best build do u use?

[a man and his harem]

looking into buying the game with the sell i would of been a kick starter but never had the money sadly by the time i did it was already over.. -_-

ANYWAY

what are the best builds do u use or advice, as i fig this is a team squade like in the 2nd, if not, question still counts.. and how the best way to play this the most smart-ly that is and all the tips and tricks for a newbi..

[Radiac]

This is a somewhat-up-to-date copy pasta from a file I keep handy for replying to posts like this here. This is just MY personal preferences, there are other ways to play this game that are fun and effective, FYI.

I have a spreadsheet for my team builds. I assume I'm going to use the two NPCs I like (Jodie and Lucia) for the whole game and build around that, giving each of the 4 main people on the "travel team" primary responsibility for two non-combat skills and one gun skill each. I do not build anyone for Melee Weapons or Brawling at all. I've heard those skills can be fun, I don't generally do them, that's purely out of personal preference. I tend to stay at range and snipe/shoot stuff until it's dead and I'm not. I don't ever run up to disable a generator or hack a robot. I just shoot the turrets and robots instead. Whoever has Mechanics (which is Jodie Bell in my case) will stay near the kodiak to repair it with repair kits when necessary, and will use Mech skill on the generators AFTER the fight is over, just to get XP from that. Jodie uses a sniper rifles and Lucy uses pistol/shotgun combo, all of which fire one bullet at a time, and as such don't use much ammo, so having them as second copies of those gun skills is fine. This is mostly pre-Steeltown, so take that for what it's worth:

Guy 1: Leadership, Lock Picking, Several ranks in First Aid and/or Mechanics, and full ranks in a gun skill, usually Automatic Weapons, but could use Small Arms if you prefer (I prefer Automatics because you get better range out of the guns). These use less Action Points than most other options, and you're going to be using 4 AP to pop Rally at the beginning of the fight, almost every time. Starting C.L.A.S.S.I.C. scores: 4.1.1.1.1.3.10 We want high Charisma for two reasons: 1 to allow us to power level the other characters, and 2 to give us the highest Strike Recharge Rate we can get. Starting Background/Quirk: Raider Hater and Prospector (you can pick other ones tho, not terribly crucial to the build, Serial Killer is good if you want him to get the AP spent on Rally back and do more shooting). Wears the Leader's Banner Utility item in combat, once we find it.

Guy 2: Sniper, Sneaky ♥♥♥♥, Hard Ass, and eventually the hidden secret skill, Combat Shooting. takes _1_ rank in First Aid, , Starting C.L.A.S.S.I.C. scores: 4.1.2.1.1.2.10. Again here we want to give our first two guys 10 Cha to give them max Strike Rate and also max bonus XP, for power leveling the others. B/Q: Goat Killer and Two-Pump Chump. This guy wears the Anabolic Injector Utility item in combat, but he could also wear the Star of Bravery if you prefer.

Both Guy 1 and Guy 2 take their first rank in First Aid at character creation, to be able to heal themselves and each other in the first mission.

Guy 3: Big Guns, Nerd Stuff, Weird Science, and like 3 ranks in First Aid and then later maybe some Leadership when you have points to spare. Starting C.L.A.S.S.I.C. scores: 6.1.2.5.1.2.4. I don't play melee so I decided to make this guy my "high strength" guy. That's not critically important, but there are some decent heavy armors you can wear with a Str of like 6-7. The added hit points help ameliorate the Quirk I chose. Q/B is Vicious Avenger, Sadomasochist. Wears the Star of Bravery or the Anabolic Injector.

Guy 4: Automatic Weapons, Explosives, Kiss Ass, and later some Weird Science for added damage (or else anything else you want, those points are basically gravy at that point) plus a point or two in First aid. Starting C.L.A.S.S.I.C. scores: 8.1.4.2.1.3.2, B/Q: Sex Machine, Serial Killer, no particularly crucial Utility item. I try to eventually get this guy's Str to 4 so he can wear the Chemtek armor chest piece.

