Most important things to know before starting a new game.

[someguy216]

I never managed to complete this game despite having enjoyed it so though t I'd give it another shot. However before I start I don't want to make a dumb mistake.

What would you say is the biggest pieces of advice when starting a new game?

[red255]

Um
Either 4 INT or 10 INT. INT/STR/SPD /4 (unless disnumerology)
Coord /2
SPD/STR /2.

Basically build your guys right. high iniitative is always good(er) but I generally pick it up as I go along.

Honestly I did something really stupid, ....see I made a party of 4 rangers with Ascetic right? then I went and ran thru the highpool/ag center quest lines went back to ranger citadel and pressed the nuke button. this exports your rangers and allows you to use them to start a new game.

this will allow you to apply the ascetic bonus of +1 stat (and +5 skillpoints) every game. also theres an unarmed skill book and an explosive skill book and an outdoorsman skill book.

did this like...40 times takes about 15-30 minutes each run thru. so lets say 20 hours just building these stupidly imba maxed stat toons.

just to see that i could.

eventually however they got stupidly strong and it takes my machine a long time calculating their move distance. cuz they have like 16 AP and maxed speed+charge perk. so...crazy fast.

anyways my point being.... take ascetic and hit the nuke 10 times and you'll be stupidly overpowered. regardless of what else you do.

Oh and have a guy with 10 charisma and the perk that gets you charismax2 for followers.

not saying to do the ascetic thing. just saying i did because it amused me at the time.

[.//slayer]

The biggest advice I can give is make a minmaxed sniper and and an equally minmaxed assault rifle user. The amount of action points available is probably the most important factor when considering builds. These two will allow you to breeze through the combat part of the game regardless of the rest of your composition, so feel free to do whatever you want with the rest of the characters (or go duo and hire the others along the way).

[red255]

yeah weapon types of sniper rifle and assault rifle are best. Snipers have good natural penetration and assault rifles get a perk to give them one more penetration. the range of the assault rifle if you stick a good scope and long barrel on it rivals a sniper

the melee skills are viable per se. put 4 ticks in blunt and get Charge! and they'll be fine.

Characters I'd suggest using:
Ranger Combat Assault Rifle
Ranger Combat Assault Rifle
Ranger Combar Sniper Rifle
Ranger Leader (High Charisma) Leadership. Irrelevant weapon choice. hell give him energy weapons I don't care.
Helper: Tatsuki/Chisel
Helper: Rose/Vulture's Cry.
Helper.... Pizepi?

Pizepi's a pain to get So maybe use Tatsuki, Chisel and Vultures Cry. Tatsuki uses a Grip tape Combat knife for AZ Chisel probably uses a crowbar.

Later switching it up for a Proton Ax and a Plasma Hammer.

Your Rangers can take the Trait that Gives +2 AP, maximize your starting STR/SPD/INT to be what you want at the end of the game and just dump points into Awareness at level up.

[brooklyncontrivance]

The best advice is: make one character with 10 int and 10 charisma. He won't be good in combat til he gets a lot of levels and even then he'll be pretty lackluster, but:

- 10 charisma XP bonus means he'll be hitting level 50 or so when everyone else is hitting level 40.
- at 10 int he gets 5 skill points per level and he'll make level 55 by the end of the game. That's 275 skill points, or enough to max 7.5 skills.
- Give him hard ass, smart ass and kiss ass. He'll reap even more bonus XP from successes on those skills, and each has a perk giving two free levels of the skill. Use the perk and the skill books for those skills to acquire levels 8,9 and 10 and you save 20 skill points per skill, so 60 total. Which means you can max around 9 skills on this one character.
- But, you can get skill books for level 10 of 5 of those other skills, possibly all six depending on what you load him with. That's another 40 or 48 saved skill points, translating to another skill he can pick up and max. So that's TEN maxed skills on one character.
- since you're grabbing all three ass skills on this character there's no difficulty in getting the Radiant Personality perk on him, which doubles his charisma for purposes of NPC recruitment. 10 x 2 = 20, which means all your other rangers can have 1 charisma and you'll still be able to recruit every possible NPC without having to resort to trinket or buffs.
- and of course 10 charisma means this character should have leadership skill

Really a fair trade off. I suggest making him a pistol user (due to his low AP at the beginning) to start, then pick up shotguns late game.

