40 put points into Coordination by doing this you will get additional action point at lvl 20 by the end of Arizona when you will be able to safely fire Headshot bursts for 9 AP from your Assault Rifle for ton of damage.
Then at lvl 40 you get 10th Action Point which u dont need at all but there is great Trinket called Engagement Rings -1AP +3 CI ( atleast 2 of them are SURE to appear in your playtrough from vendors and 3 or more have chance to drop )
This brings you to 9 AP 23 CI at lvl 40 , 23 CI means that you are faster and more aware than any enemy in this game , you start combat and finish it nobody acts before you , while using Assault Rifles allows you to kill biggest threats to your team before they get to do something .

Ranged Weapon User 4 INT 8 AP(+1/2) 18(+0/2) CI

CO 2
LK 1
AW 8
ST 2
SP 10
IQ 4
CH 1

This Ranger still has decent CI but not enough to be as effective as the guy above ( or cant fire 9 ap shots ) , bosses will still shoot you first before you can shoot them ,
in exchange he has 4 Intelect and gets 3 skill points per level with penalty of having to put 1 more point in Str so you get 16 Total from STR SPD INT
There are few paths while leveing one would be to get to 9 AP at lvl 20 from coord and put rest to max Awareness , this will result in 9 AP 20 CI
Other is to go for 10 AP ( all points in cord ) and use Engagement Rings that gives you 9 AP and 21 CI
Third Option is 8 AP ranger ( maybe GRB user ) with 20 CI 9 AP and Engagement Rings making it 23 CI 8 AP ( give him Gamma Ray Blaster and he will take over carrying your team from California )




Melee Bruiser 9 AP 14(+4) CI

CO 2
LK 1
AW 4
ST 9
SP 10
IQ 1
CH 1

Always have one of thease in your squad, if you are not using weapon balance mods then Brawling is only viable choice , and even if u use most of those balance mods Brawling will still be the best because :
Brawling Damage not only scales with your STR and weapons but also with your level , level 50 char hits atleast 50(before difficulty applies ofc aint hitting 50 on SJ ) with his bare fists without any brawling or strength
this makes Brawling best , choice . Put all the attributes you get into Awareness when leveling up to bump it to 18 , you dont want to act first with your melee but you definetly dont want to start skiping turns in california either.
Max Speed and 9 Action Points allows you to move arround battlefield while doing decent damage , all brawling weapons has low AP costs so you should always be able to attack after moving .
High Strength and 100% crit from brawling at later levels makes you a BEAST ( In Tier with Assault Rifles , Gamma Ray Blaster and thats Holy Trinity in wasteland tbh ) , also animations you get after killing humans with brawling crit is more than wort it .
Dont put Armors that slow you down ! ( in AZ use Tactical West , in Cali dont use any armor , just carry 1 Power Armor for encounters where this ranger will need to stand infront of your team and tank mad monks - monks are evil bastards on SJ with they high end weapons turn your rangers from full hp to pile of meat in 1 burst fire )
Skill build is either : Brawling + Computer Science ( Helps a ton versus robots you can run to them and still have 5 ap to hack them no other rangers can do that and not risk being destroyed ) ,
or if you got Rose in your team and she covers computers go Brawling + Field Medic/Brute force + 2ndary surgeon( 1 pt untill late cali then 4 pts ) is good when your combat medic can cover distance and have points to use items after that .

