[OBSOLETE]JACK OF ALL TRADES - how to get a versatile (solo) character

Building Your Character

UPDATE: GUIDE NO LONGER ACCURATE PER LATEST NERFS TO MASTERMIND & REACTIONS. WORKING ON IT.

Welcome colonists!

I'll get right to it; this is a guide for making a character capable of succeeding pretty much every skill check in chapter one, if you manage your skills well. By the end of this guide, this character will have at least 3 in every skill, excepting weapon skills, with certain skills at four or five. The skills will likely be higher once you've blown through all the content in the chapter.

This character is also very well suited for a solo playthrough.

Please note this first build will not be the best at combat. Your Initative will be kinda bad and you won't max out on AP, but I'm hoping implant upgrades will make up for that somewhat down the line (there's also a feat to help with initiative). You will have a lot of health though, and training combat skills will be quick. (See alternate build for MORE DAKKA)

Character Creation

The absolutely most essential thing to make this build work is the feat MASTERMIND.

This bad boy is what makes it all possible; 50% increased skill learning rate is ridiculously powerful and it's more than enough to make up for skill deficiencies due to low stats at the beginning. The extra feat every third level, starting at level two, is a nice bonus.

So, INTELLIGENCE has to be maxed out, which gives you a 30% experience gain bonus, as well as a total of four tagged skills. The second crucial stat is CONSTITUTION, why? Because it gives you implant slots, and implants give you stats. You raise that stat to a solid nine, netting you 6 implant slots (the last slot you can get with one of those extra feats you get every third level from MASTERMIND). Unless you're really into melee characters, but why would you be when shotguns exist , leave STRENGTH at four, and unless you're making a solo character, get CHARISMA to six for two follower slots (the last one you get with the squad leader implant later).

Split the last three points between PERCEPTION and DEXTERITY (I usually put DEX at six just for more AP but whatever floats your boat).

In the end you should have something like this:

You might say "Wow, bet your accuracy is kinda bad with those stats," and you'd be right! But that won't matter because you won't be fighting for a long while.

SkillsAlright, this is where being prescient pays off, because some skills you can raise from one to two by simply talking to people (usually paying them) and some you can't, so we have to spend our points strategically.

You'll have four points to spend, but two of them will be crucial; CRITICAL STRIKE and COMPUTERS. Optionally, but highly recommended, is STEALTH just to make it easier to get past the frogs in the Armory. The last point you can spend as you wish, but if you put it into a weapon skill, I will cry. I would recommend ELECTRONICS, just because it saves you some backtracking. (If you're a real min-maxer, you might want to put it in either PERSUASION or STREETWISE and tag it, then focusing on it during gameplay and you might get it to five. Or be more combat oriented and put it into ARMOR or EVASION.)

For your tagged skills, the number one priority is tagging LOCKPICK. You will run into level five lockpicking challenges, and having it tagged is the only way to get it to five in chapter one. The other three are free for whatever. A good choice for a second tag is COMPUTERS, just because it lets you get to four faster, but I would also recommend putting one into any of the combat skills, and one into a speech skill; PERSUASION or STREETWISE are good options. (If you want both CRITICAL STRIKE and either EVASION or ARMOR as a tagged skill, it would be better to start out picking CRIT since you'll get learning in it way before the other two. You could also tag all three combat skills once you get EDUCATED.)

That should leave your skills looking like this:

(I know I picked ARMOR here over CRIT, that was a mistake.)

What will this character look like by the end of Chapter One?Here's what kinda stats my character running this build ended up with by the time all content in Chapter One was done. Not bad at all, but not as singularly powerful as the alternate build presented in the last section of the guide. (RIP Faythe; I tried keeping you alive... but with 35 hp, what did you really expect?)

Alternate Build - More Dakka

Here's an alternate build I just got done testing, having run solo through everything in chapter one but the Creeper (killed Braxton , killed everyone in court . gas+smoke+distortion field are your friends).