Second best advice: your character with Perception should also have Demolitions and the highest awareness score you can manage. Having a larger perception radius makes disarming mines a lot less tedious, as does not having to switch between two characters.

Third best advice: stick toaster repair, weaponsmithing and mechanical repair on one character with 4 intelligence. Once you find the tool kit trinket which gives +2 to all three of those skills you'll have no trouble maxing them all (with plenty of points left over) even with the low intelligence score.

Fourth best advice: Chisel with the +5 combat initiative ring is the best combat NPC in the game. Chisel with the +5 combat initiative ring, a proton hammer and combat shooting is better than any of your characters are.

Fifth best advice: Don't take Rose into the endgame.

[red255]

...uh, max level is 50. unless they changed it.

[someguy216]

So are assault rifles and snipers just OP? Or are you guys suggesting them because they are just reliable, because It would be pretty boring just having everyone use snipers/assault rifles and not using the various other weapons of the game.

Also is melee and unarmed any better? last time I played they seemed rather lack luster.

[red255]

Originally posted by someguy216:

So are assault rifles and snipers just OP? Or are you guys suggesting them because they are just reliable, because It would be pretty boring just having everyone use snipers/assault rifles and not using the various other weapons of the game.

Also is melee and unarmed any better? last time I played they seemed rather lack luster.

...Yes. Ok lets talk about why they are better?

Ok first thing is weapon penetration. Damage works like if you have the same penetration as the target's armor you basically do full damage, anything less, less damage. in AZ honey badgers have like 5 armor 6 armor might be the most armor you'll see.

the way armor works in DC is if you have 2 or so less penetration than your target you'll do noticably less damage, and more than that you should be looking for a different weapon.

So for Guns we have:
Snipers
Assault RIfles
SMG
Shotguns
Pistols
Heavy
Energy.

Early on all are viable. later on you'll have issues with the armor penetration not being high enough to cut mustard. They seem more or less balanced Damage wise ignoring the penetration stat, but ...since the game doesn't, we can't.

So Snipers. At 10 points mastery you get this perk that reduces the AP cost to fire if you haven't moved yet this turn. (shoot then move ideally or shoot twice) I go ahead and combo this with hardass's bloodthirsty to get extra shots off. the weapon has naturally high penetration, hard to get mutltiple shots off so misses are bad, but it takes all 4 weapon mod slots so you can attack all sorts of range and accuracy boosters. can make targetted shots so it can hit the body to reduce enemy armor or can target the head for increased damage.


Assault Rifles. again full suite of mod slots. takes a perk to make it +1 armor pen. CAn make targetted shots. with the range boosters from the mods Long barrel and highpowered scope its range isn't that much different than a sniper. and its damage can be increased with a 2 round burst making it comparable to a sniper. but the sniper and the assault have an accuracy penalty if the enemy has moved to range 1.

the SMG guns can't take scopes and can't do targetted shots and don't have as much penetration as Rifles. they aren't... unviable but the good ones in AZ use ammo you have to find/buy and can't take off enemy corpses because no enemies use the 9mm or .45 until you get to LA. Main issue with them is the reduced range and inability to take targetted shots and low weapon penetration.

Shotguns uh all they can equip is a single choke mod. which basically is do you want to shoot all enemies in a large cone over a short distance or a tight barrel over a longer distance
main issue is its lack of range. Maybe its penetration but I'm never usually firing one because its range isnt really useful. has a perk that destroys cover, unfortunately most cover is indestructable. can't take targetted shots.

Pistols can take targetted shots, and can equip 3 mods again just not as good as assault rifles, pretty much like SMG (in fact SMG benifit from gunslinger perks)

Heavy weapons can't make targetted shots or weapon mods. so relatively short range. main issue is its ammo consumption and prone to jamming (because it can't take a magazine mod)

Energy weapons. Main issue is they aren't any good upgrades in LA.

Regarding Melee you got Bladed, which you have 3 AP weapons and 4 AP weapons a GRip tape takes them down to 2 AP and 3 AP. the 2 AP weapons do alot of damage in AZ, the 3 AP weapon do alot of damage in LA. midling chance to critical.