[exoduss123]

Low Charisma Leader 4 CHA 8(+1) AP 15(+2) CI

CO 4
LK 1
AW 7
ST 2
SP 6
IQ 4
CH 4

Four Charisma is bare minimum for your leadership skill to work you wont be able to cover melee and ranged but atleast you will get all your ranged guys .
8 AP 15 CI , well this means you are not gettin alot of action after Arizona Unless you max out Awareness and get some CI trinket , however there is few ways how to make this guy top tier ranger material.
Giving him Assault Rifles and +1 action point at lvl 20 and rest of the points into awareness . When you get to California find RPG Codex Shrine , inside it there is best ingame trinket called The Choice -15% Evasion + 5 CI ( yeh 5 attribute points in 1 item )
At lvl 40 This would make him 9 AP 22 CI and thats prety decent , also if you reward him with skills into demolitions and field medic( keep it low ) he will be levels ahead of everybody and might even get to lvl 50 before endgame.
High Charisma Leader 7 CHA 8 AP 12(+4) CI
CO 4
LK 1
AW 4
ST 2
SP 6
IQ 4
CH 7
Simple : Less Best stat ingame traded for more Charisma :D , my current playtrough's leader , probably my most favorite build i came up with . Trick here is to compensate his crapy combat stats with some badass items and have him 4-5 levels above everybody else due to huge charisma bonus to non combat exp . 8 AP is max he is gona have and thats just enough to fire Gamma Ray Blaster - GRB is the god canon it melts ♥♥♥♥ in its way , toaster repair is probably top 3 important skill ingame just because it gives Gamma Ray Blaster , Energy Weapons are bad in general , but Gamma Ray is better than any other weapon ingame , so it makes up for all of other bad EW's . Another item is ofcourse is The Choice i mentioned earlier 5 CI Bonus brings him to atleast 19 in California while it can get as high as 21 ( or even 22 if you reach lvl 50 before endgame and i am sure i will because of charisma exp bonus ) 21 CI with GRB will help you to stay top tier in terms of damage outdamaged only by AR users .
Assuming this guy is leader and ranger that is first on your list always , you want him with perception and demolitions , both takes 6 skill levels to cap ( you get +1 from books and there is trinket that gives +3 Perception + 3 Demolitions so u want thease on same char ) , leadership is capped at 9 , he can be secondary field medic and surgeon with 6 and 4 in endgame , energy weapons at 10

Here you go Optimal Ranger Team ( 2 AR Users , 1 GRB user , 1 Brawler ) with the builds above. Make your leader either with AR and 4 Charisma or with GRB and 7 charisma.
For anyone who is planing to play with Energy Weapons and GRB , path untill you get GRB is very ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up there are no usefull weapons in arizona that does any damage except 2 that can be used to do half bad damage those weapons are : Laser Gun that you get only if you start game with no more than 1 pt in EW and then you get some ♥♥♥♥♥♥ weapon who actually is only one EW in game with Armor Penetration of 1 ! that means you will do decent damage to any1 who has 2 armor or more , second one is Herbicide it can fire bursts and has 2 Arm pen so anybody with 3 will suffer , use both of thease together and suffer , untill you come across Gamma Ray Blaster and then enemy will suffer.
To MinMax builds for anything else than Brawling , Assault Rifles or Energy Weapons its mandatory to have weapon reblanace mod , because really they are pathetic compared to those 3 . Also its most likely your companion recruits will cover those weapons stuff like snipers ( vultures cry or ralphy or even rose ) shotguns ( scotchmo who is like angela death just way better cause he never leaves you and is by far superior to any other companions just because of his great build : covers the damn luck thing from lvl 1 and uses Shotguns who actualy benefit from luck the most , covers Unlocking Safes and Boxes both of thease skills benefit greatly from luck more % to succeed and better loot inside , and he has some funniest things to say about world arround you "All they grow here is tequilla makings ? Wait , Stop ! Let me kiss the ground " ) , Submachineguns can be given to rose or ralphy , there is chisel for blunt weapons and takayuki for bladed ones , if you lose any of them there is atleast one replacement for same weapon skill further in Canyon of Titan or California .
My suggestion would be to always pick Angela Death , Scotchmo and Ralphy at lvl 1 there are ways to get to rail nomad without cheating fighting or even save loading once at lvl one , Ralphy can be turned into anything you want because of his low level and ability to get 3 skill points from lvl 10 ( after u give him 1 more Int ) , angela can be replaced when u find some1 else you like but she is great help early and her outdoorsman skill allows you to travel safely at early levels ( grab her outdoorsman trinket as soon as u leave ranger citadel its in mysterious shrine near citadel ) and then scotchmo being god just give him 1 int at lvl 10 , his combat falls off at california tho with his pathetic 9 CI and he starts skipping turns but you can have him with maxed unlocking skills by then and replace if you need to , and just use for unlocking stuff but dont cuz he can still kick ass with shotguns ( shotguns definetly becomes very good in california ) only not very often tho , had him till the end 3 out of 4 playtroughs i think never regreted .

