Give me your tinker builds!

[Aoki]

Im looking for some tinker builds i dont care if its true kin or mutated.

[CHOO CHOO]

What's there to build?

Take a Mutant Tinker, slap on Psychometry for convenience, go all out on EGO, get enough INT to reach INT 29 at level 12, 18 or 24, put the rest into toughness.

Add mutations to taste.

Tinkering is honestly a supplementary ability, and not really something to make a build out of. Everyone can benefit from it, but you can never rely purely on tinkering.

[Aoki]

Originally posted by CHOO CHOO:

What's there to build?

Take a Mutant Tinker, slap on Psychometry for convenience, go all out on EGO, get enough INT to reach INT 29 at level 12, 18 or 24, put the rest into toughness.

Add mutations to taste.

Tinkering is honestly a supplementary ability, and not really something to make a build out of. Everyone can benefit from it, but you can never rely purely on tinkering.

Sure but who doesnt want to be a the engie from tf2? Also since i usually dont get very far in caves of qud i really couldnt get the benefit of spending points on the tinker tree if im not going all out.

[inanity]

Originally posted by PigasaurusRex:

Originally posted by CHOO CHOO:

What's there to build?

Take a Mutant Tinker, slap on Psychometry for convenience, go all out on EGO, get enough INT to reach INT 29 at level 12, 18 or 24, put the rest into toughness.

Add mutations to taste.

Tinkering is honestly a supplementary ability, and not really something to make a build out of. Everyone can benefit from it, but you can never rely purely on tinkering.

Sure but who doesnt want to be a the engie from tf2? Also since i usually dont get very far in caves of qud i really couldnt get the benefit of spending points on the tinker tree if im not going all out.

You mean "Sure but I'm not listening"? Choo Choo just said you can't really go all out as a tinker.

[Aoki]

Originally posted by inanity:

Originally posted by PigasaurusRex:

Sure but who doesnt want to be a the engie from tf2? Also since i usually dont get very far in caves of qud i really couldnt get the benefit of spending points on the tinker tree if im not going all out.

You mean "Sure but I'm not listening"? Choo Choo just said you can't really go all out as a tinker.

Look i dont really want to get people mad im just asking for a way to have fun. it may not be viable but like i said i dont very far usually and using it supplementary build wouldnt work very well. Chill out a bit, lets not turn this community into a s***fest.

[CHOO CHOO]

The problem with playing Engie in CoQ is that, strategically, you are always on the offensive. Any turret you build will very shortly become useless when you move on. And you can't just pick it up or disassemble it.

[Aquillion]

Unfortunately, they're correct in that the game currently does not really provide much support for going "all-in" as a Tinker. There's no substantial tinker-specific benefit to added Intelligence after you've hit your prerequisites, and even Tinker II and Tinker III are not terribly valuable.

On top of this, if you're already having trouble with the early game, trying to use Tinkering to get through it is going to be really rough, because Tinkering is not strong on its own and doesn't really provide you with the tools you need to survive, especially not in the early game when resources are tight.

That said, I do have some bits of advice.

1. Invest heavily in Ego. Ego affects prices, which are vital both for getting as many tinkering bits as possible and for purchasing data disks. I would recommend being able to reach at least 19 Ego eventually so you can learn Snake Oiler (if you absolutely max Ego, it isn't necessary to learn Snake Oiler, because the price impact of Ego is capped. But if you're just getting a little Ego, go for 18 at start so reaching level 6 will push you to 19 and you can learn Snake Oiler.)

Honestly, the very best Tinker build would probably to be to go all-in on Ego (which would imply also being an Esper to take full advantage of it, at which point your Tinker abilities are just support... you can see the problem. But it's a fact that you want as much Ego as possible to lower prices so you can accumulate crafting recipes and scrap.

2. If you're not worried about the late game, don't raise your intelligence too high. You could even, in theory, leave it at 10 / 12 and get your tinker skills from being a Tinker or Artifex.

I've seen some dedicated Artifex builds, but I'd consider them sort of a "challenge" build, especially in the early game (when you won't have many ways of killing things.)

Originally posted by CHOO CHOO:

The problem with playing Engie in CoQ is that, strategically, you are always on the offensive. Any turret you build will very shortly become useless when you move on. And you can't just pick it up or disassemble it.

