Best ability combo?

[KACKTUSS]

Currently I only use "Tough, Strong, Tracking, Melee" I feel like it's unmatched by any other. I find alot of stuff thanks to Strong and can Track stuff easily. And any encounter is a piece of cake. Got any combo's you prefer over the TTSM combo?

[General Income Tax]

Take trapping over tracking anyday, I mean how are you even finding food without resorting to cannibalism?

[KACKTUSS]

I murder families and eat their youngest children before I slit their throats and devour them while they're choking on their own blood. I don't call it cannibalism, I call it Thanksgiving dinner with the family. Duh.

[Neil Breen]

My longest game so far was 78 days 0.66 hours, and I didn't take any combat skills. I had Hacking, Medic, Botany, Lockpicking, Eagle Eye, Tracking, Athletic, Electrician, Fragile and Insomniac. I took your combo when I was first learning the game as, like you said, you're pretty much unmatched in combat.

But this recent build was probably one of the most fun/tense games I've had. I pretty much had to run from every encounter, or at least try to talk to them. Getting woken up by a Dogman at a range of 4 and successfully getting away was a satisfying feeling.

I'd advise trying out some new combos as it'll force you to play differently, and can change things up if they get stale. Personally I take Botany in every run. Satisfying both hunger and thirst with readily available berries is invaluable.

[Signman712]

Medic helps just for the extra medical stats
Botany boarderline OP for how it makes drinking unpurified water safe (by making and drinking tea)
Trapping helps when making fire and allows you to skin animals (and get the dogman coat)

[michaelmerlin]

Botany, Strong, Melee, Fast Metabolism and Tough. Gives you the most dangerous vegetarian in the post apoclyptic world. The extra food and water requirement hurts much less when you feel confident to get plenty of berries to squeaze the juce out of and eat and the extra healing means mistakes and little problems aren't too bad. You need some extra flaw, but there are plenty of options there that don't hurt too much.

[Woomy]

botany, melee, eagle eye, medic, tough, and fast metabolism, insomniac and lock picking

[Lin]

Originally posted by DOCTORHOMICIDE:

botany, melee, eagle eye, medic, tough, and fast metabolism, insomniac and lock picking

I always love seeing lock picking get some of the love it deserves. I know it doesn't appear to do much, but lockpics are fantastic for scavenging and it costs so little (plus it can be useful for the plot).

[SoduhMan]

I'm rolling with botany, lockpicking, ranged, and tough for the moment. Botany nets me a steady source of food, lockpicking nets me the extra loot, I almost always find a nanobot application kit in an office tower each game with lockpicks. I'm using ranged to have the broad spear for early weapon and the greenwood bow as a primary option of damage dealing. The tough I'm kind of iffy on as it allows me to last longer in a fight and keep going, but it conflicts with the other traits I'm going with which is unfortunate, if anyone has a recommendation for a different use of those 4 points let me know, I'd love to try experimenting with something else.

[Spude]

I had a great run with Trapping, Botany, Lockpicking, Melee, Ranged and Eagle Eye with Metabolism and Fragile as flaws survived for bit over 6 days (yay personal record) had a rifle with 10 bullets, whiskey in reserve, clean rags, meds - everything.
Night came by, went to office tower to sleep, I put on tarp shelter, noise trap and sleep soundly, then I got alerted, it was a dogman and with one swipe the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ killed me, turned my guts into mince meat or something. I could not do anything.
This game and the RNGesus sometimes...

[Meteor Bear]

Right now I am using Strong, Tough, Lockpicking and Hacking. I love lockpicking, but hacking I havent really used. I thought since this is a bit cyberpunk there might be more oppertunity for its use.
Others I use are mechanic, electronic, medic, tracking and botany. Trapping looks good too.

[SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE]

Originally posted by ATIVE Dogman.:

Currently I only use "Tough, Strong, Tracking, Melee" I feel like it's unmatched by any other. I find alot of stuff thanks to Strong and can Track stuff easily. And any encounter is a piece of cake. Got any combo's you prefer over the TTSM combo?

Bro, I use Strong (to help get started with looting) Hacking (trust me, it will help you later on) Medic (makes maintaining your body even easier!) Stealth (Sometimes) (good for when a dogman shows up) Lockpicking (Sometimes) (really helps with loot, but you require tools that you wont find until later on in the game or rarely at the start, when you need it the most, also if you get a crowbar, you can just mash locks open) I also like to use Mechanic and Electrician sometimes

[Ptolemy]

You can craft your own lockpicks if you have lockpicking. Just combine your lockpicking skill with some assorted small parts.

