Characters

a complete discription of every character in the game. What they do, and if they're good

Introduction

Here's a list of all of the characters, with an A-F rating of how useful they are. I'm still working on finishing it, but I decided to publish in case I don't get around to finishing it I hope the partial guide can be useful to someone

Mike

Cost: Free
Overall Rating: C+
Ability: soldier B-
Special: enemies less likely to attack your base. C+


So let's talk the special. I didn't do a ton of testing, but it looks like:
without Mike threat is 8-12 per turn, pretty even distribution, so I'll call it 10 average
With mike it's 7-10, again pretty even distribution.

This means that in a full bar of 100 threat he'll buy you *almost* 2 extra turns. In longer games it could be 3 or 4.

Soldier is an ability I have mixed feelings on. "Throw Knife" is really strong early, but it falls off late, even if you take strength

Overall Mike is a good character to help you skate through your first few games, but I wouldn't reccomend using him much after that.

Peter

Cost: Free
Overall Rating: C-
Ability: Scout D
Special: +3 Fuel, Tools, and Food C+


His special is good if you're still learning the combat system, and can't manage the level 1 resource missions. After that it's largely useless.

Peter gets bonus demerits for having scout, which is an ability I really don't like. I see how having a combat knife and scout you could do a whole lot of damage, but since activating stealth costs an action point you get the one stealth attack in place of 2 normal attacks. generally enemies die in 2 attacks when the character fighting them deserves to be there

Tatiana

Cost: Free
Overall Rating: A+
Ability: Medic A
Special: 2 extra easy missions A++


I cannot gush enough about how good Tatiana is, even if the game sometimes calls her Tina instead. Her special is simply amazing. Let me explain

You get an extra rescue mission, which lets you have an extra crew member, which is like having Alexandra's special, except you don't have to pay 1000 requisition for it

You get an extra salvage mission, which is like having peter's special. A buit more random, but you're not saddled with a useless scout to get it

Going on those 2 missions will result in a 20ish drop in your threat, It takes Mike's Special 15ish turns to reduce that much threat, so you can free up another spot on your team without having to worry about being raided.

So her special is like 3-in-1. Admittedly you have to do some work for it, and sometimes you'll die on an early mission and have to restart, but once you get the hang of the early combat these missions are so much profit

To add to it she has medic, an ability which I *love*. My exploreres all want to have 1 rank in endurance, 2 ranks in Strength or Ranger, and 1 rank in Medic (usually in that order), but medic is a great ability on literally anyone who leaves the base. Even if you skill her up to fill another role like scientist or engineer, you can still bring her on a mission to heal up a wounded explorer so you don't need to build an infirmary (never build an infirmary)

Karina

Cost: 500
Overall Rating: C
Ability: Endurance A+
Special: build Robotics Facility C-
Karina’s special ability is… not good. I’ll put full stats below, but the short version is that the battle mech is too slow to be useful, and honestly still worse at combat than a well-made character. It is still beastly strong and tough though, and it has a unique ability (forcefield) that nothing else in the game can replicate. The other frustrating thing is that she starts with an ability that is *only* useful in combat, but then her special ability completely replaces her combat stats with that of the mecha. The only good way to use the mecha is to give her base skills like science or engineering, in which case her having endurance is useless.
Endurance as an ability is excellent. 1 Rank in endurance is mandatory on all characters that want to explore, and the earlier the better. This makes her strong as an early explorer, but there are other characters that do it better

Battle Mech:
9 HP
3 Stamina (this is why it sucks)
3 melee
5 ranged (AoE)
4 armor

Special ability forcefield: prevents all untis from entering the square
Special ability: Some rapid fire thing, I don't remember

Steve

Cost: 500
Overall Rating: B-
Ability: Engineering A
Special: craft new items C+
Steve lets you craft some new items with your level 1 workshop. They aren’t *good* items, but hey it’s better than nothing right? Well actually you’re probably better off investing in an upgraded workshop, than wasting your tools on the new items. He’s an early game power character, but he doesn’t add near as much to that as other characters (like scarlet or ghost). Having an engineer can be really nice though. Engineer and constructor can save you a lot of resources over the course of the game, and he can be using both as early as turn 2 or 3

Jake

Cost: 500
Overall Rating: F
Ability: Commander D
Special: Other characters get 50xp F
it gives your starting guys 50 xp, which is like each of them taking one action in a library. This is like *2* bonus actions... you can see why it's not a great special. I also think commander isn't very good.