[exoduss123]

Soft Skill Caps
All weapon skills caps at 10 except brawling at 9 and u use skill book to get it to 10 .
Alarm Disarming 9 Computer Science 8 Demolitions 6 Field Medic 8/9(Need to Save HighPool for the Book ) Lockpicking 7 Mechanical Repair 7 Safecracking 7 Surgeon 7
Toaster Repair 7 Animal Whisperer 8( Need to make peace with red skorpions atleast untill you get the book ) Brute Force 9 Barter 8 Hard Ass 7 Kiss Ass 8 Leadership 7/9 ( You most likely want 9 and not to use +2 leadership trinket later in the game when u get access to california trinkets) Outdoorsman 7/8 ( Need to save AG center for the Book) Perception 6 Weaponsmithing 7
Smart Ass 6 ( You really probably gona want 8 because trinket that gives +2 is very endgame and you already have check that require 10 before it and there is The Blix mysterious weapon that doesnt even appear most of the time or you need to get ton of requisitions for mercaptain i dont know exactly nobody does )
Have a back up Surgeon or Two always .
Skill Points Needed for Skill levels
1 - 2
2 - 4
3 - 6
4 - 10
5 - 14
6 -18
7 - 24
8 - 30
9 - 36
10 - 44

[zion6]

Hi,
Thanks for this-is there a way you could organize it better so it is readable?

[zion6]

Hi,
Like your guide. Can you tell me what you thiunk the important skills are, and who do you assign them to?

[jamesc70]

Interesting writeup.

How do you cope with so low strength? Your AR leader example could barely carry an AR and 50 ammo, let alone armor. I guess you could equip the backpack trinket, or dump everything on your high strength guy and micro-inventory-manage everyone's ammo (but sounds boring).

I just went with a generic stat point distribution for all my characters this time, 6-1-6-4-6-4-1. They all have 9AP to start, 14 initiative, and great movement. Basically a 6 CO, 6 AW, 6 SP. Sniper, 2 AR's, and a SMG, all focused on maxxing weapon stats; game is easy mode now.

[Wildan]

2 strength lets you carry 69 lbs which is plenty. An AR weights typically 8 lbs, top tier light armor 13 lbs and 250 5,56 mm bullets equal 12,5 lbs. Thats only 33,5 lbs. You could literally carry 2 sets around with just 2 strength. Everybody except melee rangers should aim for 2 strength and invest the saved points in AW and speed.

Jamesc70 your stat distribution is sub-optimal. You should always aim that strength, speed, and intelligence is divisible by 4. In your case it's not, 4+6+4=14. You should have 16 to get 4AP from it.

Best stat distribution for a 9AP AR character is this 4-1-6-2-10-4-1. This one has 16CI.
When leveling up all points go into AW so at level 40 you end up with 10 in both AW and speed which makes 20CI - highest natural value possible.
Best to make two of these guys.

Sniper is a waste with 9AP. Either 12AP or no sniper at all. 12 AP sniper makes a good skill mule: 5-1-1-2-8-10-1 At level10 you get CO and the rest AW. With the anarchy trinket for an extra 1 AP you'll end up at level 40 with 6-1-4-2-8-10-1 12AP and 13CI. 13 CI is not the best but you can shoot twice per round instead of typically 1 for a sniper.
Depending on the available ammo and guns you use either 2 x 6 AP sniper, or 1 x 7 AP and
1 x 5 AP sniper. You never do headshots unless you moved and end up with 8 or 9 AP. Snipers have a high crit chance and high crit damage so on average you do more damage shoting twice normally than once headshot. Give him a SMG as a side weapon which can shoot twice as well, you don't need many skills points invested. This is just for the case when it's better to kill a point blank enemy right away then spend AP points for movement in order to get far enough for the sniper rifle to shoot without penalty.