Oh, I forgot to mention this. You can disarm them to get your weapon back (doable with sword skills, although that requires a lot of agility.) You could also use a Ganglionic Teleprojector, but those aren't easy to get reliably. Annoyingly, they can't even be crafted.

[Aoki]

Originally posted by CHOO CHOO:

The problem with playing Engie in CoQ is that, strategically, you are always on the offensive. Any turret you build will very shortly become useless when you move on. And you can't just pick it up or disassemble it.

Thank you.

[Aoki]

Originally posted by Aquillion:

Unfortunately, they're correct in that the game currently does not really provide much support for going "all-in" as a Tinker. There's no substantial tinker-specific benefit to added Intelligence after you've hit your prerequisites, and even Tinker II and Tinker III are not terribly valuable.

On top of this, if you're already having trouble with the early game, trying to use Tinkering to get through it is going to be really rough, because Tinkering is not strong on its own and doesn't really provide you with the tools you need to survive, especially not in the early game when resources are tight.

That said, I do have some bits of advice.

1. Invest heavily in Ego. Ego affects prices, which are vital both for getting as many tinkering bits as possible and for purchasing data disks. I would recommend being able to reach at least 19 Ego eventually so you can learn Snake Oiler (if you absolutely max Ego, it isn't necessary to learn Snake Oiler, because the price impact of Ego is capped. But if you're just getting a little Ego, go for 18 at start so reaching level 6 will push you to 19 and you can learn Snake Oiler.)

Honestly, the very best Tinker build would probably to be to go all-in on Ego (which would imply also being an Esper to take full advantage of it, at which point your Tinker abilities are just support... you can see the problem. But it's a fact that you want as much Ego as possible to lower prices so you can accumulate crafting recipes and scrap.

2. If you're not worried about the late game, don't raise your intelligence too high. You could even, in theory, leave it at 10 / 12 and get your tinker skills from being a Tinker or Artifex.

I've seen some dedicated Artifex builds, but I'd consider them sort of a "challenge" build, especially in the early game (when you won't have many ways of killing things.)

Originally posted by CHOO CHOO:

The problem with playing Engie in CoQ is that, strategically, you are always on the offensive. Any turret you build will very shortly become useless when you move on. And you can't just pick it up or disassemble it.

Oh, I forgot to mention this. You can disarm them to get your weapon back (doable with sword skills, although that requires a lot of agility.) You could also use a Ganglionic Teleprojector, but those aren't easy to get reliably. Annoyingly, they can't even be crafted.

Thank you.

[Syonis]

Not so much a build, but a good strategy would be to learn how to create freeze grenades as soon as possible - combined with a ranged weapon, it will give you a safe way to handle the majority of the encounters you will find early on (as well as in to the later game, for some cases). The various types of grenades, some more than others, will go a long way towards bolstering your effectiveness in battle as a fledgling tinker - provided you can scavenge up enough bits.

A grenade launcher and/or parabolic throwing arm are not strictly necessary, but could help when you want to accurately strike a group of enemies at range, or if you find yourself using them frequently for crowd control. Abilities that let you see/sense enemies from further away are also helpful for keeping you out of the blast radius.

But as others have implied, one of the main strengths of tinkering is its versatility and the way it empowers other builds. Modifiers such as sharp, serrated, reinforced, masterwork etc. enhance the effectiveness of the tools you will use for other skill trees, and are all available at tinkering level I. So you'll still want to choose a fighting style/weapon class that you will use as your primary mode of combat; tinkering will just let you go the extra mile with it, with a few additional perks. The synergies are where it really shines.

[Aoki]

Originally posted by Syonis:

Not so much a build, but a good strategy would be to learn how to create freeze grenades as soon as possible - combined with a ranged weapon, it will give you a safe way to handle the majority of the encounters you will find early on (as well as in to the later game, for some cases). The various types of grenades, some more than others, will go a long way towards bolstering your effectiveness in battle as a fledgling tinker - provided you can scavenge up enough bits.

A grenade launcher and/or parabolic throwing arm are not strictly necessary, but could help when you want to accurately strike a group of enemies at range, or if you find yourself using them frequently for crowd control. Abilities that let you see/sense enemies from further away are also helpful for keeping you out of the blast radius.

