what are some of the best tips and tricks to do when 1st starting

[a man and his harem]

what are the best things to do, or look for when 1st starting and whats the best areas to avoid intell u have a follower or w/e you could think of that would best in prove the over all game play and quailty of life

and best way for do stats

[Slickstream]

This is an old-school type of CRPG inspired by various design philosophies now long gone from mainstream gaming. For the demographic that plays these games one of it's core tenets is discovery and exploration (this holds true for the mechanics but also locations).

Here you are asking for information and hand holding to show you exactly how to play and where to go. Why not ask the devs to patch in quest markers lol. Do yourself a big favor and figure it out on your own, it's half the fun and your sense of accomplishment when beating encounters in the game will be much greater.

Edit: lol at some random idiot giving me jester 4 years after the fact. Got butthurt about the fact that you need hand holding? Please give me more, i consider them badges of honor if they serve as cope for what i wrote above lmfao.

[Poppi !!]

I'm in agreement with Slickstream.

You can always use the community guides for reference, but simply heading out and exploring the areas and learning your way around the game is where the enjoyment is.

It's really quite an interesting game - not my usual genre, but very engaging. I'm quite enjoying it 👍

[flushfire]

It is good, yeah, and you don't really need high levels of it. From a min/maxing perspective though, all you really need are the starting points (around 26 for most characters), magnifying glass & 2 cigs to make anything. It just takes a little longer. Also its usefulness drops off around level 10 once you start seeing high end weapons on caravans.

Personally I think it would be better to change crafting so that you can't make anything below your skill level, and the highest chance of failure, if you meet the requirement, should be just around 30%. As it is it just encourages savescumming and more suited to a MMO than a single-player game.

[Dorok]

Originally posted by Zombiehunter220:

what are the best things to do, or look for when 1st starting and whats the best areas to avoid intell u have a follower or w/e you could think of that would best in prove the over all game play and quailty of life

and best way for do stats

As quoted some previous posts it's best to discover yourself, and skip many tricks at first play won't hurt. But some very basic advices won't hurt either, in my opinion there's also some traps that could waste a bit a first play, when a first play is special and unique, you'll never get another.

Difficulty level:
- Easy is a good choice for a first play to get some more abilities. Easy about 10 abilities, Normal about 8, and Expert/Survival about 6. Except with a guide or some divination power, it should still provide some challenges.

Distinctions:
- Distinctions to avoid for a first play: Leader, Child Prodigy, Lone Wolf because the game is better with a party, Sex Appeal because it's bit technical and pre knowledge related.
- Distinctions to avoid for any play but some very thematic: Cannibal, Savage Hunter, Ascetic, Circus Education.

Some basic warning, just for first play:
- Save relatively often. A dialog choice done by curiosity could generate a war with a whole town and make you lost plenty quests if you character isn't killed. A random encounter could surprise you and wipe out your character or kill a companion or dog. And so on.
- There's a ton of cool tricks, this can make tempting to read spoilers and guides, but really you don't need any for your first play. Keep that for future plays, and keep the fun to try discover some along your first play.
- Close range could be playable and seems strong at first, but it's a tricky play to use close range as your primary weapon. It is fine as a secondary weapon, develop a bit the skill Martial or Melee but ignore close range abilities for your first play. Then later pick your primary weapon and develop it with both skill and abilities.
- Attributes are a bit tricky, I advise read the spoiler bellow on various attributes suggestions for a first play.
- Many abilities won't be really useful and more for a thematic play. Read them carefully and apply common sense. If you want some guidance and then spoil your discovery and choices, but lower risks to screw up in part character building, there's a spoiler section bellow about Abilities.
- Collect a ton of junk is no way a requirement to have them ready in case a quest request a collection. Those quests aren't major, and there isn't many, and once you get them you can start collect the stuff. This can give you a lot of money from selling and save you a lot of time in inventory and stash management. But inventory and stash management can be fun for you, then collect a ton of stuff won't hurt either.
- Don't plan raise your character to very high levels, target around level 19/20 max, and with a completionist play and perhaps a good amount of random encounters.
- Expert/Survival: 6 abilities at level 21, not advised for a first play.
- Normal: 8 abilities at level 19, fairly good choice for a first play, but Easy is more advised in my opinion.
- Easy: 10 abilities at level 20, a good pick for a first play to play more with abilities and eventually cancel some weak choices during very first levels.

