Weapon skill books to not wait for?

[jamesc70]

I have 9 in all weapon categories for my characters (sniper, small arms, etc), and looked up where to find the books, and it seems like it will be a long time before I get to these places in order to get the books.

Small arms says it's in the Yuma Speedway, and the wiki says its the final act of the game. Sniper says it is in Union Station, and I haven't been told to come there yet, and I really want the lvl 10 perk.

So, do you guys wait until much later or even the end of the game for that last book or just spend the points and get those nice lvl 10 perks? I do have points to spend, but was thinking on using them past the skills I want on Sneaky ♥♥♥♥ and Weird science for all characters.

[Radiac]

I generally wait for all of them except the Small Arms one, but honestly, I could wait for that too, because my only Small Arms person is Lucia, and she mostly heals and mods weapons for me.

That said, I usually run two snipers and two SMG/AR guys, and one Big Gunner. I usually wait for the book on them, and never use the Brawling or Melee books at all.

I also never find the First aid book because I am philosophically opposed to breaking into the Patriarch's secret prison where he keeps the leaders of the two gangs incarcerated.

If you want to be sneaky, you can use the respec mechanics to get free skill points in like any skill you want, as long as you're willing to totally forgo some other skill.

For example, say you really don't have a use for the Armor Modding book, because you have a dedicated Armor Modder guy and he doesn't need it, because he's just a bench player. Let's say you also use your bench guy for Toaster Repair and Weapon Modding. That's three books you don't need, plus Animal Whisperer. So you play one of your rangers up to the point where, without any books, he's at level 9 of his gun skill of choice. Then you respec him and put those ranks into Toaster Repair. Then you read the Toaster book to get from 9 to 10 in Toaster. Then you respec AGAIN and put those skill points back into the gun skill. Costs money, but gets you 6 free skill points.

[snuggleform]

My preference is to wait because I try to delay gratification for more skillpoints overall. There is however no imperative to do so as the game gives you more skillpoints than you know what to do with, it's just the way I play games.

[Radiac]

I f you have only 6 team members, two of which are NPCs you got relatively early, and you want to have literally every skill covered and maxxed on at least one team member, then skill points are fairly "tight" up to like level 26, which is about where the game is over. If you make a 7th guy to ride the bench and dump skills like Toaster, Armor Modding, and Weapon Modding on him, and/or you totally ignore Animal Whisperer, Survival, Brawling, and Melee Weapons, you can free up a lot of design space to take more liberties elsewhere.

One other variant on the respec abuse idea from above. You wait until your team is level 19-20 or so, then make a new guy with whatever Background and Quirk you like, then give him ranks in Brawling, Toaster Repair, and Weapon Modding. Once he get's power leveled to level 19 you should have enough ranks to spread around (assuming you have 10 Int by then) to get him to level 9 in all three of those skills the hard way. Then you read the books, get to 10 in all three, then you respec into whatever three skills you actually want. You can, in effect, use those books, and some cash, to get what ends up being a second copy of three other books you already used or haven't gotten yet. You could theoretically do the same with the Armor Modding book, if you actually got it from Nancy Forge, personally I like the gun she gives you as the alternate option in that dialog decision tree, so I never get that book myself, and the Melee Weapons book, but that Melee Weapons book comes fairly late in the game, in the order I like to go in.

[Qiox]

Brawlers are awesome. 1 AP per attack and can build the meter to full in 3 hits making every 4th attack an AOE stun. They start weak (levels 1 to 5) but ramp up quickly after that and by the time you reach Denver you can just have the rest of the group hang back and solo everything with a Brawler.