But as others have implied, one of the main strengths of tinkering is its versatility and the way it empowers other builds. Modifiers such as sharp, serrated, reinforced, masterwork etc. enhance the effectiveness of the tools you will use for other skill trees, and are all available at tinkering level I. So you'll still want to choose a fighting style/weapon class that you will use as your primary mode of combat; tinkering will just let you go the extra mile with it, with a few additional perks. The synergies are where it really shines.

Cool thanks.

[Borra]

Actually I don't think ego can be that important for a tinker, you can amass loot from snapjaws in the canyons with few risk once you reach level 10+, though that's a bit grindy, that's why I'd still recomend to hit 19 ego on lvl 12/18 to get snake oiler.

[Aquillion]

Originally posted by borra:

Actually I don't think ego can be that important for a tinker, you can amass loot from snapjaws in the canyons with few risk once you reach level 10+, though that's a bit grindy, that's why I'd still recomend to hit 19 ego on lvl 12/18 to get snake oiler.

I mean, in theory, but the amount of grinding would get ridiculous, especially if you want to buy lots of data disks. And on top of that, if you want to "feel" like you're playing a tinker, you probably want to use lots of grenades, and that's expensive. One grenade costs as much as like 500 bullets. So you'd have to grind constantly, which isn't very fun.

Also, another aside. The ability to recharge cells is an extremely valuable Tinker ability.

I still think tinkers need the ability to construct robots, especially if the strength of the resulting robot scales with your level and Intelligence.

[raixel]

I'm running a tinker for the first time. I usually run a Warden with tinkering as a sub focus so I can build grenades and injectors and stuff.
But I wanted to try something different.
I gave myself Psychometry, Siphon Vim and Beguile. Also night vision and thick fur (for the F of it, seemed better than the other 1 point mutations). Kinda wanted to go pure psi but i hate worrying about sight and torches in the early game so I usually always take night vision. If you dont care about that, other options would be teleport other, ego projection, sleep gas, or two heads. I contemplated electromag pulse, but I used it on one of my previous Wardens and found that it doesnt really disable turrents and machines long enough to matter.

You want as much crowd control as you can get, cuz youre kind of squishy. YMMV on the skills, I have hundreds of hours in Qud and I know my playstyle real well. I'd say Beguile and Siphon Vim are very useful in keeping yourself alive, Psychometry helps a lot too, and for the last 2 points, pick something that matches your playstyle.

At level 10, I have 19/19/17/22/17/20. (On start I took 18/16/16/18/16/19, Tinker boosted the int to 20) And I'm wearing a knollworm skull for the ego boost. I'm still early game, just finished redrock, and rustwells and am not heading to the Barathumites. I dont fast travel unless its through an area Ive already been, like heading back after a quest so I end up with a lot of cool stuff.

Skills are Cudgel, Bow/Rifle, Tactics, Shield, in addition to my tinker skills. Works alright, but its definitely more a challenge build than my standard "play it in my sleep"Warden/tinker.

Beguiling a tough mob and using it as a meat shield is nice though. The Siphon Vim alos comes in pretty handy as a last ditch keep me alive. I chose Cudgel for the stunning, with Bludgeon and Ive been able to stunlock pretty good. Soften them up from a distance with a rifle or bow (dont use a burst weapon like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you're beguiled guy is in the way) and then order your beguiled tank to attack, while you stunlock.

[Aquillion]

Originally posted by raixel:

Kinda wanted to go pure psi but i hate worrying about sight and torches in the early game so I usually always take night vision. If you dont care about that, other options would be teleport other, ego projection, sleep gas, or two heads.

On a pure psy character, if you're worried about sight, I would suggest either Light Manipulation or Clairvoyance.

Light Manipulation also gives you a strong basic attack option (making it a very good choice for a tinker who doesn't want to waste grenades on everything). Clairvoyance can't substitute for light sources (at least not until extremely high levels), but the ability to expose who's targeting you at range is very valuable, and it scales extremely well at high levels. It's also good for Tinkers because the default torch radius isn't big enough to let you fully see what your grenades are going to hit.

But you run into the same problem I mentioned above where at a certain point, you're not so much a tinker as you are an Esper who does some tinkering.