You should always have one brawler. Two if you go with 1 AR ranger. Bladed and blunt weapons can't compete with brawling. Brawlers need excellent str and speed AND good AW so there is only one good brawler build: 2-1-4-9-10-1-1
At first it seems that you should go for 10 str but you'd have to give up 1 AW for it and it doesn't pay of if you do the math. +1CI is better than +1CON per level and a bit of extra damage.
All stat points go into AW to have at level 40 2-1-8-9-10-1-1 thats 9AP and 18CI. Best to give him the +5CI trinket as you want to overlap as many enemy turns as possible to kill them before they can point blank shoot or melee you.
If you can pick two brawlers, besides the brawling skill one with computer science ( to disable robots) and one with awareness. First aid is actually better but I find it very practical to have a brawler as a looter as he can carry alot and I don't need to switch when leading the pack.

Finally you need someone as a EW leader. If you chose one of your rangers for that role go with this: 2-1-6-2-10-4-3 all of levelup stat points go into AW so you have another 20CI ranger at level 40. 3 charisma is enough. Make sure he has the leadership skill.
You can also easily make on of the NPCs into this role. Pizepi, Ralphy or Vulture are good for it. Aim for 9AP and give him/her the -1AP/+3CI trinket because you don't need more than 8AP for EW. If you can afford the skillpoints a shotgun is good as a side weapon in case you have more than one enemies in the line of fire and/or they are light armored. All shotguns are crap till tier 6 so don't invest too much early.

Best min/max party from above would be 2 brawlers/ 2 AR users/ 1 EW NPC/ 2 AR NPCs
Just make sure that in this case you make a 10 int skill mule out of one AR ranger 2-1-4-2-8-10-1
Snipers can't keep up with the damage but I like to include 1 for the flavor.

[zion6]

I have a party with the 2 AR, high Charisma leader and a brawler. What secondary combat skills would you suggest? I also am using Ralphy and Scotchmo, so when Angela leaves I need a replacement-I have most skills covered but matbe a bit of Mechanical would help (no one yet). Was thinking either EW user in Darwin or Blade npc in the Leve lupe mine.

[Halfgeek]

If you guys want to challenge yourself, instead of playing on SJ with AR, just play on Ranger difficulty and NO AR users. Game is hard when you're a bunch of Pistol or Machine Gun wielding Rangers. :)

AR = cheat mode.

[Wildan]

My rule of thumb is no more than 4 AR users total otherwise you tend to run low on ammo. So I'd give 2 NPCs another AR and 1 NPC EW + either shotgun or SMG as a sidearm. Jackhammer shotgun is the best you can get, 6AP for a normal shot and 8AP for a headshot. Handguns are totally useless. The only good bladed weapon is "This is a Knife" which you get very late so I wouldn't pick that skill. Blunt weapons are just bad. They have good armor penetration but brawling makes more damage anyway so stick to brawling only for all melee rangers.
AR users don't really need a sidearm, you'll find yourself using ARs anyway. You only need one for a EW or sniper ranger.

SMG as the main weapon would be possible as there are good 6 tier SMGs but the short range is too big of a disadvantage. If you need to get that near to shoot something you should better punch it instead (as a brawler).

Ralphy starts with 7AP 3-5-4-4-5-3-4
Not the best stats but good to have on your team as he's only level 5 and can be shaped the way you want him.
At level 10 give him +1 int, at 20 +1 speed and the rest in awareness so he'll have 8AP as the Gamma Ray Blaster bursts for 8AP and you can't use headshots with it anyway. EW synregizes AP-wise well with the jackhammer shotgun I mentioned above.
Don't give him more than 3 skills in total, he won't have enough SP for more. So go for EW, Shotgun and toaster repair.

