Looking for a very powerful party build

[lolz.guru/cryyxu]

Hi!
Can you suggest me a very powerful party setup for higher difficulties?
How do you distribute stats, which are the most important skills, which weapons do you use and do you use quirks(which ones)?

Please also note the most important perks for those builds...

thx in advance

[OnlyOffensive]

Maybe we should play for you and post a video aswell? :D

All weapons are fine, except shotguns maybe? Dont know how good they are in DC but in original game they were garbage. All skills are important and part of most quests and adventures. Social skills, lockpicking, safecracking, demolitions, weaponsmith are probably most common checks and social skills were buffed with perks. Perception is mandatory if you want multiply solutions, more good stuff and advanced game expirience. I would say weaponsmith is mandatory aswell. You can take most of skills and manage party skill distribution during creation, i think having one 10 INT character is very usefull from the beginning, he/she can have most skills and utility during game. Standart 4 INT characters should have around 4 skills to level up, better to use only one weapon per character and add energy to someone, probably to that 10 INT character later in game. Dont make characters with less than 4 INT or you will suffer with skills, look for the bonuses for action points, your starting characters should have at least 9 AP i had three 9 and one 10 AP, thats the basics i think.

You dont really need to combo anything in group, all weapons work with each other fine, i think having AR user is most common, since it's very powerfull category. SMG's heavy weapons, snipers, any melee weapons - everything is strong. Pistols were buffed aswell, but i dont really use them on custom characters since i like to run with Rose and Pete and they both pistol users.

[lolz.guru/cryyxu]

Okay I want 2 Snipers, one Bladed user and 1 Assault rifles user.
Also a good medic and optionally a good leadership person.

Which stats and skills would you suggest me for them to use?

[OnlyOffensive]

dont take 2 snipers. Having 2 same weapon users arent good, if you want double better to do AR, snipers are more specialized and not always powerfull, during mostly one atack per turn or 1-2-1 due to AP save.

If you want to make 10 INT character to have more utility, it shouldnt be sniper or melee character, those both are very dependant on attributes, especially melee, should be at least AR, mine jack of all trades aka field medic etc run SMG's and energy weapons.

My melee character is brawler but all melee characters use same concept.
My melee character starting stats were 2 2 3 8 8 4 1. Melee greatly benefits from both strenght and speed, might use luck build also but i didnt really bothered with it. Optional skills mostly whatever, but since perks you might want some synergy, like putting demolitions on the guy who would probably use explosives most of the time. My brawler starting skills were brawl / lockpicking / 1 hard ass / 1 brute force.

I use Heavy weapon specialist with demolitions / outdoor / and optional pistols but dont level them much. His starting stats were 8 2 4 4 4 4 2, i think its pretty solid starting stats for any ranged weapon user, it offers 10 AP and later you can pick up 10 coordination or fast 5 strenght for heavy armors if you want to use them.

I use leadership on my 10 INT character, i level up it slowly, it's not a skill that need to be rushed, my int character stats were 4 1 2 2 4 10 5, with smart ass ( to take perk that double charisma for NPC check ) field medic / smg / toast repaits / safecracking and 1/2 leadership later, 10 INT is very flexible in terms of skill distribution, i also have Rose so i have 2 10 INT characters that covers most optional utility skills.

I have perception and weaponsmith on my AR character aswell as kiss ass.

For the snipers you can use my Heavy weapon starting stats, you atleast should have 6/8 coordination, also can put more stats into awareness, since high iniative snipers are good, because they can oneshot alot of annoying enemies at almost any range, you also can do opener atack with them and atack again when battle begins, it's good too.

[OnlyOffensive]

Yea and i forgot to add that computer science is obv is one of the most common skill checks and kinda mandatory, i forgot to mention it since i run Rose in party and she has 4 starting computer science and she will be very fast addition to a team if you choose AG. Otherwise you should probably have it on one of the characters.