Attributes, for a first play perspective only:
- STR: Min 6, or 5 but ignore shields.
- END: Min 6. It's a bit low and you could die a few times because of this average value, but it should be ok for a first play.
- DEX: 10. To be sure not regret or not feel forced to use some guide or spoilers along your play. Once you will know better the game, DEX 8 is a fine start to give 2 more points to INT and get more skill points. Then along the play raise DEX to 10. But without reading guides you could have difficulty to raise DEX from 8 to 10.
- INT: Min 8. 5 gives 15 skill points per level up, it's borderline but very playable. But for a first play it's better get some margin and use at least INT 8.
- ATT: Min 7. ATT 6 is quite playable but 7 will help for aiming chance for any long range attack, from sniper rifles to grenades. ATT 8 is even safer, but you could want spend the attribute point elsewhere.
- PER: Min 6. It's just a good number to have most NPC not ignore you because of PER. In fact PER 5 and 4 are quite playable anyway, but it's safer with 6. Take care that try bother with stuff allowing a temporary increase of PER is very difficult to do because many NPC will give you one chance for their PER check.
- LUCK 1. It's playable, it's a good option for a first play to put points elsewhere.

Skills:
- Major skills: Speechcraft, Primary weapon
- Very advised for a first play:
Develop a bit a secondary weapon skill during first levels. This can be Martial or Melee, the first seems better. But pistols can play this role too with a bit of crafting to craft some base pistols and ammo for them.
First Aid 70 (min) it's a good pick for a fairly good resistance to addiction to drugs.
Pickpocket: either 50 Fidel, either 40 main character (minimum should be 30 but will means lack of comfort and get some items asap).
Technology 35 that you should be able raise to 50 with skill books, if not it won't be such a drama either.
Barter 50, or you can ignore totally, this value will be a little bit of extra comfort but nothing really significant.
- Good thematic for a first play, but more risked, and it's better choose only one thematic:
Crafting: It's really a cool skill but you can scamloading a lot to stiff craft a lot and put less points in this skill. It's very difficult to setup the balance yourself, but it's a good focus choice for a first play. You can also totally ignore it, really.
Barter: You'll need raise it a lot, INT 10 or 11 will suit better such thematic.
Pickpocket: But be ready of scamloading when you get caught, you won't be ready be in war with a full town because of a pickpocket failed. also be ready to put a lot of skill point in it. Perhaps less than Barter but still.
Stealth: To steal items without being noticed. Take care that you can fail and be noticed once but twice will make the NPC call the guards or attack you. You can also fully ignore this skill.
Gambling: But really for the fun and the mood, not the greed.

Abilities:
- Major abilities:
If Rifle is your main weapon: True Grit, Monster Lore Expert, Eagle Eyes, Manhunter
If Pistol is your main weapon: Gunslinger, Duelist, Fast Hand
If Automatic is your main weapon: Burst Boy, Butcher, Focus on Target. I would also advise Weapon Knowledge with a STR 5.
I have yet to test them well with last versions of the game, but those abilities should be good picks for any character: Think like enemy, Preatorian. But they will involve to get three more abilities, Armor of God and Swindler that are good abilities. And Shieldbearer that is useful only with a shield, and this could not be useful with some characters.
- Good abilities:
Armor of God and Swindler
True Grit and Monster Lore Expert
Survivor and good throwing hand, but with good throwing skills. Add Blastermaster is a fine choice too, for sure only in an Easy run providing enough abilities.
- Other abilities: Keep them for future plays, some future thematic plays, some future experiment.

Companions Abilities:
- Caution Many abilities could be useless for a companion. For example they can't read books so Bookworm is pointless.
- Monster Lore Expert applies for whole party so is good for a companion.
- Survivor and Good throwing Arm, and even Baster Master is a good pick for a companion well trained for Throwing skill. You cannot let them have grenade constantly, or they'll waste them. But you can put some grenades in advance in their inventory before a special combat, or even at beginning of combat or during combat open inventory and put some grenades in their inventory.
- Otherwise check "Major abilities" and "Good abilities" sub sections in Abilities section for main character.

