Whats the best skill to take early game?

[=♥Abby♥=]

Hi!
As title suggests I want to know the best skill and skill tree to take early-mid game because I seriously don't know what I am doing, bonuses seem nice on some skills but idk what they do unless I try them, so instead I decided to ask y'all what they do.

[Ranmus]

If you want quality loot, go for Lucky Looter in the Perception branch.

Otherwise pick a weapon of your choice and do the required perk tree for it. I usually go for Clubs and Stun Batons.

[🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴]

i play on insane and always stick to strength because miner 69er and motherlode are S+ tier perks. while i'm leveling them up i also level up pummel pete so i have a way to kill zombies but when i can start pumping out bullets i'll drink a forgettin elixir and dump those points into a gun related perk.

i also love fortitude so this is where i usually go into next. living off the land is a must have and iron gut makes all those overpowered buffs you get last 50% longer (while also making your food and water usage more efficient). this also lets you spec into good perks like machine gunner/paint tolerance/healing factor.

there's a lot of ways to play the game though and if you're not playing on insane difficulty then you really don't have to be very thoughtful about what you do anyway.

[Amins]

The Strength tree is essential in the beginning for Miner 69'er. It will significantly improve the speed of breaking any block and reduce the stamina cost, something that you will be constantly doing. A melee skill is also important to at least invest a couple points into as that stamina cost will really put you in a bad position. If you're already going into Strength for Miner 69'er, sledgehammers are a good starter weapon as they do a lot of damage and knock zombies on their ass. But this is also THE most important melee weapon to reduce stamina cost for as much as possible. If you're happy with sledges you can keep going into it, but you could also be good with two or three points and invest into a different melee weapon later.

INT will fast track your workstation and vehicle books if you want to get those quickly, but if you know where to look, you could also do fine finding those books without it. Workstations and vehicles are very important for progression, so working towards those is a good idea.

It's also worth at least putting one point into a few skills like salvaging and cooking because even that first level will give you significant benefits. I think the first level of Master Chef will decrease cook times by 40 percent which is huge. And you don't need any attribute prerequisites for them either.

Guns are probably less important, but still beneficial if you feel you're going to use a particular one often enough. Shotguns are insanely good for hordes if you get them congregated up close in a doorway and get even more so with some perk investment. But I feel like guns are something you could wait to go into for later.

Also, this is a personal preference, but I really like going into Lucky Looter purely for the decrease in loot time. It really doesn't actually effect the quality of loot you find, but cutting down on the time I'm just waiting to loot a container is a tremendous time saver and quality of life improvement.

[Darkmonk]

I generally go hard into one tree to begin and I play to that trees strengths. For instance I am playing the intellect build at the moment and I am just dominating with the stun baton and junk turret. Hord night's I have a standard base that utilises traps (mostly dart so I can save ammo). Last play through I went perception so I could be a ninja with the bow (I went out at night to loot) and I built a hord base that maximises the use of explosive arrows. The great thing about 7 days is it gives you the ability to choose. I don't think there is a right or wrong way to play :)

[Sr Humungus]

My tip as the others said, at the beginning you'll need resources, so, going into strength its not a bad idea, but when you will get a bunch of all types, not only mineral, veggies (with a farm) and scrapped stuff (cars always are nice to scrap) and you see you can manage of what you stored, making a skill reset is great, you can choose going into int build and go for shiny stuff.

[benrod]

Getting oneself out of stamina hell is the most important. Before the bike you'll be doing a lot of walking and running and traders can be a long distance apart even with a bicycle. Spears and baseball bats can be good beginners weapons since stamina is so low, and you need to keep your distance because injury carries so much penalty. Also the bow is a good weapon for food and ranged defense. Bicycle and wrench really open things up, one for distance/escape, the other for resources and salable things. Put a chest at every trader for overflow and things you might need. Definitely make a home base to escape to.

[Demios]

Tbh it more depend on what do you wanna work towards, do you want powerful weapons or a early mean of transportation or gather lots of rezz. Since everything is gated by book now you need to invest in specific skills to get more books of that specific type of item/tool/vehicle (And if you invest everything from your training mission towards one of those goal, I guarantee you it'll make your life a whole lot more easier fairly fast since every relatively big loot container will contain 1 or maybe 2 of the books you're looking for to develop your build!) There is a small caveat in this though, going for vehicle is more of a day 14+ payout for the simple fact that if you do the 1st set of quests from any trader you end up with a bike as the "promotion" reward. (Also for everyone who have stamina woes in the beginning of the game: 2 words: Bone shiv, extremely economic in sta even without any perks in it)

[LeftPaw]

I've been going with perception based and spear skills Perception ups your headshot damage and spear to make my spear deadly.
I find this is also the best way to avoid getting hit early game.