[shareofhonor]

I tried a build with a 10 int character thinking they would be weak and work them up later. You put that much into into int they aren't just weak, they are useless in combat. Especially since you can pick up Rose who already has a 10 int and is basically useless in combat I think it is much better to make all your squad members good in combat. My leader has bladed only one weapon skill since she has high charisma I want her to have skills she can get the exp bonus from. I got a sniper sub machine gunner. A blunt assault rifle and a doc medic with a shotgun.

[OnlyOffensive]

My 10 int character is pretty decent with smg/energy weapons. INT isnt exactly useless combat stat, since it provides action points, especially when you cap at 10, mix 10 INT with 4-6 coordination and you should be fine.

The amount of utility you need to fully expirience the game cant be covered just by Rose, especially if you run double weapons for whatever reason. With the perks system you will want to hit high amount of skill in alot of weapons like : Heavy weapons, pistols, sniper rifles, blades/blunts and you still need some optional skills per character and upgrade them or they will be outdated pretty fast. I would say it's really hard to keep 2 weapons skills at decent level until very late game and there is no much reason to, honestly. Only category that is "special" - energy weapons, they were nerfed so they are only for exceptional fights instead for everything like before all other weapons kinda do same thing overall. I would say before that you can just run ALL AR if you want "Best" combat results, but will be that fun? Thats the question. But now i started to respect Heavy weapons, they are finally coming to the level where they should belong, because of high ap cost/no mods/huge ammo consuption. Didnt get 10 skill perk yet but it looks devastating.

[New Moon On Monday]

Create your characters in order of front-line to back, since that is where they will be by default in formation. Start with your Thick-Skinned characters, end with your Sniper.

For combat effective characters, you want to maximize Action Points and Combat Initiative.

Of your seven attributes, five contribute to Action Points and/or Initiative, and two do not. The two that do not are Luck and Charisma. Keep Luck at 1 on all of your characters, and Charisma at 1 on all except your leader.

Speed contributes to both Action Points and Combat Iniative, so you don't want it to go low an any of your characters. Additionally, Combat Speed is good to have, and you'll want high Speed to offset penalties associated with the Quirks Thick-Skinned and Brittle Bones.

Your Leader will want high Charisma, and taking Charisma inherently limits investment in combat-effective stats. And your Leader will not benefit from the Leadership bonus. So your Leader is a good candidate to be your Field Medic / Surgeon. On the higher difficultly levels, you are taking extra damage, and you're going to need a character whose first responsibility is using the healing kits. Don't give this character a premium weapon. Consider: Coordination 2, Luck 1, Awareness 1, Strength 2, Speed 8, Intelligence 10, Charisma 4, Ascetic Quirk (adding the extra attribute point to Charisma, for 5 to start). Add to Charisma at level-ups. You can effectively focus on 6 skills if at least one is a Social skill, so consider: Field Medic, Surgeon, Leadership, Smart Ass (for Radiant Personality Perk), weapon skill of choice, two other needed skills (but not Perception or Computer Science).

Your Sniper needs the most Action Points, and relies on Combat Speed the least, so you can sacrifie some Speed for Coordination. Consider: Coordination 6, Luck 1, Awareness 4, Strength 2, Speed 4, Intelligence 10, Charisma 1. Quirk is Brittle Bones. On level-ups, consider bringing Speed to 8 or Coordination to 10, and +1 Awareness at level 50. This character will probably never make use of a secondary weapon, so Skills include Sniper plus 4 of your choice. Hard Ass to eventually take the Bloodthirsty Perk can help you get some three-shot-per-turn scenarios.

For a Bladed user, extra Strength is nice, though not really necessary. You want closing Speed. Consider: Coordination 2, Luck 1, Awareness 4, Strength 6, Speed 10, Intelligence 4, Charisma 1. Quirk: Thick-Skinned. Level-ups can take Strength to 10 or Coordination to 6. If this character has Perception, you would probably want to give all your level-ups to Awareness. Having a back-up ranged weapon is recommended (Heavy Weapons?). So realistically you have room for Bladed Weapons, backup-ranged weapon, and one other skill.

Your character with Assault Rifles has a little more flexibility. This character does not need a secondary weapon (with the Melee Shooting Perk). So you need to decide if you need this character to cover two-non combat skillls for you, or four, which depends on whether you know in advance which NPCs are going to cover which skills for you.

