NPC Trait farming

[Elder Drake]

Well I got the achievement for recruiting over 100 NPCs and so far I have 6 people with no red traits and one super npc that I hate controlling because they are cartoonist in appearance.

Anyone know where to look for good NPCs? I tried far north, cleared entire tribe basses, deterring dozens a run, and I can't find anyone that is really great. I look for named NPCs, but even then, sometimes it will say they are a weapon master and have a red trait that makes them suck with weapons and fighting.

Any help would be greatly appreciated because if there is a 1000 NPCs recruited achievement, I fear I am closing in on it.

[Zebukiel]

Red traits have a chance to be knocked off on each level that ends in a 5. (5/15/25/35/45)
So if its just one bad trait but they have some leveling to do, it may be worth leveling them a bit to see if it drops.

I have farmed a bit myself, and so far I deter every weapon master. Beyond that it feels like RNG for sure. I noticed higher levels seem to be "better" but the risk with that is no room to knock off red traits through leveling.

[Elder Drake]

Originally posted by Zebukiel:

Red traits have a chance to be knocked off on each level that ends in a 5. (5/15/25/35/45)
So if its just one bad trait but they have some leveling to do, it may be worth leveling them a bit to see if it drops.

I have farmed a bit myself, and so far I deter every weapon master. Beyond that, it feels like RNG for sure. I noticed higher levels seem to be "better," but the risk with that is there is no room to knock off red traits through leveling.

Good info on that. So, the strategy would be to farm low-level 'promising' NPCs and go from there. Faster to deter, easier, and now I have a strategy. I will post back with what I get from another 100 batches.

[geeky]

Originally posted by Elder Drake:

Originally posted by Zebukiel:

Red traits have a chance to be knocked off on each level that ends in a 5. (5/15/25/35/45)
So if its just one bad trait but they have some leveling to do, it may be worth leveling them a bit to see if it drops.

I have farmed a bit myself, and so far I deter every weapon master. Beyond that, it feels like RNG for sure. I noticed higher levels seem to be "better," but the risk with that is there is no room to knock off red traits through leveling.

Good info on that. So, the strategy would be to farm low-level 'promising' NPCs and go from there. Faster to deter, easier, and now I have a strategy. I will post back with what I get from another 100 batches.

This seems to be the way to go, I picked up a Master Warrior, Legendary quality, from the first Barbarian camp, he lost all his negative traits as he leveled, he only has positive traits now and is my go to character for dungeon running. He only has 120 in one weapon (Dual Blades) but damn is that fun!

[Natjur]

I get 1 or 2 Legendary quality crafters (the trait that improve quality of output by 10% seems bugged and means ALL output is legendary once you level it enough)

Labourer are pointless, better to send out a Master Hunter/Warrior to cut trees etc so they can fight off any attacks. Also do not see the point in porters, as quality of those outputs mean little

The rest are Master Hunter/Warrior, Legendary quality.

I try to get them low level (under 20) and then level them up so they get really good traits and fix all their bad traits over time

Starting traits mean very little except for
-The hidden G key skill they can have
(Class Skill, they either have this at the start, or never will)
-The tribe starter trait (go for L3 only)
-The other 'named' skill (that appears in there name)

So I knock out all Master Hunter/Warrior Legendary quality I find with a named skill (weapon master preferred), tame them and check if they have a Class Skill and the starter tribe trait.

If good, I keep them and level them up to see if they become super. I have got a few to 50 that skill have some annoying traits, so they are scheduled to be replaced when the others level up if they end up better

[Flint]

With hidden G Skill you mean the Class Skill you can see on the Mastery Tab of the Char, in the upper left corner? :-)

[Elder Drake]

Thanks, Natjur, for the information. Everything we can all glean to help is great. Much appreciated!

[leonneddr]

Originally posted by Elder Drake:

Originally posted by Zebukiel:

Red traits have a chance to be knocked off on each level that ends in a 5. (5/15/25/35/45)
So if its just one bad trait but they have some leveling to do, it may be worth leveling them a bit to see if it drops.

I have farmed a bit myself, and so far I deter every weapon master. Beyond that, it feels like RNG for sure. I noticed higher levels seem to be "better," but the risk with that is there is no room to knock off red traits through leveling.

Good info on that. So, the strategy would be to farm low-level 'promising' NPCs and go from there. Faster to deter, easier, and now I have a strategy. I will post back with what I get from another 100 batches.