Edit: even though it says "other" Jake gives himself 50xp too, and if you start with Alexandra he gives 4 people +50xp. Still terrible though

Rupert

Cost: 500
Overall Rating: C+
Ability: scientist A-
Special: +5 knowledge D+
He gives you some starting knowledge, and helps you produce more. It’s so much more effective to pick a character with a good special like Tatiana or Alexandra and have them learn scientist, than it is to bring this guy and his weird face along. He’s always nice to find on early rescue missions though.

Roland

Cost: 1000
Overall Rating: B
Ability: Engineer A
Special: Build manufactory B-
I’ll be honest I’m really not sure how to rate this guy’s special building. It’s obviously *very* strong if used correctly, but space in the base is so limited that I’m just not sure how to make it work. If used correctly it can nearly double your actions per turn, but I was never able to make it live up to its potential. Engineer is, as always, a great ability.

Alexandra

Cost: 1000
Overall Rating: A
Ability: Commander D
Special: 1 random character A+
Alexandra’s special ability is absolutely amazing. Starting with a 4th character lets you get rolling much faster, It means you’ll get access to fewer interesting unique buildings, but the raw power of having a second person is entirely worth it.
My one complaint is that I’m not wild about the Commander ability. I mostly only use it during base attacks when all my guys are defending. I very rarely send more than 1 person on an exploration mission, and I only send more than 2 when I win the game if I pass the mission.

Matt

Cost: 1000
Overall Rating: B+
Ability: Ranger A
special: potato farm B+
Potato far, will generate way more food than you'll ever need. I put one next to my 2 libraries, and I ended the game (a loss from losing battles vs ringleaders), but at like turn 20 I had over 30 food stored, and had just been ignoring animals while exploring. It's not the best special in the game, but it's a *very* good upgrade over having a garden

Paul

Cost: 1000
Overall Rating: A
Ability: Robotics expert B-
Special: No tech limits A+
Paul is actually doubly unique. His starting ability is not available to anyone else and it’s… okay? If you get him builder, and make him a battle droid or two, and send him into combat he is actually effective in a style that doesn’t really work for anyone else in the game. It’s not all that good, but it’s at least interesting.
Paul’s real strength comes from his unique ability to let you obtain all the tech. It’s *only* useful in a really long game, but if you’re planning on going 30 turns or longer it is invaluable. Why pick one resource production to double when you can double all of them? And don’t you hate having to choose between less base attacks, and extra stamina? Well no more! Obviously his special doesn’t *start* working until turn 10-15 at the earliest, so he isn’t the right choice for every game, but the 3 techs you didn’t pick from each tree add up to a really strong package. Just make sure to train a person or two in scientist to pay for it all

Oscar

Cost: 1500
Overall Rating: D
Ability: resourceful C
Special: can build the garage F
The garage lets you drive a scout vehicle during exploration. The scout vehicle is similar in stats to a mediocre combat character with mediocre gear. By the time you have spare resources to build and use the garage (it costs a fuel to use), then you should really have better combat characters. The car has serious issues harming level 2 monster. 2 armor is enough to completely shut it down. The car also completely ignores his starting ability of resourceful. Resourceful isn’t bad on a combat character, but it’s not useful anywhere else. He has two ways to be bad at combat, and nothing else going for him.

Scout Vehicle:
HP: 7
Stamina: 7
melee: 1
Ranged: 2 (3 attacks)
special firecrackers: lures nearby enemies to attack

Scarlett

Cost: 1500
Overall Rating: B
Ability: Scout, Sniper (C+)
Special: starts with sniper rifle (B+)
Scarlett is an interesting choice. If you ever get to the point where you can craft sniper rifles, then her starting special is completely obsolete. She starts at level 2 which gives her more power early, but I don’t love either of the abilities she gets. If you are having trouble with early combat she is *the* person to get. If you’re not, then you should probably avoid her.
Interesting note: If you find Scarlett in a mission she comes equipped with her sniper rifle, making her one of 2 people who still get their special when you find them randomly, so she’s *very* good to find on rescue missions.

