So about exploring..

[HeikoFennec]

I'm solo, so best bet is strip down and run the corridors? I've only made slight progress in the area by the blacksmith

[Vasus]

It is doable to get through manufacturing (and the whole game in general) solo. Some tips:

-get the armor set from that zone, even just 2 pieces will give you a bullet resistance bonus
-speaking of resistances, check your entity log to see which damage types the soldiers are weak to and equip accordingly
-head hits seem to deal more damage. Blunt weapons will knock off helmets

[Dragontoast]

If you have issues with combat or feel overwhelmed by the number of enemies in Manufacturing you can power workbenches to usually disable the natural spawns nearby.

Also if enemies are already spawned or bug their way to spawn while a bench is present you can take the tram to despawn them when the zone is no longer loaded.

[Burning like KELT-9b]

to be comfortable on the manufacturing area you definitely gonna need explosive spear and grinder. there are actually a lot of the areas that you can pretty much skip since the quests only require you to get to specific area;

if youre by the blacksmith in manufacturing, then most likely your quest will require you to go to the service tunnel, and then going to the giant excavator on the digsite. after that you'll need to go to the tram station near the dig site to get into the train portal and then get the materials to fix 3 places which 2 of them are also located on the dig site and one on the shipping area. therefore, you pretty much could ignore the other areas because after that the quest will take you to the lab sector. to get the grinder blueprint you'll need to get chains which are mainly obtained from the thin crates located on dig site and also on the train portal. my best advice is just to go sprint into the dig site, get some chains and then gtfo and build yourself the grinder.

[MechWarden]

I don't know what the big deal is. I explored through at least half of Manufacturing with a full set of Makeshift Armor (woo carry boost!), Thermal Mallet, Security Pistol, and eventually was 'forced' to make a Scrapgun (magnetic coil shotgun) to help deal with small groups of soldiers quickly enough.

It was slow, but I did a lot of sneaking and tried to do quick one-on-one kills. For pairs or trios, I'd retreat and go around a corner and wait for one to stupidly follow and 'reward' him with a hammer or a shot to the face. By that point I had acquired fair amount of 9mm ammo, so it was able to level up my accuracy quite a bit with 'rapid fire' (compared to Makeshift weapons) shots with the pistol before eventually having to use the Scrapshot to carry me when my ammo was low.

That said, I'm very used to FPS-like games and played like 100 hours before (50 or so on 2nd Playtest and 50 on Demo), and was used to the weird way ranged combat is done.

[coolman552]

Originally posted by MechWarden:

I don't know what the big deal is. I explored through at least half of Manufacturing with a full set of Makeshift Armor (woo carry boost!), Thermal Mallet, Security Pistol, and eventually was 'forced' to make a Scrapgun (magnetic coil shotgun) to help deal with small groups of soldiers quickly enough.

It was slow, but I did a lot of sneaking and tried to do quick one-on-one kills. For pairs or trios, I'd retreat and go around a corner and wait for one to stupidly follow and 'reward' him with a hammer or a shot to the face. By that point I had acquired fair amount of 9mm ammo, so it was able to level up my accuracy quite a bit with 'rapid fire' (compared to Makeshift weapons) shots with the pistol before eventually having to use the Scrapshot to carry me when my ammo was low.

That said, I'm very used to FPS-like games and played like 100 hours before (50 or so on 2nd Playtest and 50 on Demo), and was used to the weird way ranged combat is done.

spears are the go to for soldiers when you dont have scrapshot or normal guns (crossbow is a stun at best), they take less damage from blunt weapons. you can one tap them with the scrap shotgun but its hard to pull off you gotta get almost all of the "pellets" in

[MechWarden]

Oh yeah, would totally recommend a spear for the soldiers. Not just for the extra damage, but the extra reach helps too (think it has reach, felt like there was). In this play through I neglected the Sharp Melee skill because I 'over used' the spear in previous versions.

That said, the heavy attack with blunt weapons can still power through their damage resistance to blunt damage. It isn't uncommon for me to kill with a sneak attack when aiming for the head, though a helmet tends to prevent one hit kills.

[Necroscourge]

Disassemble all of the fire extinguishers you find and make an air compressor, that will give you several sexy recipes.