starting a new game, what book do I pick?

[ProxyJames]

when your mom gives you a book witch one should I pick? witch is the most useful down the line?

[Elegant Caveman]

You can end up with all of them later, so it doesn't matter a lot (you can find/buy skill books later). Personally, I like to start with Lockpickin'.

You need Dickerin' (the bartering option) to do a certain thing in the prologue, but... you're kind of better off not doing that certain thing, anyway.

[No Time to Explain]

I start with lock picking because meat is easy to come by you dont need consumables. The only reason to start with dickerin' is to get 1 more meat if you were to stick the prologue.


Sides you will need to backtrack if you dont have lock picking.

[jimfromtx]

Definitely lockpicking. Dickerin' just gives you a free dynamite, and some shop discounts. Foraging is nice, but not 100% necessary. Lockpicking though, is awesome. For one, it's necessary for one of the 3 special horse types.

[Vardis]

Originally posted by jimfromtx:

Definitely lockpicking. Dickerin' just gives you a free dynamite, and some shop discounts. Foraging is nice, but not 100% necessary. Lockpicking though, is awesome. For one, it's necessary for one of the 3 special horse types.

You can pick the locks in the prologue without the Lockpickin' skill.

[Allor]

I'd say lockpickin' for sure. You can do an entire run without ever getting foragin' or dickerin' and not really miss much of anything

[masterofflys]

Most of the other skill books you'll have to purchase, and many of them are pricey. In that regard, Dickerin' early in the game is quite useful to save that bit extra meat while gearing up your character.

On the other hand, which of the other books you get, from whom and when are quite random, so Lockpickin' to start with will allow you to access things faster.

My most recent game, I started with Dickerin', and the first book I could buy was foragin', Followed by Safecrackin'. This was a pretty inconvenient order, as in order to guarantee getting the next book, I had to progress past the mountains... on my hard mode, no resting/KOs run.

So... for consistency, go lockpickin'. For optimal meat saving, go dickerin. No real reason to pick foragin that I can think of, other than to get early access to better buff consumables that you don't really need that early, and become redundant later.

[ProxyJames]

I ended up starting with dickering and after the starting area I got lockpicking right away

[masterofflys]

^That's in my opinion the best outcome, but it's random chance which book you get from a shop, so you do gamble with it a bit.

[ProxyJames]

Originally posted by masterofflys:

^That's in my opinion the best outcome, but it's random chance which book you get from a shop, so you do gamble with it a bit.

not to mention there aren't that many locked contaners, as of right now I have everything and safecracking

[masterofflys]

Well, some useful items that require level 3 lockpicking are in Alexandria ranch (two skill books)

[WowIExist]

I like the one that teaches you how to spell "which" :p