[James]

Different strokes for different folks. Not everyone plays the same way and so "what's best" is going to vary. The best way to find YOUR best is to play the game several times and find out what works for you.

[Amins]

Originally posted by LeftPaw:

I've been going with perception based and spear skills Perception ups your headshot damage and spear to make my spear deadly.
I find this is also the best way to avoid getting hit early game.

I recently discovered how OP the Perception tree is now. I've taken nearly every perk in it. Dead Eye and Penetrator lets me one-shot demolishers on insane difficulty. Line them up and I'm killing multiple in a row. Spears are objectively the best melee weapon now with how much the Spear Hunter series benefits it. You never need to worry about stamina when it's constantly refilling itself and once again, killing multiple zombies at once. Lucky Looter makes looting containers so much quicker. Scavenging lets me disassemble cars and vending machines with no effort and I get mountains of resources from it. I could take Treasure Hunter as well and get way better loot from buried chests, but at this point I've kind of surpassed that need for that. And I maxed out explosives just for fun. I don't typically use them much, but why not make bigger booms? Helps me keep up with late game hordes I suppose.

[Lady MacBeth]

Originally posted by Amins:

Originally posted by LeftPaw:

I've been going with perception based and spear skills Perception ups your headshot damage and spear to make my spear deadly.
I find this is also the best way to avoid getting hit early game.

I recently discovered how OP the Perception tree is now. I've taken nearly every perk in it. Dead Eye and Penetrator lets me one-shot demolishers on insane difficulty. Line them up and I'm killing multiple in a row. Spears are objectively the best melee weapon now with how much the Spear Hunter series benefits it. You never need to worry about stamina when it's constantly refilling itself and once again, killing multiple zombies at once. Lucky Looter makes looting containers so much quicker. Scavenging lets me disassemble cars and vending machines with no effort and I get mountains of resources from it. I could take Treasure Hunter as well and get way better loot from buried chests, but at this point I've kind of surpassed that need for that. And I maxed out explosives just for fun. I don't typically use them much, but why not make bigger booms? Helps me keep up with late game hordes I suppose.

Try it with the crawler base design where you basically make them crawl through a ventilation shaft to get to you. Those headshots are always lined up easy and your bullet just goes down through the line. It was good before they buffed the tree now its just silly.

[PappaGrumps]

stick to strength because miner 69er and motherload it really boosts that early game base building and this in turn will accelerate xp accumulation allowing you to spec into lucky looter and adventurer perks. i usually just spec into the weapon perk in the strength tree purely because your already investing points or batons in the intelligence because the stun baton is good for crowd control.

this should do you until day 14/21 then respec to your prefered gaming style

the skills i usually take and stick with are the adventurer, lucky looter perk and barter perks, the extra rewards when you turn missions in is nice especially when you level your mission tier i landed cement mixer and chemistry station in on mission reward thx to the adventurer perk i got both.

[=♥Abby♥=]

Originally posted by PappaGrumps:

stick to strength because miner 69er and motherload it really boosts that early game base building and this in turn will accelerate xp accumulation allowing you to spec into lucky looter and adventurer perks. i usually just spec into the weapon perk in the strength tree purely because your already investing points or batons in the intelligence because the stun baton is good for crowd control.

this should do you until day 14/21 then respec to your prefered gaming style

the skills i usually take and stick with are the adventurer, lucky looter perk and barter perks, the extra rewards when you turn missions in is nice especially when you level your mission tier i landed cement mixer and chemistry station in on mission reward thx to the adventurer perk i got both.

thanks everyone!

[comet_65cali]

As of A21, Top 4:

Intelligence-Lockpicking 1: It may be counter-intuitive, but will help you get lockpicks early AND get you "Forge Ahead Magazines" without the need of advanced engineering.
Strength-Master Chef: Loading up on recipe magazines AND a near 40% reduction on cook-time on tastey food and drinks should be a #1 priority in the A21 Alpha.
Fortitude-Iron Gut: When you're freaking out you're running out of food and water early game, its because you did not choose this. Added bonus is that perks from candy/buffs will last longer.

The 4th is honestly up to you but I will throw in my pick:
Perception-Harvester RNG will have you banging your head trying to find your first wrench, just ONE salvage magazine gives you the tier 1 wrench schematic. Not only will it give you access to get some major resources, Brass radiators, headlights and oil are some serious $$$ trader sellables early game.

[Lady MacBeth]

iron gut is mediocre at best. Food and drink are still super easy to come by.