Companions Skills:
- Avoid Technology, too few use cases for companions.
- Avoid Stealth, companions can't steal and it's too few useful inside a party.
- First Aid to 70 is a good pick.
- One companion could develop a bit Picklock, 50 seems be a fair target point. He will do general picklock for the party.

Dog Abilities:
- Don't bother much, no matter how, the dog will be great at low levels but only cool and not really useful at later levels, so abilities picked won't change much.
- Target aggressive abilities is fine, it's not pick all defensive/resilience abilities that will make the dog really significantly more resilient. So Horrid Scowl, Furious Charge, Quick Reflexes, Fast Movement is a good pick.
- Target utility abilities is fine, the dog will still be useful at low levels. So Flea Waltz, Sturdy Feet, Pack Dog or Dog Saboteur and guard dog or all three, is a fine pick.
- Target defensive abilities is fine. in my opinion it's a bit less useful, but they still make the dog more resilient. And Bomb dog can be cool. So Battle Stance, Hide of Steel, Fourlegged Knight, Bomb dog, Quality Armor, Indifference to bullets, is a good pick.
- Ignore those advices, do your mix, this is a good pick. :-)

Dog Skills:
- Survival 70 is a fairly good pick.

[a man and his harem]

Originally posted by Dorok:

thanks this was most helpful what is the over al best weapon to play with, auto or rifles. i split my points between the 2 thinking they where the same =/ and spent 2 hr i think save scumming just to get maxed level out at that time. i found it more then painfull in all hunestly i dont know if it was my luck up what but i found my self distroying what i wanted to make about 98% of the time so it was quite painful.

i did use a guild for me starting NPC tho i dono if it was good. the one i sed was "inEffects guild to atom so i used glutton and teck noob at atart to get my over all points 6/8/10/10/1/2/ and i dont know if its worth losing my weapons to the 1st bandit raid, or is theres someway to kill them, them keep surrounding me and wacking me tell i fall down

[atomRPGmod]

My best advice is do not rush to follow the main quest line. Live a little, get to know the world, be prepared before venturing into the first bunker.

[a man and his harem]

Originally posted by atomRPGmod:

My best advice is do not rush to follow the main quest line. Live a little, get to know the world, be prepared before venturing into the first bunker.

do things you kill respawn or does a area stay clear?

[Ichthyic]

random encounters respawn. scripted events on actual map areas like cities do not.

[Dorok]

Originally posted by Zombiehunter220:

Originally posted by Dorok:

thanks this was most helpful what is the over al best weapon to play with, auto or rifles. i split my points between the 2 thinking they where the same =/ and spent 2 hr i think save scumming just to get maxed level out at that time. i found it more then painfull in all hunestly i dont know if it was my luck up what but i found my self distroying what i wanted to make about 98% of the time so it was quite painful.

i did use a guild for me starting NPC tho i dono if it was good. the one i sed was "inEffects guild to atom so i used glutton and teck noob at atart to get my over all points 6/8/10/10/1/2/ and i dont know if its worth losing my weapons to the 1st bandit raid, or is theres someway to kill them, them keep surrounding me and wacking me tell i fall down

This character should be a solid choice for what it is, combats, but PER 1 is very low. If your character is male with PER 1 you won't be able get one of the companions.

ATT 6 is not the best for Rifles, Automatic should be a stronger choice requiring less to play with long distance. With STR 6 and base training STR+1 this will be fine.

I don't understand what was your 98% problem, crafting or combats? I don't see how it can be combats, but I don't get why you need crafting.

I don't understand either the save scumming thing, perhaps you was meaning grinding? Frankly wait end game to grind, along play, just avoid skip most random encounters.