NPC1 (Lucia Wesson): Small Arms, Barter, Survival, Weapon Modding (take it to exactly 5), First Aid, level up her Attributes as you like. I kept her speed high so she could run around applying First Aid to others. Binoculars, Monocle, Modder's Kit. You'd be surprised how much good stuff you can mod onto a gun with Weapon Modding 6 (5 ranks plus the kit). I try to get her Barter to 7 to get Antiques Appraiser about as fast as I can, though that's less effective now that all of the expensive Junk items are no longer classified as Junk, but rather "Crafting Components" now.

NPC2 (Jodie Bell): Sniper, Mechanics, First Aid, Animal Whisperer, and ONE rank in Brawling, so she can wield and activate the Foam Finger. Again, level her Attributes any way you want. I mostly use her as a second sniper/second healer and primary Mechanics check maker, when that's needed. That said, you can't get her right at the beginning, so I would give someone else like 5 ranks in Mechanics in the early game (either Guy 1 or Guy 3, or the benchwarmer guy you're going to make). I'd tell you why we want exactly 5 ranks in Mech here, but that would be spoilers. Stethoscope, Mech Tools, Grooming Brush

Bench Player: Make a guy with whatever Attributes, Background, and Quirk you want and then level him up in Toaster Repair, Armor Modding, and Weapon Modding. If you make this guy early enough you can give him the 5 ranks in Mechanics you need to do spoiler things early on. You generally leave this guy on the bench until you need his skills, such as opening a toaster, making a Mechanics check, modding a gun/armor etc. You don't absolutely have to open any toasters at all in the game if you don't want to, but there are some decent things you can get out of them if you do.

Kwon: Before Jodie becomes available, I use Kwon as a 6th man and generalist. No big strategies for him, he shoots, he heals, that's about it.

A note on power leveling:

When you promote a ranger from inactive roster to active roster, they get auto-leveled to the average level of the active team you're adding them to. This means that if you have 2 high Charisma guys, who will probably out-level everyone else, you can just demote everyone except the two high-Cha guys to the bench, then bring them back one at a time and they all get auto-leveled to the lowest level among the two fast levelers. This is how you level up the Bench guy that does all the modding and toaster stuff for you. You can always clear out an area, then go back just to open the toaster. You won't miss out on anything that way.

[JimmysTheBestCop]

On normal you can pretty much play any squad you want.

Probably the biggest damage comes from a squad member who stacks exploding damage and sneak attack damage with the appropriate perks.

Basically sneak attack an entire group of enemies with the various rocket launchers in game and you basically kill 4-6+ enemies instantly even end game.

I used a brawler in my playthrough and it was fun. He was tanky so could even take end game shots. So much AP and speed he could engage everywhere. If you do charisma build you can stun lock groups of enemies every turn cause every 4 punches and you get stun basically.

I used him either to finish off a bunch of enemies that were low on health cause he could reach everywhere. Or explode the biggest group of enemies on sneak and have the brawler kill the boss. Brawlers can do so much damage in 1 turn probably 3-4k.

Heavy guns and flame throwers are really fun. Some of the weird science stuff is also very fun.

[welly321]

Make sure to have atleast one character with maxed CHA and leadership. The buffs it provides really help a lot. Its also useful to have that character be your damage dealer as you get additional buffs from leadership when you kill an enemy. I would also recommend getting Animal Whisperer on that character since you can get a fox for a pet that gives a buff to leadership range.

[a man and his harem]

Originally posted by welly321:

Make sure to have atleast one character with maxed CHA and leadership. The buffs it provides really help a lot. Its also useful to have that character be your damage dealer as you get additional buffs from leadership when you kill an enemy. I would also recommend getting Animal Whisperer on that character since you can get a fox for a pet that gives a buff to leadership range.

thank you both for your info thats how i like to run my team leader. smart and charming i think i had him as a sniper in WL2 i tryed to keep most my peeps smart for better leveling... while try to pre-plain the build to take and hidden areas that might give buffs like i found in WL2

[JimmysTheBestCop]

Yeah I would take animal whisperer and toaster repair too. Helps get full game experience and pretty fun.