[Elegant Caveman]

My "core" build:

ABILITIES
Medic (4)
Ranged (4)
Strong (6)
Trapping (4)

FLAWS
Metabolism (2)
Myopia (1)

Medic for general health/healing bonuses, the ability to identify pills and to get a first aid kit when starting out.

Ranged for its overall usefulness as a combat skill, compared to Melee (as I discussed here).

Strong for its bonus to encumbrance & scavenging, combat move and melee damage bonus.

Trapping for the ability to make fire, cure meat, get more stuff when skinning and dogman fur coats.

Metabolism for the healing bonus and the fact that increased hunger/thirst isn't so bad, this is an easy 2 extra points.

Myopia because you can completely get rid of it once you can afford eye replacements. Alternatively, Insomnia makes a decent 1 point replacement, if one doesn't want to bother with Myopia.

These I consider "must have" skills if I'm doing a serious run.

I usually try to maximize skill points by also taking:

Fragile is generally not a popular choice, but it gives a lot of points. Having Medic and Metabolism (flaw) helps counteract the healing penalties, and it's really not such a bad flaw if you play very carefully (which I tend to do). You're more likely to die from an unlucky one-shot from something, but it's still pretty rare. For the most part, you can still take quite a beating and be alright, though I wouldn't recommend this for beginners.

Insomniac because it's more of an annoyance than a "real problem". In some cases, it can even be helpful (if you wake up and see a dogman one hex away, for example...).

In which case I'll usually end up adding one of the following combos, in order of preference:

Hiding (2)
Mechanic (3)

Hiding (2)
Hacking (2)
Tracking (1)

Botany (4)
Tracking (1)

Botany is an awesome skill and highly recommended for a new player. When you know what you're doing, though (and especially with the other skills I tend to take), I rarely find it's worth the point cost; there's usually something else I'd rather have.

Hiding is great for increasing survivability. Seeing camp concealment, being better at hiding, escaping combat while hidden and scavenging while hidden are all useful things.

Hacking is fun and can make you rich, though it's a lot to do with luck. It lets you hack some data files which you can potentially sell for -tons- of money. Apps can be interesting, though you might be able to find/buy unlocked devices... I'm not sure about this. Far from a necessary skill, but it's a fun one.

Tracking isn't super-useful, but it's better than Electrician (the only other 1 point Ability). Goes well with Hiding. Can help keep you alive a bit longer (both by hiding your tracks, and seeing those around you).

Mechanic the box cart is the best "vehicle", and they degrade pretty quickly. You need the Mechanic skill if you want to build/maintain one. The travois can also be useful early on, as it's quite easy to make. The ability to make/fix binoculars is a nice bonus, but far from a reason to pick this skill.

Of course, one's choice of skills is highly playstyle-dependent. I'm more interested in loot than combat, and my choice of skills reflect this. That said, I'd argue that my "core" set is solid for any playstyle.

A few alternative suggestions:

ABILITIES
Botany (4)
Melee (4)
Strong (6)
Trapping (4)

FLAWS
Insomniac (1)
Metabolism (2)

This can be a great "starter/new player" set. Melee + Strong make you a force to be reckoned with in combat (also giving you a dogman fur coat at the beginning without taking a scratch) and Botany + Trapping means you'll never have to be cold or hungry.

You can replace Botany with Tough if you want to be the ultimate killing machine. Finding food won't be as easy as if you had Botany, but Trapping should keep you fed, especially with all the bodies that will be piling up at your feet.

Metabolism & Insomniac are both very minor as far as flaws go, and both have a "positive" aspect (extra healing, more alert while trying to sleep).

ABILITIES
Hiding (2)
Medic (4)
Melee (4)
Tough (4)
Trapping (4)

FLAWS
Insomniac (1)
Metabolism (2)

Another good "starter/new player" set. This one focuses less on winning combat than it does surviving it. You won't be doing as much damage as with a Strong build, but the combination of Tough, Medic and Metabolism (flaw) will make you extremely resilient.

This might be good if you're starting out and tend to die a lot.

ABILITIES
Eagle Eye (2)
Hiding (2)
Medic (4)
Ranged (4)
Tracking (1)
Trapping (4)

FLAWS
Metabolism (2)

This could make for a decent stealthy/hunter-type character. Be wary of melee combat, though. Hiding, Tracking and Eagle Eye will allow you to be more aware of your surroundings so that you can pick your battles more carefully; challenge foes in open terrain, where you have the range advantage.

If you don't mind min-maxing and have the patience for it, remove Eagle Eye and add Myopia, you can get those Eagle Eyes later. This frees up an extra 3 points to customize this build. Get rid of Tracking and that gives you 4, which opens up all sorts of nice possibilities.