Charlie

Cost: 1500
Overall Rating: D
Ability: Soldier B-
Special: Kitchen F
the kitchen is... not very good. it can be more efficient than a bedroom, and could ultimately replace your fireplace as well, but trying to use it early will just slow you down, and honestly the early part of the game is too important. The late game "hot meal" version of the kitchen requires poer, which means your other guys getting a meal can't be working the other powered rooms unless you have a nuclear reactor, and if you have a nuclear reactor it's either going to kill you in 2 turns, or you've already won.

Juliett

Cost: 2000
Overall Rating: B
Ability: Medic A
Special: craftable rocket launchers B-
So let's be honest. Rocket launchers are really sweet. they do +5 ranged damage and have AoE. Downside is that they only come with 2 ammo, so even with 2 ammo belts you still only get 4 shots, which is *not* enough to complete any missions left on the map by the time you can build one (level 3 gun workshop). That being said since it gives +5 ranged damage you don't need a lot of specialization to make it great. Take Juliett herself, give her some resourceful and have a medic that can blow some stuff up on a mission. I don't think it's worth losing out on other, better, special abilities, but it's pretty cool.

Stephen

Cost: 2000
Overall Rating:
Ability: young C
Special: build storeroom
Young gives you a 50% bonus to experiene gains, but it takes a long time for that to be worthwhile. he gets to level 6 as quickly as a normal person gets to level 5, which is where he starts to pull ahead, but at that point he's up 1hp on someone who started with a different ability, which isn't enough gain for him being behind for so long. Still forming opinons on storeroom

Jane

Cost:2000
Overall Rating: D
Ability: scout C-
Special all characters get the "Sonic Shock" ability D
Sonic Shock is usable twice per battle, and does 1 point of stamina damae to all enemies within range 2. It's not a *bad* ability, but it's really only good on a support character, and as I've mentioned when discussing my dislike for "commander" there are very few missions in the game I want to bring 3 people on.

Greg

Cost: 2500
Overall Rating: D
Ability: Scientist A-
Special ability: build stasis chamber F
It’s like a barracks that you have to power, so that it can produce a little more energy if the person is so tired they’re taking damage. It might be that it uses 0 food, in which case you could replace your barracks and your garden with it, but I’m still very dubious about the idea of having to run your power plant in order to sleep

Ghost

Cost: 2500
Overall Rating: B-
Ability: bodybuilding, strength (A-)
Special: starts with Sword (C-)
Ghost starts combat ready with an extra ability, and a weapon already in place. He has a lot in common with scarlet, although the price tag is higher. Bodybuilding and Strength are excellent abilities for melee characters to have, but melee characters just aren’t as good at higher levels as ranged characters, and his sword is easily replaced. There’s no reason to bring him that I wouldn’t rather bring scarlet for. I suppose you could bring both and try to beat the warleader on turn 5 or some such silliness.
Interesting note: If you find Ghost in a mission he comes equipped with his sword, making him one of 2 people who still get their special when you find them randomly, so he’s *very* good to find on rescue missions.

Rick

Cost: 3000
Overall Rating: D+
Ability: Soldier B-
Special: can build teleporter D
The teleporter is an interesting can of worms. It adds basically 0 to your power level. If a mission goes well it lets you teleport back to base, and saves a heat or two. What it’s really there for is pulling a guy out of a failed mission, so he doesn’t die with it. It’s an insurance policy. Building a teleporter is planning on failure, and that’s just not the way I play. Failing missions can still be pretty bad, and I just don’t see the ability to turn a big loss into a small loss as worth a *very* valuable building slot.

Eye Patch

Cost: 3000
Overall Rating:
Ability: engineer A+
Special: all characters receive +1 armor
this ability sounds nice, but mostly combat involves not letting them hit you, so I'm not sure. needs more testing

[rpgarcher]

thanks adamek, I updated the guide

[Adamek]

Oscar costs 1500 and Greg 2500