I wouldn't worry about weapon smith or armorer I would just pay for a base recruit to have them. I didn't upgrade much out in the field.

I did enjoy barter on 1 of my main party though.

[MJ]

Not so much a build but more of a blueprint that you can use however you want.

The funniest combo I have found is using level 7 small guns perk (DRAW) and combining it with 1 ammo weapons. Draw allows you to fire for free after a reload. Reload only costs 4ap. You can abuse this by using a weapon that has only 1 or 2 ammo.

The most hilarious abuse is Rocket Launchers since they are all 1 ammo. Those usually cost 6ap to use, but with draw you can get it down to 4. So now you can fire 2 per round (6+4) easily and up to 3 with rally and perks and such.

Another abusive weapon is Sniper Rifles. There are 2 in the game with 1 ammo. One is end game but the other is deceptively good too despite appearing to be a joke item (Red Ryder BB Gun). Its an amazing disabling weapon.

There is also a Weird Science rocket launcher and a few other weapons I am sure I missed. Havent tried with some of the end game flamers but I would think it should work with those too making flamers much more powerful.

But wait.... the hilarity doesnt end there. There is also a weapon mod (Advanced Materials Mag) that can lower ammo by 1 and reload ap by 1 (lol). So you can potentially lower reload to 3 with some weapons and it makes a few more sniper rifles abusable (some that have 3 ammo).

[Moffin Bovin]

some of the premade characters that you can start with have unique perks (or backgrounds actually). one of the tech heads starts with an item that gives them 20% resistance to energy attacks (that as far as i am aware you cant get anywhere else in the game) and has a passive 10% resistance to energy attacks.

its meaningless at the beginning of the game, but later on means they become the best tank you can make, since damage reduction stacks additively and energy weapons mess you up.

their starting stats don't really matter since you can respec.

Originally posted by MJ:

Not so much a build but more of a blueprint that you can use however you want.

The funniest combo I have found is using level 7 small guns perk (DRAW) and combining it with 1 ammo weapons. Draw allows you to fire for free after a reload. Reload only costs 4ap. You can abuse this by using a weapon that has only 1 or 2 ammo.

The most hilarious abuse is Rocket Launchers since they are all 1 ammo. Those usually cost 6ap to use, but with draw you can get it down to 4. So now you can fire 2 per round (6+4) easily and up to 3 with rally and perks and such.

Another abusive weapon is Sniper Rifles. There are 2 in the game with 1 ammo. One is end game but the other is deceptively good too despite appearing to be a joke item (Red Ryder BB Gun). Its an amazing disabling weapon.

There is also a Weird Science rocket launcher and a few other weapons I am sure I missed. Havent tried with some of the end game flamers but I would think it should work with those too making flamers much more powerful.

But wait.... the hilarity doesnt end there. There is also a weapon mod (Advanced Materials Mag) that can lower ammo by 1 and reload ap by 1 (lol). So you can potentially lower reload to 3 with some weapons and it makes a few more sniper rifles abusable (some that have 3 ammo).

unless it has been patched since i last played, draw can be abused to fire any weapon for 1ap. i advise against using it at all. the temptation to abuse it is too great and it is a game ruining exploit.

[Kiandore]

Melee is probably the strongest build to use although they start weak and get very powerful as you go, you basically spec out in coordination, strength and Speed. I like giving my melee character first aid too because it's convenient for healing and if you get the fire bladed weapon in steeltown, it synergizes well with the bleed skill in the melee tree that does 200% damage to burning targets.

Snipers are also very powerful with fully maxed sneaky ♥♥♥♥ and luck.

But my favorite build is a fast, intelligence explosives expert/mechanic with a specialty in big guns. So much fun to play and so versatile. Plus, if you get the small arms skill that gives you a free shot with each re-load, you can use that with the rocket launcher and fire twice per turn. Very Very powerful and fun

Something I also learned in my second playthrough is to give any character who will be in the action at least 4-7 points of strength because this gives you health. All of my characters turned into glass canons because I hardly gave any of them strength and everyone was getting one shotted