Whats a good character to go with an explodomaniac?

[Daddy Gibby]

Edit: Just to be clear with what I'm asking, you can create two characters in the creation menu, and I'm wondering what play-style would pair well with my explosives build (IE, should I make a sniper character or a medic to go with my first character?)

Want to do an explosions/small arms build for my first character, but what would be a good second character to go with that?

[Commander Gorda]

Big Guns, flAmethrower, toaster repair for heating element and weird science for more fire Damage.

[arrak]

Wide angle shottgun, with choke to shoot further + Rocket launcher
And 50% Crit Feature :D

aaah...ok...i see you wrote "a good character to go with the e-maniac.
Well, one that is 100% explosion proof :D

[Radiac]

It really depends on which Explosive Damage weapon you want to use. There IS a way that you can convert any gun to do Explosive Damage (the HE Fuse Linkage underbarrel mod) though, so that's kind of a moot point I guess. That said, if you don't want to use up an underbarrel slot on a gun just to convert it's damage type, you can just use a gun that already does Explosive damage. There are a few to choose from that are pretty good, but you won't get them terribly early on unless you know here they are from a previous play through. The HE Fuse Linkage also reduces the gun's base damage by 10% however, to balance out the fact that it will get Armor Penetration of 99 from the damage conversion. So you're probably a little better off using a gun that inherently has Explosive damage.

The best inherent Explosive Damage gun in the game, in my opinion, is the PDW-01 SMG. It can be found in the Massacre Site in the southeast part of the map. This is a Radiation level 3 zone, but it can be safely traversed once you get the Morningstar AI from Union Station and the level 3 Radiation Shield (which requires Morningstar) from the Department Of Energy Site. If you know where those places are, I believe it's possible to get those items, equip the Kodiak with them, and then go get the loot from the Massacre Site before you do Denver, Aspen, or Yuma. You'll have to do The Bizarre first though, in order to get the mechanics and get the Deliverer Chassis for the Kodiak, which you'll need to enter the DoE site area. The other "good" Explosive damage weapon is Nidhogg, which is an HMG found in Aspen, and you'll probably do Aspen after The Bizarre and Denver, so what you'd probably want to do there is put an HE Fuse Linkage on some earlier HMG you have, like the Squad Automatic Weapon, which you'll likely get from Piscatelli in The Bizarre, then switch to the Nidhogg when you get it, then make a second HE Linkage from a recipe and scrap etc and apply that to a minigun when you get one. There's a bunker on the world map that gives you, among other things, a Spuds MacKensie mug, some other junk, some ammo, and one really good gun plus a recipe for crafting a Wide Spectrum Light, I believe, That bunker, if you savescum for it, can randomly give you a PDW-01 SMG or a minigin HMG, but I tend to get a lot of melee weapons and flamethrowers from it more often than that. I got also got Retirer Pistol there once. There are some other explosive damage guns, there's a Shotgun, and an Assault Rifle, bujt they're both really mediocre compared to the existing top tier alternatives. Personally I love the PDW-01 SMG. With a 38mm scope to enhance the range, and a Titanium-Cobalt Barrel, it just wrecks up the place. I usually put my one and only Quickfire Mag on that thing too. You're going to want somebody on your team to have Explosives maxxed just for defusing bombs, so I see no reason to give the same guy Weird Science and convert the gun to Fire damage just for that. I'd go with an SMG-wielder that is also your bomb squad and get him a PDW-01, That's what I'm doing on my current run now.

[arrak]

Originally posted by Radiac:

It really depends on which Explosive Damage...

Nice post of yours. insightwise.

The PDW has 6 meters less range though, than other weapons of same class.
Thats why i do'nt use it. Instead i use the Lancer in this game on my e-expert,
that also have explosive quarck and perk.
I prefer normal level 21 smg for my second smg character.

The "downside of the Lancer is: The HE Linkage is the Only underbarrel mod,
that Halves the min/max dammage vallue. (That weapon does not shoot
explosive dammage)
Because of HE Halving dammage on "99" not explosive weapons, i use other underbarrel.

The "99" shotgun is Not so hot, as it nearly has No cone, which means that its
useless to extend its firing range.
Therefore "Tactical" is my choice, maxed including +3meters, i still have a
90 degrees cone :D

For Heavy guns, the "Gatling" has been my favourite, through all my games.
To make my sniper from "mediocre" to "hot", i gave her "DEATH WISH" quirk :D

Sorry for being "off topic in my Last paragraph :)

[ZTEQ]

Big Guns/explosives is a good combo, especially if you can pair it with sneaky stuff for the ambush attack with rockets which will just obliterate enemies making an excellent start of any fight. Sneaky stuff for ambush attacks is also good on a pistol/explosive character due to the perk that allows you to get a free attack after reload, allowing this character to fire multiple rockets at the start of a fight.

