How to build bros

[Tom]

I have no idea what perks work best with which bros. I normally take colossus early on as it gives a chunky bit of hp but other than that I have no idea what im looking for. Any tips?

[The Duck Knight]

try&error
&
some logical thinking (as is obvious non-sense :bullseye on none-ranged brothers, etc)

is all you need.

If the result works for you, it's a good build. If not, you can learn WHY it did not work and improve yourself.

[Gilius Thunderhead]

It works out more that people have kind of cookie cutter builds / roles and then they look for bros to suit those as opposed to trying to create roles to suit the bros if you know what I mean

Just a few examples:

Indom Shieldtank
Frontline 2Hander
Nimble Duellist
Backline Polearm
Pure Archer

Of course there are endless debates about the optimum way to create these builds and which ones are best or the most useful and really every player has their own preferences.

I'm not really up to date on current guides and stuff but maybe someone can point you in right direction?

EDIT: I found a very basic guide on the wiki which should get you thinking about things in the right way

https://battlebrothers.fandom.com/wiki/Character_Builds

[MrMuse]

do NOT take colossus untill your final skill (usually level 11) because the extra hp is a percentage of your CURRENT max hp and boosting hp as you lvl up will give you a bigger bonus. 'Go for the head' perk on EVERYONE. First skill should be either adaption or student..pathfinder can also be useful though and student is kind of a waste if you are aiming for post end game big fights. Lorekeeper is a real beech..stay the hell away from him until you REALLY know what you are doing.

[MrMuse]

nope. it's not retroactive. read the description. i used to always take it to keep the weedy early levels alive but the end hp at lvl 11 if you do it that way will be something like 80 or 90...( just over 100 at best). Taking it at 11 you can get up to 150 ish

[ecb2]

Sorry, didn't know you were going to answer so fast :). I deleted my question cuz I figured
your correct after thinking about it. So this applies to Fortified Mind as well?

My original question BTW was - Don't you get a 25% bonus on your HP total by level 11?
It seems to me that when I have Colossus early on, if I roll a 4, I will get 5 HP added instead?
Same goes for Fortified Mind. I will get a little more than my base roll.

[ecb2]

Well dang, that's a crazy revelation. Thanks!

[MrMuse]

not sure about fortified mind. I haven't used it that often. The enemies that do mind based attacks are fairly limited and things like hexen can be taken out quickly with good ranged. Can be handy on a strong two hander at times though because if he is charmed he can destroy your own guys lol.

[ecb2]

Wait, both Colossus and Fortified Mind say this clearly in the Perks Wiki:

Note: the bonus is always retroactively updated with maximum Hitpoints.

[MrMuse]

Originally posted by ecb2:

Wait, both Colossus and Fortified Mind say this clearly in the Perks Wiki:

Note: the bonus is always retroactively updated with maximum Hitpoints.

try it..in my experience it doesn't work that way and my steam game time is only half my total play time. So about 800hrs. Not saying i'm not wrong...just doesn't seem that way

[ecb2]

I'd really like to get to the bottom of this, as I am literally starting a brand new
LW run this week. If the difference between taking it at level 1 vs level 11 is
really that dramatic, I'd like to know! Any second or third opinions/validations
out there?

[MrMuse]

Not a fan of LW for end game...that "never more than 12" part can be a real butt fk. You need reserves for multi part big fights. I thought peasants would be cool as you can have a bigger team...but the quality of peasant starters is very hit and miss. Best thing to do with those is just hire ALL the slaves you can get hold of and kick the ones that are no good straight away. I've had slaves that have turned out way more powerful than expensive nobles and gladiators.

[MrMuse]

oh..last tip...get as many of the strongest dogs (the irish wolfhound hairy ones) as you can too...they are great for taking out super annoying enemies like ghasts..use umber hide to give them stronger armour. In fact, on the harder difficulties, they are stronger than your starters...buuut..they aren't cheap at that point either.

[ecb2]

Yeah, good points about LW, but I just like it. If you are looking for a good Peasant Militia
seed, this one posted by someone here just recently, looks pretty awesome to me: gWoMuaprOV I might try it actually. Yes, I love dogs! Most of my bros will have an armored
dog.

I also have 800 + hours into this game. That's why it would be very disheartening to learn
that I have been applying Colossus (and probably FM) so incorrectly, basically cheating myself out of so many extra hit points. I keep doing the math in my head both ways, and it comes out the same either way. I'd really love a definitive answer on this.

Gotta go to work now.

[Calandro]

I'm not sure where MrMuse is getting this from, but both Colossus and Fortified Mind will work the same way work regardless of when you pick them.

Picking Colossus at level 2, then levelling to 11, will result in the same amount of hp as picking it at 11, same goes for FM.

They are just multipliers which update based on whatever the new base amount is at any given point.

[Nerdgasm]

These are the go to guides for beginners:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2001196860

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2549815780

I would just play it by ear and go with your intuition with the help of the perk guide. It's kind of how most of us play, by just figuring things out and what the preferences are. Over time you'll get a feel for it and start to optimize things a bit better and maybe start looking into the build guides later down the road, but even then it still kind of ruins it when you're copy and pasting builds. There have been theorized 'perfect' builds but even then it's a bit subjective if you're only looking at spreadsheets while ignoring actual dynamics.