[a man and his harem]

Originally posted by Dorok:

Originally posted by Zombiehunter220:

thanks this was most helpful what is the over al best weapon to play with, auto or rifles. i split my points between the 2 thinking they where the same =/ and spent 2 hr i think save scumming just to get maxed level out at that time. i found it more then painfull in all hunestly i dont know if it was my luck up what but i found my self distroying what i wanted to make about 98% of the time so it was quite painful.

i did use a guild for me starting NPC tho i dono if it was good. the one i sed was "inEffects guild to atom so i used glutton and teck noob at atart to get my over all points 6/8/10/10/1/2/ and i dont know if its worth losing my weapons to the 1st bandit raid, or is theres someway to kill them, them keep surrounding me and wacking me tell i fall down

This character should be a solid choice for what it is, combats, but PER 1 is very low. If your character is male with PER 1 you won't be able get one of the companions.

ATT 6 is not the best for Rifles, Automatic should be a stronger choice requiring less to play with long distance. With STR 6 and base training STR+1 this will be fine.

I don't understand what was your 98% problem, crafting or combats? I don't see how it can be combats, but I don't get why you need crafting.

I don't understand either the save scumming thing, perhaps you was meaning grinding? Frankly wait end game to grind, along play, just avoid skip most random encounters.

im still in base camp after finding out i could gain more EP in the base camp to the point you could get to lvl 2 before the 1st raider fight thats scripted. so i am crafting as best as i (my NPC) could just to gain as much XP as i can in the starting base area where u wake up.

because as badly as my odds are, as it seems for crafting. its been really painful to get the xp i need from completing crafting so i could get to level 2.

then what would be a good starting build you think that could get the right points..

[Dorok]

Tutorial is non significant, just collect all stuff to craft, equip the magnifying glass, do all crafting in a row by starting with those requiring the less material, don't bother scamload anything, it's not worth the hassle. You'll end close to level 2 or level 2 both are fine.

EDIT: Oops didn't noticed you wanted win the first combat, my opinion is it's a bad idea, first ten levels is the best of the game, the AK47 that soon will screw it up a bit.

[flushfire]

Since you have Technophobe, smoke 2 cigs (you can craft it in the tutorial) and equip the magnifying glass before crafting anything else. Just save/load before smoking make sure you don't get the -1 END from smoking. It will have an effect on the HP you gain upon leveling up. Also make sure to drink from the vending machine in the place you woke up in, use the coin from the nearby locker on it.

You will still need to save/load but not as much. You don't really need to succeed in everything, make about 60% should be enough. Don't worry about beating the bandits, they weren't meant to be beaten.

You can also just invest in Tinkering until about 11 (without magnifying glass and cig bonus) so you end up at 30 with the bonuses. This is enough for most of what you can make early, and will save you from the frustration of having to save/load a lot.

6 ATT is good enough even for rifles, you'll just end up investing more into the skill but that's not really a problem. The most dangerous fights don't really give you distance to maximize the range of scoped rifles anyway. Rifles vs Automatics, I think automatics are better for the main character, because it's dangerous to give your companions automatics. But really, both are viable, and you can even do burst with rifles or snipe with automatics.

6/10/8/7/6/6/1 is my preferred start.

[a man and his harem]

thanks for letting me know i did no, what is the best way to make my strength higher so i can use the better guns in the game, i am reading i need about ..8ish? and what level of personalty would i need for that follower NPC.. trying to find guilds but its really hard, bizzy cleaning house..

[Dorok]

Originally posted by flushfire:

Just save/load before smoking make sure you don't get the -1 END from smoking. It will have an effect on the HP you gain upon leveling up.

Are you sure? It looks bizarre. The blue beret adds 1 END, an example, character level 13, HP 85, with blue beret HP 99.

Are sure sure the HP isn't restored once the penalty disappear?

[Dorok]

Originally posted by flushfire:

...I think automatics are better for the main character, because it's dangerous to give your companions automatics.

This isn't true at all since 1.08 and I think some bugs related to friendly fire even get fixed with 1.1.

With the AI setup no friendly fire damages I never had any companion doing FF, and Fidel using RPK74, Hexogen using RPD.

In fact once their skill becomes relatively high they can even shoot through companions and still never do any damages. When their skill isn't very high it could make them move a bit too much sometimes, but still no FF, and still make them rather dangerous.

EDIT: I gave them both Focus on Target, plus Weapon Knowledge to Hexogen, but I suspect this last ability could be bugged for companions.