I'd argue with the newish crafting system, this combo (big guns/explosives) is even better as you can also craft the linkage/mod that changes gun damage to explosive damage, which is boosted further by the explosive skill.

I have a crafted hoser (big gun weapon) with explosive mod on it and my big gun/explosive guy is an absolute wreaking ball, that gun with explosive damage just puts out insane damage. It's like 185-200 damage X4 (explosive damage) with only 4 AP basic attack which I have reduced to 3 AP with another mod. Needless to say this guy can wipe out whole enemy teams by himself.

[2 tay 3 súng]

Originally posted by ZTEQ:

Big Guns/explosives is a good combo, especially if you can pair it with sneaky stuff for the ambush attack with rockets which will just obliterate enemies making an excellent start of any fight. Sneaky stuff for ambush attacks is also good on a pistol/explosive character due to the perk that allows you to get a free attack after reload, allowing this character to fire multiple rockets at the start of a fight.

I'd argue with the newish crafting system, this combo (big guns/explosives) is even better as you can also craft the linkage/mod that changes gun damage to explosive damage, which is boosted further by the explosive skill.

I have a crafted hoser (big gun weapon) with explosive mod on it and my big gun/explosive guy is an absolute wreaking ball, that gun with explosive damage just puts out insane damage. It's like 185-200 damage X4 (explosive damage) with only 4 AP basic attack which I have reduced to 3 AP with another mod. Needless to say this guy can wipe out whole enemy teams by himself.

I would never bother with Hoser:
- Requires high-end gun, but you only got a gun with less potential DPS.
- Wastes scraps just to make ammo.

4AP for ~ 1000 dmg, or even with quick fire mag it's like 1 AP for ~300-400 dmg.
While using HE Minigun with the right setup you can dish out like 7k dmg with 6 AP (with crit ofc), SJ Liberty kneels down after only one turn. The Hoser can never do that.

Mind you, my Kwon build was only sub-optimal for explosive build.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2535859550

[2 tay 3 súng]

Okay after some rough calculation with viable maximal explosive dmg I can come up with (without crit bonus), theoretically HE Minigun (6 AP - 2 attacks per turn) can make 6800 dmg, while HE Hoser (3 AP - 4 attacks per turn) can make 7200 dmg. In conclusion, Hoser can outdamage Minigun by 6% of total dealt dmg.

So in the end, HE Hoser could be a good replacement and better fit for multiple-enemies combats.

[Radiac]

Even without the HE Linkage, a stock Minigun with Shortened Barrel, Wide Spectrum Light, and 38mm Mag Scope (or even just Titanium-Cobalt Barrel, 38mm, and SWAT Light) is able to wreck basically anything. Giving it the HE Linkage is probably overkill. Having said that, I haven't found a reason to use the HE Linkage anyway, because I prefer to go with SMG + Explosives, as I stated above in the spoiler text.

I also always save the Arapaho Caravan and not the Hoons in the Heads or Tails mission, so I'm used to not having an HE Linkage anyway. The PDW-01 might have limited range, but there are ways to solve that problem. You get one Farsight Computerized Scope from the Machine Commune, and in my opinion the PDW is the best gun to put it on. Sniper rifles already have long enough range, and the HMG only needs a 38mm scope to be long enough range for all practical purposes, so I put that Farsight Scope on the PDW-01, personally.

But to be honest, there are literally dozens of options in this game in terms of how you can fight effectively. There's no "right" answer, there are many "close enough for government work" options. I don;t personally believe any Background or Quirk makes enough of a difference that it's mandatory in any way, though I have my favorite comboes. Which NPCs you choose to roll with, which skill combinations to give your main 4 rangers, etc. There are some mildly under-powered choices you can make, but as long as you have all of the skills covered reasonably well (and Animal Whisperer is totally optional), then you're generally not going to have too much trouble.

[arrak]

None of the 2 "commune traders" had "farsight" in this playthrough of mine.
In the previous 3 playthroughs, they had.

You are right, "There's no "right" answer,"
I enjoy the unknown amount of possibillities to set up a configuration for
whole setup for playthrough. That gives me the choice of different Strategic aproach
to battle tacticts for each playthrough. Damn there are so many ways.

What i also find nice is that i can use any weapon i like,to be successfull, to
use and enjoy whatever fancy's you as individual. Not being forced to...

Damn, being off toppic

[Radiac]

I thought Vendomatic 2000 always had the Farsight Scope. It always had it for me, even on Supreme Jerk. Maybe it makes a difference how you interact with it, I think there's a Mechanics check or a Nerd Stuff check to fix it so that it doesn't try to cheat people. I used Mechanics.