For a high-INT Assault Rifle, consider: Coordination 2, Luck 1, Awareness 4, Strength 2, Speed 8, Intelligence 10, Charisma 1. For lower-INT, consider: Coordination 4, Luck 1, Awareness 4, Strength 4, Speed 10, Intelligence 4, Charisma 1. For both, the Quirk is Thick-Skinned. If this character has Perception, add to Awareness on all level-ups. Otherwise, level-ups are a combination of Coordination (maybe 2 or 4 more) and Awareness (the rest).

Of course, everyone will buy Weaponsmith skill up to 2 by 4th level for the Tinkerer Perk.

Computer Science gives you access to the Roboticist Perk, so your Computer Science specialist (if you are creating one, rather than relying on an NPC) should be someone who will be active in combat against Robots. It pairs well with Energy Weapons; alternately, give it to a Sniper.

Safecracking and Lockpicking should be handled by the same character, for eventual access to the Master Thief Perk.

Your Thick-Skinned characters should take Hardened ASAP (by 8th level).

Your Leader with Smart-Ass should take Radiant Personality by 12th level or earlier, if you need Charisma to recruit NPCs. Taunt, Enrage, and Infuriate are good pick-ups with Leadership.

It is convenient to have Perception on your first front-line character. It is also good for a combat-effective character like your Assault Rifle or Bladed specialist, because Perception 3 allows for the Tactical Positioning Perk. The game is very generous about what it considers to be an attack "from behind". (When you have spare skill points at high levels, consider dumping them into Perception 3 to unlock Tactical Positioning).

Full Metal Jacket and Melee Shooting are priority Perks for Assault Rifles.

Samurai is a priority Perk for Bladed. Self-Defense is a good pick-up.

Limber is a priority Perk for Snipers. Deadeye is a priority Perk for Snipers. Watchman is an okay pick-up- but late in the game you'll have such range that your Snipers will rarely be on ambush.

Everyone with a social skill should take the Perk that adds +2 to the skill.

Hardened, Turtle, Healthy, and Weathered are Perks that at least your front-line, if not all, of your characters should have.

Tormentor is a great late-game Perk for Snipers, and Assault Rifles. When your hit chances start getting so high that you have a 100% chance to hit an enemy in cover, add Tormentor.

If you find the Combat Shooting book, to me it is obvious to give Combat Shooting to your Sniper.

Aside from your primary Surgeon, at least one (perhaps 2) should be back-up Surgeons. But your back-up only needs Surgeon 1. That is enough to use the Basic Trauma kit to revive a fallen Ranger after battle. (Basic Trauma kits will no longer be available in California, so stockpile them; your primary Surgeon should always use the better trauma kits when they are available and skill allows). Surgeon 1 is also sufficient to use Antibiotics, Suture Kits, and Antivenom.

[shareofhonor]

Pretty decent is not a ringing endorcement. Have you tried playing a build where all your rangers can fight well? Having that extra person is huge. Having all them only getting 3 skill points a turn could hurt in the long run. Not sure about That.

[Schanez]

Building two snipers from your four rangers is the only way to go, if you wish to run double sniper team, as very few of the recruits are capable of being a decent sniper.

For an Assault rifle user it's best to aim for 10 or 12 AP later into the game. That being said, some possible builds are...
8154442 - gives you 10AP and 12CI as well as 3 skill points per level;
8152642 - raises CI to 13, but has lower health than the previous;
6174442 - 9AP and 14CI, not a fan of it myself, but nkt a bad setup;

For a leader, there are various options. It is true that he will be gimped in combat, compared to other rangers, but he is far from being useless. I buikd my Charisma guy based on Handguns, as they need low AP to fire and I use him as a guardian to my two snipers. I also give him the Way of the Squeegee quirk to make him more powerful later on. Here are the possible setups...
2154448 - 7AP and 12CI, 3 skill points per level;
2152648 - 13CI, the rest the same, lower Con;
4172248 - 7AP, 13CI, low health and combat speed;