Blunt have 4 AP weapons and 5 AP weapons. Grip tape reduces them to 3 and 4 AP. Lower chance to crit, higher crit damage. Doesn't preform as well as bladed in AZ and comparable to bladed in LA (unless you give him combat shooting to fix its low crit chance and then it will probably outdistance bladed for damage)

Unarmed gets naturally high chance to crit with 10 points in its basically 100% chance to crit, a guareenteed free attack on the first round and theres a skill book that teaches unarmed so you can go from 9 to 10 and save 8 skill points. its damage increases as you level up and the gloves are mainly there to give you weapon penetration. Especially viable if you are over leveled for the area you are in.

[New Moon On Monday]

Save a lot. I have a new save each time I enter a new area, in addition to using Quicksave every few minutes. There are a lot surprise moments you may wish you could do over, so Quicksaving often lets you do them over without losing much playing time.

[New Moon On Monday]

Create your characters in order of front line to back line. The order in which you create your characters is the default order of their marching formation, and you can't switch character positions (except that the highlighted character leads the party).

[New Moon On Monday]

5 ATTRIBUTES DIRECTLY HELP COMBAT, 2 DO NOT

Your combat effectiveness is determined by Combat Initiative and Action Points. Accuracy, Strength, and Intelligence contribute to Action Points; Awareness contributes to Combat Initiative; and Speed contribute to both Combat Initiative and Action Points.

Luck does not contribute to combat effectiveness, so keep it at 1. Charisma does not contribute to combat effectiveness, so your three characters who do not take Leadership should keep it at 1.

ORDER OF ALLOCATING ATTRIBUTES-
FIRST START WITH THE STRENGTH + SPEED + INTELLIGENCE BLOCK

When allocating Attributes, I think it's easiest to start with the Strength + Speed + Intelligence block. They should add up to a multiple of 4 for purposes of Action Point calculation (usually 16 or 20).

Within the Strength + Speed + Intelligence block, the first decision is usually to decide on either an Intelligence of 4 or 10 (the best break-points for Skill Points). Your next decision is probably on Strength- maybe as high as 6 for a melee character, maybe 4 for a front-line gunner, 2 for a back-line gunner. (Because Strength gives a bonus to CON, I feel that finding at least 4 Strength for a front-line character to be helpful.) Most of the time, a high Strength character will have 4 Intelligence, and a low Strength character can have 10 Intelligence.

Then your last decision in the Strength + Speed + Intelligence blick is probably Speed. Take Speed in multiples of 2 for the Combat Initiative calculation. Don't skimp here- Speed is not only helping your Combat Initiative too, but movement is important. Less than 4 is probably too little for anyone; you probably want at least 6 for anyone with a combat movement penalty (e.g. heavy armor or the Thick-Skinned Perk); go higher than 6 if you can.

SECOND TWEAK ACCURACY FOR ACTION POINTS

The next step is to increase Accuracy in multiples of 2 to find your desired Action Points. 9 Action Points works for most characters, so most of your characters might have an Accuracy of 2. (9 works for most characters here, assuming that they will all be taking the Tinkerer Perk to get to 10 Action Points, and snipers will be taking the Brittle Bones to add to that for 12.)

FINALLY PUT THE REST IN AWARENESS FOR COMBAT INITIATIVE

Finish with putting the rest of your poitns in Awareness, which is the only combat-effective Attribute that gives you something on a 1-for-1 basis.

I do not necessarily know what a minimum Combat Initiative score should be. I think to be consistently near the top of the combat order, it's good to have at least 13 here.

SPECIAL CASE - FINDING CHARISMA FOR YOUR LEADER

Your leader is going to be a special case, because you'll need to dig out points to get Charisma up to 5 or 6. (I wouldn't start with higher than 6, because that is going to reduce your leader's combat value so much more at the start of the game.) You can use the extra Atttribute points you get every 10th level to eventually bump Charisma up to 10.

PUTTING TOGETHER A PARTY

So it might look something like this:

MELEE

The distinguishing trait of your melee character is probably going to be Strength. Speed will also be important, because he needs to cover ground to get next to enemies to attack. (And I plan to give him a movement penalty with the Thick-Skinned Quirk, so I want to start with lost of movement to compensate. So we start with Strength 6 + Speed 10 + Intelligence 4. (Strength 8 and Speed 8 would probably work too). Next set Accuracy to 2, and that gets him to 9 Action Points. There are enough points left over for Awareness 4, and that gets his Combat Initiative to a healthy 14.

