New to the game, what skills should I pick?

[BHunterSEAL]

Maxed out Swimming and Environmental to start out since I know for a fact NYC and Hong Kong are islands

[Stoibs]

I never once have put a single point into swimming across any of my playthroughs and have been able to access pretty much all the secret or alternate paths.

There exists scuba gear items;
There is an aqualung Aug option;
And at the end of the day drowning merely causes HP tick damage which technically can be healed through with enough resources/Regen Augment anyway.

Same with Environment for most of the similar reasons really.
Heh, your 2 chosen ones are the 2 I literally never invest a single point in.

[FieserMoep]

Max Pistols
Use regular pistol with scope for sniping action and stealth pistol for infiltration, close range and dps.
That way you wont waste to much points into weapons you might not realy understand as of now. The only thing you should be aware of is strict aiming for the head and being ammo conservative, especially later on when 10mm gets more rare.

The other skills will be used into skills that open ways for actually utilizing the environment makes the game quite easy and grants you the most rewards. Swimming and Environmental though do not open doors, they are just mere convenience and we dont need that.

[murph]

Computer & Small Weapons is basic good start. Computer allows you to hack ATM and any terminals. Swimming is semi-important depending on how you play, but you don't have to sink any skill points into it until Hong Kong (ie don't pick it first).

[Crono]

Swimming is a useless skill because of the rebreather and swimming-related augs. I've never invested in environmental so I can't say much about that but I've never felt like I needed it. Computer, electronics and lockpicking are the ones I always pick because there are a lot of computers to hack, a lot of electronics to bypass, and a lot of locks to pick.

Then again it really depends how you want to play. If you're going to go combat-heavy, medicine is probably a good choice, as well as some weapons skills. If you're going stealthy, like I said computer, electronics and lockpicking are essential. But if you're thorough you can get passwords and codes through other means.

The computer skill will help with, well, computers, but you can also enable/disable cameras and turrets and reprogram them to attack enemies.

Electronics will be good for keypads, alarms, etc. Useful if you can't find the code anywhere but if you're out of multi-tools bad luck.

Lockpicking helps with, obviously, locks. The higher the skill the less lockpicks you will need for a particular door. Again, useful if you can't find the key for a particular door but if you're out of lockpicks bad luck.

These are the three I invest in the most and while swimming like a dolphin is fun you don't swim much at all and for the parts where there are water you'll usually have a rebreather or a swimming aug on you. The way the game is designed, augs typically make up for skills you don't have.

That's just how I do it anyway. Better you pick what you feel is necessary and play how you want. But if you're sticking with swimming and environmental, I'd probably choose computer so you can at least perform basic hacks.

[FieserMoep]

As said Electronics/Lockpick/Computers are the essential "door openers". You need them unless you focus on a combat heavy playhtrough where you pick weapons and medicine mostly.

As for weapons Pistols are a very good allrounder that leave plenty of inventory space for occasional laws and utility items.

Rifles are realy good allrounders with a more offensive approach and aside the Sniper Rifle are less suited for stealth.

Low-tech is mostly undisputed king for stealth and non-lethal yet you will get the dragon's thooth which is worth a dedicated playthrough yet takes quite a while until you get there.

Heavy and Demolitions are not realy noob-friendly and imhocall for a dedicated carnage approach that might be less satisfiying on the first playthrough for the game.

[SubTonic]

I always went Trained in swimming. Untrained is just painfully slow and I only ever used Rebreathers. Without Shifter, I stayed away from Environmental because you can't toggle the suits on/off. With Shifter, Environmental becomes a lot more useful. My top picks for most useful skills, exploration-wise, are Computer, Electronics and Lockpicking. I always prioritized Lockpicking before Electronics because the starting levels demand more picks. Medicine I never bothered with because I never play run and gun, though I'd imagine it's helpful if you do play that way.

Edit: Oh yeah, and Low Tech is, as mentioned, fantastic when combined with stealth attacks. The baton with Low Tech will one-shot any normal enemy when hit in the spine/butt (dunno about Revision), and the Prod handles Commandos and MIBs easily.

Really, with some creative thinking, anything can be useful in this game. I used to think pepper spray was worthless..until I started doing non-lethal runs. I wanted to explore a room that contained multiple opponents, didn't wanna hurt myself with a gas grenade (though you can equip a hazmat to help, especially if you're playing Shifter and can disable it after), so I figured hey, might as well see if this pepper spray is worth a crap. And it worked beautifully. Blinded all three enemies rapidly, prodded them all down.

[LikuidLightning]

Nicely trolled.

[FieserMoep]

Originally posted by OSFLikuid Lightning:

Nicely trolled.

Even if so (Given that OP mentioned the two worst skills) this thread is still of use and will appear to those that might pick this game up and utilize the search function for advise.

[BHunterSEAL]

Ha, I wasn't even trying to troll--I figured people would see this and laugh that even now, 15 years later, someone out there will be dumping points into Swimming the whole game, just waiting for the big payoff...

Like the song says, "Don't pick Swimming, it's fairly useless!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_8wQFOHWXc ... I was actually suprised to see Swimming still in, given that the mod talked about changes to rebalance skills and augs. Enabling BioMod seems to swap Athletics out for it, naturally I didn't even see that option in the menu until I was halfway through LIberty Island.

As for me, I generally pick two out of Locks / Electronics / Computers, plus Lowtech and Pistols or Rifles. One point into Demos for the disarm skill and the rest are up for grabs, as many have said Medical / Environmental become largely irrelevent with the right biomods.

[Crono]

Just now realised you were joking. Good one.

[Peary]

Swimming.
Always the swimming.
And nothing else.

[FhqwhTODD]

I always use swimming. Swimming is great.

[BHunterSEAL]

That's just plain foolish. Everyone knows it's not advisable for tourists to visit the canals at night.

[Peary]

Do you have a single fact to back that up?

[Vzzdak]

There's probably all sorts of undiscovered Easter Eggs that nobody's found because they didn't advance swimming to a sufficient level to allow exploration.

Something curious. On the Vandenburg map, you start on the roof and will eventually work your way down to the building's lobby, where two MJ12 shock troopers are standing guard outside the front doors. Going through a ventilation panel into a largish maintenance room, there is a way down into water-filled pipe. You need some ability to survive swimming down that pipe, which surfaces in a fenced-off pool outside the facility. However, it's not clear why this pipe exists because it is essentially one-way, serving as a way to get *into* the building.