Now for sniper, you want to have 12AP, end of. It's the only viable build for one. And high CI as well. That's why I belive none of the recruits, or but a few are capable. Pizepi, Rose, Chisel, are a few examples that can reach 12AP without sacrificing too much of CI. I build two snipers of my own from the start, based on the quirk Brittle Bones...
4154482 - 9AP and 12CI, not bad for a start;
4152682 - 9AP and 13CI, slight less heth, but it's a sniper, so... meh;
41521042 - 9AP and 15CI but lacks the bonus skill pointw per level, best in my eyes if you don't want the to have high Int;

[The Cure]

I like sub machine gun builds with lots of move points. They own ♥♥♥♥.

[Schanez]

It also vastly depends what you understand as powerful. If it's combat ready, then go with heavy combat oriented rangers, pick up Rose, because Vulture's Cry is bad in every possible way. Then pick up what your team needs from skills. If you wish to roll pure combat oriented playthrough, nothing stops you from dumping Intelligence to 2 or even 1. Focus on reaching AP sweetspots and invest the rest into CI and CON. You will close yourself from a lot of content, but you will be powerful.

Now if you want a balanced team that can let you enjoy the story as well as not being gimped in combat... I am currently playing Supreme Jerk and started with this set up...

Coo - 8 Lu - 1 Awa - 5 Str - 4 Spe - 4 Int - 4 Cha - 2
Assault Rifles, Demolitions, Perception; no quirks;

Coo - 2 Lu - 1 Awa - 3 Str - 4 Spe - 4 Int - 4 Cha - 8
Handguns, Leadership, Hard Ass, Smart Ass; Way of Squeezins;

Coo - 4 Lu - 1 Awa - 5 Str - 2 Spe - 6 Int - 8 Cha - 2
Sniper Rifles, Lockpicking, Safecracking, Alarm Disarming; Brittle Bones;

Coo - 4 Lu - 1 Awa - 5 Str - 2 Spe - 6 Int - 8 Cha - 2
Sniper Rifles, Field Medic, Surgeon, Computer Science; Brittle Bones;

So far so good, finished Radio Tower, Highpool, AG Center, all infected zones, Wrecker Crew Stronghold, Rail Nomads Camp, Leve L'Up Mines, Darwins Village. Nothing gave me any serious trouble, once you get rid of the starting weapons of course. Even the Tier 1 but Grade 2 are a huge diference. Right now I have two M16s, two Bullpup Sniper Rifles, .38 Revolver, something brawling on Ralphy and Pulse Rifle as secondary on Pizepi. They clear anything that comes in their way while having more than enough skp to poke into places.

[OnlyOffensive]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Schanez:

It also vastly depends what you understand as powerful. If it's combat ready, then go with heavy combat oriented rangers, pick up Rose, because Vulture's Cry is bad in every possible way. Then pick up what your team needs from skills. If you wish to roll pure combat oriented playthrough, nothing stops you from dumping Intelligence to 2 or even 1. Focus on reaching AP sweetspots and invest the rest into CI and CON. You will close yourself from a lot of content, but you will be powerful.

Going less than 4 int is a bad idea in general, even if you are combat oriented. You will delay your combat skills, perks and intelligence also provide AP which isnt bad for combat.

[xmessor]

In my experience combat skills are not so important. I could progress easily with about level 6-7 weapon skills through mid-game.

I won't detail the SMG and Heavy guns line as they didn't play such crucial role as the 2 assault guns with the 2 Snipers... Usually whatever the "other guys" had it was enough as finisher. If I would play again I would have and assault gunner (or shotgun) instead of heavy gunner due to ammo shortage, and maybe a pistolero instead of one of the SMGs (for precisions shots).

Anyway, I loved the snipers, especially in the late game and endgame, and G41 is wonderful too...
At least one short range gunner is needed for finishing and/or against melee enemies.
I don't like melee characters much, but they can deal extreme damage too, especially brawlers.

What is important is the gear... I would say there are "stages of progression"...