If you are willing to sacrifice a companion slot, or just having companions in general, as well as a single implant slot, you can make a beast of a character. Basic premise is the same; ten INTELLIGENCE and MASTERMIND, but you sacrifice a point in CON and a couple in CHA and shove them into PER and DEX instead, like this:

Having both DEX and PER at seven will unlock some good feats once you get them to eight via implants. I suppose you could put some points into STR instead, but once again, why would you go melee when shotguns exist.

For skills we're doing practically the same as with the primary build, just don't put a point in ELECTRONICS for convenience. Salvaging the module in the back room of the power station will give you 15 learning, grabbing the air purifier for Zeke in Hydroponics will give you 30, and voila! ELECTRONICS two. I've decided to put that point into STREETWISE instead, but you could put it in ARMOR to get a head start on gearing up. My skills at character creation ended up looking like this:

While you end up sacrificing an implant slot and one companion slot, this build makes your character individually much more powerful. If you play solo it won't matter, since you won't have any need for squad leader. If you plan on using companions however, it's absolutely vital you get the squad leader head during 'Little Shop of Horrors' to upgrade from one to two companion slots, which requires fighting five enemies at once.

What will this character look like by the end of Chapter One?Just to show off, here's the kinda stats you can expect this character to have by the end of Chapter One, if you're playing solo; It's the only character I've managed to get to level five having taken the 'Liberty' path, and I'm guessing it's because no companions are hogging the EXP. Compared to Jack above, Warboy here has significantly better combat stats, but it does come at the cost of an implant slot and a companion. (I haven't installed squad leader or the INT implant on this character. It wasn't really necessary.)

Here's what it might look like if you want some teammates. Compared to the solo build, you'll have somewhat diminished combat stats, but keep in mind the solo character has two more feats by being level five. Compared to the first build, the combat stats are much improved, but it does come at the cost of a follower and an implant slot.

What Build Should I Pick?

It really comes down to versatility. The first build gives you the most options; you have all implant slots and all follower slots, while still being well rounded. The second build sacrifices a little versatility for better combat potential. I'm sure down the line, once you get more levels, feats, and implant upgrades, that the first build will catch up.

[NEW] Going Solo?

(Reading this part is also useful if you're planning on being very combat-oriented, even with companions)

If you're going to play the game without companions, there are a few things you need to keep in mind when it comes to combat. You'll be able to talk your way out of everything, no big deal, but when you're really itching for a fight and it's a 5 v 1, you need to be prepared.

Firstly, I would highly recommend tagging CRITICAL STRIKE, EVASION, ARMOR, and one WEAPON skill, because you're going to need to squeeze out as much learning as possible from every bullet fired, both by and against you. Of the defensive skills, EVASION in particular will becomes extremely important as this is how you turn hits against you into grazes and misses.

In terms of equipment, there are two gadgets in particular that will make your life a lot easier, and those are the DISTORTION FIELD and (situationally) CLOAKING FIELD.

(DF has improved zap and battery, CF improved battery. I just move the battery between them.)

CF is covered down in the tips section under 'Gear & Items', but TL;DR it can be used in combat and if enemies can't detect you, they can't attack you. Even if you attack.

DF is my best friend and here's why; 30% reduction in ranged accuracy is ridiculously good, especially once your own EVASION is getting up in levels (more on that down by the ARTFUL DODGER feat), and you'll be dealing damage every time a melee character attacks you and reduce their THC by 15%, even if they miss you. Three rounds might not seem like much, but it's more than enough to take out most enemies.

REACTIONI'll go over REACTION shots more thoroughly down in the tips section, but when you're playing solo it's absolutely obligatory to have high REACTION. You might get anywhere from 2-5 shots off during your turn, then five or six guys get to use you for target practice until the initiative order rolls around again because there's no one else to shoot but you. That's an awful long amount of time to just stand there, isn't it?

Every time an enemy moves or attacks you have the opportunity to make a REACTION attack in response, and because you don't have companions to help you pick off enemies, you need to lean into REACTION to compensate. Many weapons give increased REACTION, but the absolutely best in chapter one is the SMG 'Old Stanley', which you can loot off one of the scavs at Delta Tower in Hydroponics.