Yeah this seems to be the way to go. I play Solo and have the exp range bumped up to 3 from base game of 1. So levelling up skills is not an issue. Finding a Villager with 120 skill is hard.

Look for RED tier NPCs, try to look for RED tier NPCs with Master in their profession. Both of these things will give it a higher chance of high end for skills.

Also as they level up they WILL get additional traits and in my experience they will be all/mostly positive traits. The Base traits you catch them with will remain but as they level up they will gain more traits which are mostly positive making them better than they appear at first glance.

So back to first sentence seems to be the better way to go farming lower level camps for Red/Master toons.

[Metal]

I try and get them lower lvl but if your going for resists then you have to farm what they give ya, I went all out and layed out 90% of the first large village and only turned a few away, I found one at lvl 13 that had 2 cold traits one for more damage in the cold and the other was like 30% less damage in the cold, so ill grind him up for sure and see what hyappens.

it is a game inside a game for me, it gets worse when you start looking for top teir mounts

[leonneddr]

Originally posted by Metal:

I try and get them lower lvl but if your going for resists then you have to farm what they give ya, I went all out and layed out 90% of the first large village and only turned a few away, I found one at lvl 13 that had 2 cold traits one for more damage in the cold and the other was like 30% less damage in the cold, so ill grind him up for sure and see what hyappens.

it is a game inside a game for me, it gets worse when you start looking for top teir mounts

Its like gambling. Can be fun. For those who dont want to spend the time on this it can be a bit of a pain.

Having said that you'll find that as long as you find what you need (skill wise) at 90+ that is all you need for all of the content. You dont need a 120. You'd like one... but you dont NEED it.

[starkmaddness]

Deter if:
1. Weapon master (or Archer master for archer & possibly Nightwalker for nighttime raider)
2. Red
3. Correct Gender/Appearance
4. (Optional) Hunter/Warrior/etc (gives different bonuses when in good mood and different weapon preferences, Hunter = movement speed, etc) if you have a preferenceI have no idea what the novice/master do as I have gotten 120s with novices, wouldn't rank this as important, and weapon skills are not the most important detail.

Then just look at the existing positive traits and faction bonus. You will get a new one every 10 levels, Exclude intended companions (deployed followers) without the 60% damage reduction. As long as they don't have traits that are wasted (like a weapon you won't use) consider leveling them up to 30-40 or so (Jacuzzi + Quinoa seafood makes it quick). Because the trait synergy is what really matters, so if thy current traits are all decent keep leveling. Higher starting level means less leveling required, but you could just level your guys up by capturing new ones (while XP buffed). One thing to test is of higher level guys start with fewer negative traits, if not then lower is better as they have more levels to get bad traits removed.

[Varyn [GER]]

Holy moly what a bunch of horrible tips I see here. Calling things mandatory which have a neglectable impact but increase the avg amount of captured recruits needed by the factor lets say 3 to 50. And even worse, they stack these so these mulitplicators get mulitplicated several times. And for what? to have like a tier 3 tribe perk instead of tier one? that +2%def will surely be worth it spending 10 times more time in recruiting.
Looking for a perfect guy with that many random variables? good luck :D For a dude to be good he needs 1-3 of the godlike positive perks. Many of the red perks dont matter at all for many builds or give a tiny debuff, and also many green ones are next to worthless (hooray this perk gives me +5% atk, now i can fight all battles blindfolded without using hands... Or this perk is reflecting dmg when i block with my shield, nice, if he hits me 10-20 times that way i accumulated one single hit of dmg to him - he's basically killing himself within the next 5 hours).
Imho people focus too much on minmaxing small buffs while neglecting the bigger impacts, like learning how to handle which situation, how to counter which weapon(skill) and perk combination, be aware of risks and deathtraps, or putting thoughts in the approach, or, ironcally, thinking about WHAT makes a recruit HOW MUCH better than another one. Instead all want their "perfect" goon (without giving thoughts about how impossible it is to get and what even would make him perfect) just to come back to the forum and cry how hard and unfair the game is because their goon is top, so it must be the game's fault they lose. One clanmate of me was insanely picky. He threw a dude away i would have killed my firstborn son for just because he had a -4% atk trait. He's still running around with his (recruited at) lvl 14 dude, while we others have good baselvl-45+ mains we could easily pick because we werent wasting time leveling a low bob just to get one rng-roll. We detered dudes which already have done their rng rolls due to being high lvl. That way we could have like 100 perks rolled per hour instead of like 0.2.