Beginning (as in before AG Center or Highpool):
- recruit Angela Deth
- survive, collect money for ammo, level up 4-5 times
- "and Famas for all" (really, I had M16, but didn't really used it) Buy it or loot it from stashes
- mods, mods and mods... scopes, barrels, mags... a set for everyone

Early game (as in before Temple of Titan):
- get recruits ASAP (in my case: Ralphy and Vulture's Cry)
- get M24 and/or Bullpup
- stash everything (ammo, mods, health packs, surgeon kits)
- get best light armor (Kevlar vest I think or Tactical Vest), and from then on you just get the better one if you find it, but you won't really need it
- Level up to level 16-20 (for extra perks, collecting ammo and money)

Mid game (as in before Califorina):
- Switch Angela to Wolfe (for assault gun damage dealer)
- Switch FAMAS to HK33 for all (you will love it)
- Level up to level 28-32 or more, seriously, California will be a completely new difficulty until you get the new gear, and if you don't have enough ammo and money... well you will sweat more...

Late game (as in California before ultimate radiation suit):
- Switch Ralphy to Brother Thomas (for plus one SMG damage dealer + healer) (and a machine gun preacher in a wild west is a must have)
- Switch HK33 to AK-47 -> G3 -> FN-FAL
- Switch M16 to AUG -> AK97 -> G41 (I had this line, because I had enough AP)
- Switch Bullpup to Sabra Marie -> Arctic Sniper -> PSG1
- Swich M24 to SV-V -> SVD -> .50 Antimateriel with extra mag (I had this line, because I had enough AP with Tinkerer + Deadeye, and 2 headshots from this beast... wonderful...)

End game (as in Seal Beach and final battles)
- Nothing new, really, just kill them

THE PARTY
Well, nothing really matters... I mean you can immerse in the RPG part of the game as there is no "wrong party", I think. Just let them pick a skill and stick to it...

My party:

LEADER (SMG)
THIEF (ASSAULT)
DEMOLITION (SNIPER)
TINKER (MEDIC with HEAVY WEAPONS) (you need to hurt them to keep your profession 'required', right?)
VULTURE (SNIPER, KISSASS, OUTDOOR)
GARY WOLFE (ASSAULT)
BROTHER THOMAS (SMG, HEAL, SURGEON)

DETAILS:
LEADER (Quirk: Delayed gratification)
2 Coordination
1 Luck
3 Awareness
2 Strength
10 Speed
4 Intelligence
6 Charisma (upgraded to 10)

SKILLS:
SMG level 10
Leadership level 8 (I wore a +2 leadership trinket)
Smartass 10
Hardass 9 (I needed only once level 10 hardass, I had a trinket for that)
--------------------
Surgeon 1
Weaponsmith 2 for tinkerer
Perception 3 for tactical positioning
Field medic 7 for stimpacks

PERKS:
Turtle, Tinkerer, Radiant personality (not really needed though)
Taunt, Enrage, Infuriate
Bloodthirsty (not really useful, I think), Hardened, Weathered, Whack-a-Mole
Tormentor (I loved it), Tactical positioning (wish I would used that sooner)

I would change Radiant personality, Bloodthirsty for Healthy, Long Arm, Roboticist, Armor Maintenance...

ASSAULT (Quirk: Brittle Bones)
4 Coordination
1 Luck
6 Awareness (upgraded to 10)
2 Strength
10 Speed
4 Intelligence
1 Charisma

SKILLS:
Assault 10
Lockpick 8 (I used the cat mask)
Safecrack 8
Toaster Repair 8 (I used the Toolbox)

I think I would drop the Toaster repair as it is fun, but nothing you couldn't live without...
-----------------------
Surgeon 1
Weaponsmith 2
Computer 5
Perception 3

PERKS:
Turtle, Tinkerer, Hardened
Full metal jacket, Tormentor, Roboticist
Healthy, Weathered, Stimpacks
Gunner, Tactical positioning

SNIPER (Quirck: Twitchy, I loved that and I didn't miss that 10% hit chance):
4 Coordination
1 Luck
6 Awareness (upgraded to 10)
2 Strength
10 Speed
4 Intelligence
1 Charisma

SKILLS:
Sniper 10
Perception 8 (I used a +2 Perception trinket)
Demolition 10
----------------------
Surgeon 1
Weaponsmith 2
Field Medic 7

PERKS:
Turtle, Tinkerer, Hardened
Improvised exp, Tactical positioning, Tormentor
Stimpacks, Deadeye, Long Arm
Healthy, Weathered

Maybe Healthy could be replaced with something else like Roboticist...