Not only does 'Old Stanley' give 20% additional REACTION, it also gives GRAZE and 10% chance to Stagger (-4 AP on the enemy's next turn). All these things make this weapon the obvious choice for REACTION shots, but in case that wasn't enough, SMGs also have the advantage of firing three shots at a time, meaning you'll do between 16 and 32 damage per REACTION (graze or hit, not counting crits and armor mitigation). You could potentially one-shot a weaker enemy and outright kill most enemies that trigger two or more REACTION shots. Just make sure to reload it after six shots to keep the party going.

[WIP] COMBAT FEATS

In order to increase your REACTION and EVASION enough to hold your own in combat, there are a few feats I would consider mandatory.

First up is our old friend EDUCATED. This should always be your first pick, since you'll need both the bonus EXP gain and the additional tagged skill.

Thanks to running MASTERMIND, you'll get two feats upon reaching level two, and the second choice should be LONE WOLF (if you're solo).

I suppose the reason why is rather self-explanatory; better INITIATIVE, better EVASION, better REACTION, better CRIT. Overall just a very solid boost to your combat capabilities.

Your next choice, which will become available after installing the motor cortex to bump your DEX to eight, should be GUNFIGHTER:

Besides the staggering 20% increase to REACTION and the lesser increase to GRAZE, the additional two damage on grazes might seem minor, but keep in mind that when using an SMG that becomes six total additional damage per shot, which is far from minor. If you take 'Old Stanley' up there, three grazes go from about 16 to 22 damage (pre-mitigation). That's disgusting.

Next up I would recommend TRUE GRIT because you're not going to be able to rely on having cover available anyways, and you look incredibly sexy just standing out in the open without a care in the world. This will also eliminate fights where it's just you and some guy halfway across the map taking pot-shots at each other from behind cover. Once again, we're boosting EVASION and REACTION.

The extra ballistics resistance is nice, I guess, but that's not really why we're taking it.

Nice-to-HavesThe next set of feats aren't as vital as the ones above, but they're good options going forward.

In this house we love and cherish OPPORTUNIST. I considered putting it in the obligatory pile, but it really is just very nice to have. More REACTION, yes please, but the real treat is the guaranteed stagger (-4 AP) on a REACTION HIT. It doesn't stagger on grazes, however.

Besides increasing your health by a decent amount, the real prize here is capping enemy CRIT at 5%. Some enemies, which so far means the frogs but I'm sure we'll see more, have a very high natural CRIT chance (around 25% for the frogs) and CRIT chance is the last thing to be affected by EVASION, so even if you manage to lower their hit chance by 75% the rest will be pure CRIT. Certain attacks also increase a character's CRIT and by capping it at 5% you eliminate some of the randomness inherent to combat.

CRITICAL THINKER is a feat you'll definitely want once you've gotten your CRIT skill up past five, but you won't get an awful lot of value out of it before then with only 1% per skill level. I'm sure it'll shine more in the next chapter.

SHARPSHOOTER is not a feat I would pick during chapter one, but I imagine enemies will become more heavily armored going into chapter two in which case that extra 10 PENETRATION will come in handy. I'm more of a spray-and-pray type of person, but if your primary weapon is a rifle I suppose the extra AIMED accuracy comes in handy.

Another feat I would not take during this chapter and instead save for later is ARTFUL DODGER. An extra 10 to EVASION is pretty sweet, but you're better off taking another feat early in the game. Don't get seduced by that +20 below 7 HP - you should not be anywhere near 7 HP for extended periods of time. Ever. (if playing with companions, this feat might have slightly higher priority because your passive EVASION likely won't be super high.)

By the end of chapter one you should sit at around 60 passive EVASION (solo with LONE WOLF and TRUE GRIT) and combining it with a Distortion Field gadget with an improved battery gives you three rounds of combat with 91 EVASION against ranged attacks. That's enough to nuke most enemies' THC into the teens. Combine with TOUGH BASTARD, gas and/or flash on enemies, and smoke on your own position, and you're only getting grazed if they're very lucky.

Honorable MentionsThere's a bunch of weapon-specific feats that may or may not be worth your while. They all increase your accuracy with that weapon by 10, but by the time you're done with the chapter you'll be hovering around 90+ accuracy and 50+ graze so hitting things won't really be a problem (except the damn Creeper. ♥♥♥♥ that guy). Perhaps they'll make more of a difference once you get further into the game but at this point you'll primarily be looking at the secondary effects.