My Main (red base lvl 48 recruit) has a single bad trait -10% movement and he's still better than everything i captured thereafter (Funny thing is, he was my first high level recruit and also my first Main-transfer (tamed him with my boohooo so bad starting character shortly after getting the remodel-tablet thingy) I just wanted him to easily farm more recruits with, called him Temporary. That was like 100 playtime-hrs ago) Does it make him bad? No - Ignore defense after parry, ignore 80% dmg of a projectile every 7sec and bloodbath recovery are just too good. Wish he had hardened body (immune to parries when over 50% resilence) or the stuncleanse-class skill/Bandage others class skill on top. But he's still steamrolling through hard. But do his good perks matter that much? Imho perks can help you having a tad easier and fluid battles, but they arent mandatory. If one needs a perfect dude to get thru the game, he wont.

My tips for getting a good guy without unhuman amounts of time needed:
Go to a 45+ level area/camp/fortress and deter everything which is gold/red (for fighter dudes). Dont be too easily pissed because a good dude has a negative trait per se or is missing the weapon master unique. It's simple math like weapon mastery being mandatory multiplies the avg amount of recruits needed by 20 or 30. Congrats now instead of finding a good dude every 50 recruits, you now need 1000+ recruits to find one who is a bit better than a avg every-50th-recruit outstander. Add more must-haves (and there are several being much better than weapon mastery) and you can multiply that number again. My suggetion: better put that time into improving other game relevant parts, like you as a player, or which buff combination fits you best etc etc. All these things will have a much bigger impact in your game in much less time than being too picky when recruiting. Hell, even using a fraction of the time to farm better mask-gems gives a better boost than weapon mastery.

Also, perks arent everything. As available weapon (active) skills and class skills vary a lot in usefulness, they also have a big impact of a dude's quality. For example my main companion has only average perks (besides the mandatory -60% dmg reduction companion perk), but he has the vertical shield wall shield-skill available which makes him muuuuuch more tankier in battles where he'd die otherwise (i use another skill for average-fights, as he'll be too passive with this skill. But in the tougher battles its better being passive and alive while tanking now and then than being dead and useless.).

To finally answer to topic. The best spot to farm recruits is (imho) the lvl 45+ Fortress in the wetlands (lvl ~30 area). Easy to pull single ones out, Flint-Tribe perks (I really like crit resist or more resilence), easy to reach with a panther first time, portal ~1000m east of it, easy to be done with bronze geared mid 20's starter character (abuse parry and be sure to never get parried),

[Natjur]

Or just edit the database file and give yourself the perfect thrall

[Veles]

i know you can acquire night hunter by playing at night and butcher of the woods by slaying animals, not sure if you could get weapon master title by playing different weapons or if you have to do all this while they are lower level, if anyone does more testing please advise.

[Natjur]

You sure the 'skills' gained are by doing that action (around the level when you can get the skill (eg ,20,30,40,50)

Cause for me, no matter what I am doing on that char, the skill gained appears very random

[Peace]

Originally posted by Natjur:

I get 1 or 2 Legendary quality crafters (the trait that improve quality of output by 10% seems bugged and means ALL output is legendary once you level it enough)

Labourer are pointless, better to send out a Master Hunter/Warrior to cut trees etc so they can fight off any attacks. Also do not see the point in porters, as quality of those outputs mean little

The rest are Master Hunter/Warrior, Legendary quality.

I try to get them low level (under 20) and then level them up so they get really good traits and fix all their bad traits over time

Starting traits mean very little except for
-The hidden G key skill they can have
(Class Skill, they either have this at the start, or never will)
-The tribe starter trait (go for L3 only)
-The other 'named' skill (that appears in there name)

So I knock out all Master Hunter/Warrior Legendary quality I find with a named skill (weapon master preferred), tame them and check if they have a Class Skill and the starter tribe trait.

If good, I keep them and level them up to see if they become super. I have got a few to 50 that skill have some annoying traits, so they are scheduled to be replaced when the others level up if they end up better

Friends and I play pvp on a server against one another. We constantly fight over the master porters, trying to steal them from one another. The master porters aren’t very useful single player or coop due to admin commands that can teleport you wherever you need to go. They become invaluable when you want to move a large quantity of materials at +40% movement speed through areas that might kill your mount (like a poisonous cave or dungeon, for example). Control the porter, eat weight buff food, and you can easily carry over 400 and run at normal speed. This only becomes relevant, however, mid - late game.