Ralphy is bad for an AR user as he'd need 9AP and his stat points are far from optimal to get there efficiently. I'd say use him for EW or take chisel instead.
Chisel has already 9AP so he's perfect for AR headshots. If you put 1 point in speed at level 10 he'll have 10AP which further you can reduce again to 9 with -1AP/+3CI trinket. His problem is low int.

Scotchmo is funny but otherwise way too slow. He has 8 points in luck which are (nearly) useless. Contrary to popular belief, high luck doesn't give you better loot.
At higher levels he literally has half the turns compared to your 20CI AR rangers. Pick either Vulture (Highpool) or Rose (AG Center).
Rose is better but well... google for her if you don't mind some crucial spoilers.

Either way you make them an AR user.
Vulture: 8AP 5-3-3-2-3-8-4
give her speed for the first 3 bonus stat points so she gets 9AP.

As the last NPC I recommend to get Pizepi from Darwin: 6-3-4-5-5-5-1
Give her just one point in speed so and the rest in AW so she'll have 10AP. Additionally you can give her the -1AP/+3CI trinket if you have it spare so at level 40 she'll have 9 AP and 17CI is not far away from your main AR rangers.
As the optimal EW user needs only 8AP she is kind of wasteful here. Better to make her an AR user and to give EW either to one of your main rangers or Ralphy.

Concerning the skills: You don't need outdoor, mechanical repair, or brute force. It's important to have your ranger with the highest int a "full" surgeon and everybody else with 1 point in surgeon so you everybody can revive if needed. I also like to have two first aid rangers, one full, one at least mid skilled. Ass skills are not really needed but it's good to give Pizepi 8 points in Smart Ass (+2 trinket). Animal W. is kind of situational but very usefull if you don't mind strolling into the citadel with a whole farm behind you. You won't need more than 1-2 points in it per ranger.

@halfgeekstudios
Anything works if not on supreme jerk and even then it's still not a real challenge if you can always reload bad fights.

There is only one true way to challenge yourself in a game. Play permadeath! :))

[henrywiddas]

Originally posted by halfgeekstudios:

If you guys want to challenge yourself, instead of playing on SJ with AR, just play on Ranger difficulty and NO AR users. Game is hard when you're a bunch of Pistol or Machine Gun wielding Rangers. :)

AR = cheat mode.

I like your thinking, currently playing SJ mixed party, dreading california but who said the wasteland wasn't tough...

[zion6]

Originally posted by Exodus:

Low Charisma Leader 4 CHA 8(+1) AP 15(+2) CI

CO 4
LK 1
AW 7
ST 2
SP 6
IQ 4
CH 4

Four Charisma is bare minimum for your leadership skill to work you wont be able to cover melee and ranged but atleast you will get all your ranged guys .
8 AP 15 CI , well this means you are not gettin alot of action after Arizona Unless you max out Awareness and get some CI trinket , however there is few ways how to make this guy top tier ranger material.
Giving him Assault Rifles and +1 action point at lvl 20 and rest of the points into awareness . When you get to California find RPG Codex Shrine , inside it there is best ingame trinket called The Choice -15% Evasion + 5 CI ( yeh 5 attribute points in 1 item )
At lvl 40 This would make him 9 AP 22 CI and thats prety decent , also if you reward him with skills into demolitions and field medic( keep it low ) he will be levels ahead of everybody and might even get to lvl 50 before endgame.
High Charisma Leader 7 CHA 8 AP 12(+4) CI
CO 4
LK 1
AW 4
ST 2
SP 6
IQ 4
CH 7
Simple : Less Best stat ingame traded for more Charisma :D , my current playtrough's leader , probably my most favorite build i came up with . Trick here is to compensate his crapy combat stats with some badass items and have him 4-5 levels above everybody else due to huge charisma bonus to non combat exp . 8 AP is max he is gona have and thats just enough to fire Gamma Ray Blaster - GRB is the god canon it melts ♥♥♥♥ in its way , toaster repair is probably top 3 important skill ingame just because it gives Gamma Ray Blaster , Energy Weapons are bad in general , but Gamma Ray is better than any other weapon ingame , so it makes up for all of other bad EW's . Another item is ofcourse is The Choice i mentioned earlier 5 CI Bonus brings him to atleast 19 in California while it can get as high as 21 ( or even 22 if you reach lvl 50 before endgame and i am sure i will because of charisma exp bonus ) 21 CI with GRB will help you to stay top tier in terms of damage outdamaged only by AR users .
Assuming this guy is leader and ranger that is first on your list always , you want him with perception and demolitions , both takes 6 skill levels to cap ( you get +1 from books and there is trinket that gives +3 Perception + 3 Demolitions so u want thease on same char ) , leadership is capped at 9 , he can be secondary field medic and surgeon with 6 and 4 in endgame , energy weapons at 10