ASSAULT GUNNER

Next go to the Assault Rifle gunner, who I consider to be front-line, and who I plan to give Perception (so I want good Awareness). I start with Strength 4 + Speed 8 + Intelligence 4. I go with Accuracy 4 to get Action Points up to 9. That leaves enough points left over for Awareness 6, putting Combat Initiative at 15. (Attribute points from every 10th level will probably go toward Awareness to get it up to 10 eventually).

LEADER

Next go to the Leader, I'll start by carving out 5 points of Charisma. Down some points, the maximum I can spare for the Strength + Speed + Intelligence block is 16, so I allocate them Strength 2, Speed 4, Intelligence 10. I'll put Accuracy at 2, and even though only gives 8 Action Points, the leader will have a weapon like a Pistol with low Action-Point cost. That leave 3 left over for Awareness, giving a low Combat Initiative of 10. If you want to start with a higher Charisma, you'd have to first take the points out of Awareness, brining that Combat Initiatve down more.

SNIPER

Finally the sniper. The sniper is in the very back line, doesn't really need high Strength or mobility. Let's start with Strength 2 + Speed 4 + Intelligence 10. Next Accuracy 6, and that gets Action Points up to 10. (Brittle Bones will add 2 Action Points, Tinkerer will add 1 Action Point- that's 13 Action Points, enough for a crouch with the Limber Perk and firing most sniper rifles twice in one turn). That is leaving 4 points left over for Awareness, and that is a Combat Initiative of 11. The Combat Initiative is a bit slow- one option is to knock Accuracy to 4 and bump Awareness to 6- or leave it the way it is, and put some level-up attribute points in Awareness at every 10th level.

[New Moon On Monday]

When it comes to Quirks- I like Thick-Skinned for front line Rangers, and Brittle Bones for the sniper. Ascetic is a consideration for the Leader (who is probably starved for attribute points and has many skill points), though I could go Thick-Skinned there too. I'm not fond of any of the other Quirks.

It is convenient for your front-line fighter leading the combat order to have Perception. There is also some convience to combining Perception and Demolitions in the same character, but less important if you have trouble working it out.

I think it is convenient for the Leader to have Medic and Surgeon to do combat healing. Since the Leader is the least combat-effective, you will miss his gun least when he has to spend a turn healing someone.

A Surgeon Skill of 1 is enough to use most of the Surgeon items in the game, including the Basic Trauma Kit to revive fallen soldiers. It is a great investment for secondary and tertiary surgeons. (There are no more Basic Trauma Kits available when you get to California; so don't waste them when you don't have to.)

Giving your Leader the Smart Ass Skill to take the Radiant Personality Perk should help you recruit any NPC you want.

I think light armor is superior to heavy armor in many ways. Giving everyone a Weaponsmithing of 2 to take the Tinkerer Perk for +1 Action Points in light armor is worth it. (Since you don't start with armor, you can make a goal of getting your combatants the Tinkerer by level 4).

Giving Lockpicking and Safecracking to the same character is a good move, because the Master Thief Perk is great. If you eliminate critical failure, a 1% chance to succeed is the functional equivalent of a 100% chance to succeed (if you are patient).

Limber is a great Perk for snipers. With the better sniper rifles and sufficient modifications, your snipers will have enough range that you never have to worry about closing to fire or scrambling for cover- you can safely crouch and fire on the first turn. Deadeye is a must-have Perk for snipers.

Perks that increase Armor Penetration of weapons are must have.

Melee Shooting essentially eliminates the only disadvantage of Assault Rifles.

Just about everyone will benefit from the Hardened Perk. The closer they are to the front line, the quicker they should take it. Healthy is another Perk that everyone should take sooner or later- the sooner the better for front-line characters.

Be wary of the loot Perks. Powder Packer, Junk Diver, and Toaster Expert are underwhelming. I never tried Deconstructing, but you really don't need the extra weapon parts- you'll have more than enough for Arizona already, and in California it's worthless. You won't find yourself so consistently impoverished that it is worthwhile to take Perks for extra scrap pocket change. I have not tried Improvised Explosives- maybe it would be worthwhile, but I've never run out of grenades.