Adding new members to the party

[si se puede equipo]

Im new to the game, I recently finished the first mission and I realized I could add new members to the party for free, isnt this like cheating? I mean what are the limitations? Should I do it?

[jamesc70]

You can have 4 custom (or default) characters and two companions (you can only hire these, not create them) for a total of 6 characters. The first two you get once reaching the HQ are free, and the price goes up if you make more.

And yes, you should fill out your party; it makes it easier if not even possible to get through some fights having 6 characters.

[Radiac]

For those who are not new to this forum what follows is a copy/paste from a notepad document I have, which is to say you've probably read it before. Here it is again (LONG):

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. Jodie and Lucy use sniper rifle and pistol/shotgun respectively, 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 all 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 Small Arms or Automatics (these use less Action Points than Sniper or Big Guns, and you're going to be using 4 AP to pop Rally at the beginning of the fight). 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 spend on Rally back and do more shooting). Wears the Leader's Banner Utility item in combat.

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 later. 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.

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, plus a point or 2 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).

NPC2 (Jodie Bell): Sniper,Mechanics, First Aid, Animal Whisperer. 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 like 4 ranks in Mechanics to either Guy 1 or Guy 3 in the early game, before you get Bell, or else make a 5th guy and give him 4 ranks in Mechanics. Jodie wears the Stethoscope, Mech Tools, or Grooming Brush at different times as needed.

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. Then leave him on the bench until you need those skills. You don't have to open any toasters at all if you don't want to, but there are some decent things you can get out of them. You should be able to give this guy 4 ranks in Mechanics in the early game use him to do some of the early Mech stuff, if you want to.

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. 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 leveled to the current level of 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.