Here you go Optimal Ranger Team ( 2 AR Users , 1 GRB user , 1 Brawler ) with the builds above. Make your leader either with AR and 4 Charisma or with GRB and 7 charisma.
For anyone who is planing to play with Energy Weapons and GRB , path untill you get GRB is very ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up there are no usefull weapons in arizona that does any damage except 2 that can be used to do half bad damage those weapons are : Laser Gun that you get only if you start game with no more than 1 pt in EW and then you get some ♥♥♥♥♥♥ weapon who actually is only one EW in game with Armor Penetration of 1 ! that means you will do decent damage to any1 who has 2 armor or more , second one is Herbicide it can fire bursts and has 2 Arm pen so anybody with 3 will suffer , use both of thease together and suffer , untill you come across Gamma Ray Blaster and then enemy will suffer.
To MinMax builds for anything else than Brawling , Assault Rifles or Energy Weapons its mandatory to have weapon reblanace mod , because really they are pathetic compared to those 3 . Also its most likely your companion recruits will cover those weapons stuff like snipers ( vultures cry or ralphy or even rose ) shotguns ( scotchmo who is like angela death just way better cause he never leaves you and is by far superior to any other companions just because of his great build : covers the damn luck thing from lvl 1 and uses Shotguns who actualy benefit from luck the most , covers Unlocking Safes and Boxes both of thease skills benefit greatly from luck more % to succeed and better loot inside , and he has some funniest things to say about world arround you "All they grow here is tequilla makings ? Wait , Stop ! Let me kiss the ground " ) , Submachineguns can be given to rose or ralphy , there is chisel for blunt weapons and takayuki for bladed ones , if you lose any of them there is atleast one replacement for same weapon skill further in Canyon of Titan or California .
My suggestion would be to always pick Angela Death , Scotchmo and Ralphy at lvl 1 there are ways to get to rail nomad without cheating fighting or even save loading once at lvl one , Ralphy can be turned into anything you want because of his low level and ability to get 3 skill points from lvl 10 ( after u give him 1 more Int ) , angela can be replaced when u find some1 else you like but she is great help early and her outdoorsman skill allows you to travel safely at early levels ( grab her outdoorsman trinket as soon as u leave ranger citadel its in mysterious shrine near citadel ) and then scotchmo being god just give him 1 int at lvl 10 , his combat falls off at california tho with his pathetic 9 CI and he starts skipping turns but you can have him with maxed unlocking skills by then and replace if you need to , and just use for unlocking stuff but dont cuz he can still kick ass with shotguns ( shotguns definetly becomes very good in california ) only not very often tho , had him till the end 3 out of 4 playtroughs i think never regreted .

So were would uou put your attribute skill ups? In Awareness?

[Cougarific]

*tweeeeet* *throws flag* Unnecessary Use of a Quote Box - 5 yard penalty - replay 3rd down!