THE TINKER (Quirk: Delayed Gratification):
2 Coordination
1 Luck
4 Awareness (upgraded to 8)
2 Strength
10 Speed
8 Intelligence
1 Charisma

SKILLS:
Heavy 10
Weaponsmith 8 (I used the toolbox trinket for +2)
Computer 9 (trinket for +1, but didn't really need that)
Mech repair 8
Field medic 8
-----------------------

Surgeon 6
Weaponsmith 2
Brawling 6
Perception 3
Demolition 2

PERKS:
Turtle, Tinkerer, Hardened, Healthy
Tormentor, Weathered, Armor Maintenance
Tactical Positioning, Roboticist, Stimpacks
Bullet ridden (lovely)

VULTURE:
5 Coordination (+1 at level 10)
3 Luck
3 Awareness
2 Strength
3 Speed (+1 at level 20, 30, 40)
8 Intelligence
4 Charisma

SKILLS:
Sniper 10
Kissass 10
Alarm 9
Outdoor 6 (and +2 with trinket)
-----------------

Surgeon 1
Animal 6
Perception 3
Field Medic 7
Demolition 2

PERKS:
Tactical positioning, Tinkerer, Turtle
Hardened, Tormentor, Watchman
Healthy, Deadeye, Long Arm
Stimpacks, Weathered

I didn't really need Watchman and Healthy so they could be replaced by Roboticist, Bomberman or anything you feel useful.

GARY WOLFE:

7 Coordination (+1 at Level 40)
3 Luck
4 Awareness
2 Strength
3 Speed (+1 at level 30)
6 Intelligence
2 Charisma

SKILLS

Assault 10 (and that's is, seriously)
--------------------
Surgeon 1
Weaponsmith 2
Lockpick 3
Computer 6
Alarm 5

PERKS:
Cyber Scrounger, Full metal jacket, Hardened, Master Thief,
Tinkerer, Tormentor, Gunner, Roboticist,
Turtle, Weathered

BROTHER THOMAS
7 Coordination (+1 at level 30)
1 Luck
3 Awareness (+1 at level 40)
4 Strength
4 Speed
8 Intelligence
3 Charisma

SKILLS:
SMG 10
Field medic 9 (+1 with the Cross trinket)
Surgeon 8 (+2 with the Cross trinket)
----------------------

Weaponsmith 2
Blunt 6

PERKS:
Explorer, Fast Reload, On the Mend, Scout, Whack-a-mole
Turtle, Stimpacks, Tormentor, Tinkerer

[SilverBullet]

TAKE "ASSAULT WEAPONS" FOR ALL 4 STARTING RANGERS, AMMO IS A LITTLE TIGHT BUT SINCE THEY ARE THE BEST WEAPON MOST FIGHTS ARE SHORTER AND YOU CAN SELL AMMO THAT YOU NEVER USE, HANDGUN AMMO, SMG AMMO, ETC TO BUY MORE ASSAULT WEAPON AMMO.

[red255]

I'm not sure why this was bumped.

most people don't like making all guys the same gun.

So I did one AR, 1 sniper, 1 bladed, and 1 medic. medic used technically heavy weapons but didn't really give him much initiative, he just stood there and inspired people.

At the end of AZ the sniper and bladed had deal 10K and AR had done 13K similiar-esc builds.

sniper is stronger than AR at certain stages of the game. If you make everyone AR you'll have trouble getting 7 top rank AR's in LA for everyone.

so you'd need to compare the second best AR to the best sniper. I think the Best sniper might beat the second best AR. I'd have to look at the numbers.