First up GUNNER. Trash. The only one you *might* consider taking for the accuracy, because you'll already have so much GRAZE you're not missing anything anytime soon.

PISTOLERO. You should only take this if you don't plan on using SMGs as your REACTION weapon.

RIFLEMAN. If you're aiming for big crits with Bullseye and CRITICAL THINKER, or use aimed attacks to debuff enemies during your turn (reducing THC is pretty good), go for it. Decent option.

TOO CLOSE. Very good (but I might be biased). The stagger (-4 AP next turn) is an excellent way to reduce the amount of attacks enemies can take on their turn, and 5 per level is very nice. Combined with OPPORTUNIST, no one will have full AP. Ever.

I haven't played with the ON-KILL feats yet to gauge their usefulness, so I'll have to report back on those.

Into The Pit

Alright, now you've made your character and it's time to get in-game. I'll try to be as vague as possible while still giving you the steps you need to do to train your stats, so as not to spoil everything. This part of the guide will cover a couple of missions and some things related to exploration.

Loading inOnce you've started the game, pick whatever primary weapon you want (you won't use it) but make sure to grab a knife.

Main Street

Go talk to Xavier, who's hanging out right outside your container, and get him to teach you lockpicking for 200 credits.

Now normally you'd get 40 learning points from this, but thanks to having LOCKPICK as a tagged skill, and MASTERMIND, you get a lot more.

The math is such:

40+20(mastermind)+40(tagged) = 100

Now, when the skill is tagged, MASTERMIND doesn't add all that much, but for our non-tagged skills, it adds up.

Talking to Xavier should have leveled LOCKPICK to two, enabling you to open the locked chest to the northeast of your current position, which will raise your LOCKPICK to three already. Now go north to the locked door next to the large purple sign for 'Church of the Elect' and open it. Inside you'll find Jia, who wants you to steal something for her. Agree to do it and she will raise your STEAL to two.

Go inside the church to pick up a mission (we won't do it in this guide, I'll leave it to you, but you might as well pick it up).

Now that STEAL is at level two, go talk to the armor and gun vendor to the southwest, and steal from them, raising STEAL to level three. Go to Abe's general store and steal from him as well, but don't talk to Evans yet.

Head down to the medbay and talk to Sarah, steal from her too, before asking her to teach you how to extract implants and accept her mission. This will get BIOTECH to two. Don't do her mission 'Little Shop of Horrors' yet, because to get the best reward, the Squad Commander implant, you'll have to fight a whole bunch of guys.

Go Southwest and talk to your buddy, Tanner, and accept his mission. Talk to Jack and accept his mission as well. Then go due south to the 'Power Station' and talk to Zeke, who has two missions for you. If you chose ELECTRONICS two, you can pass a skill check here, if not, you can pass it later. Directly south of the power station is a locked room, with a LOCKPICK three or COMPUTERS two check. It doesn't matter which one you choose, but if you pick the lock you'll get to LOCKPICK four without having left the pit. Loot everything inside, and get some ELECTRONICS learning by salvaging the module.

CamptownNow you'll want to go to Camptown to the northeast.

Once inside, unlock the container directly opposite the 'Old Earth Emporium' for free loot. Go talk to the storekeeper and steal from him and grab the job from Earl (we won't do it in this guide), before heading up the stairs to the 'Engine Fuel' bar, where you'll steal from Samson for Jia's mission.

Then head down to 'Boone's Moonshine' and talk to Boone, who will give you a mission to get something from Hydroponics. This mission offers money or a training token upon completion; always pick the token.

The OutskirtsNow we go level our lockpicking in The Outskirts. To the very north is a level three locked container, which has a level two computers check inside. This check will get COMPUTERS to three if you used COMPUTERS at the power station. You can't do the last computers check to lower the force field yet.

To the south is a locked level two container with a level four locked box inside; if you got into the power station by lockpicking, you'll be able to loot the box, finding a powerful revolver inside, but if not, you'll come back to it soon.

Outer GateHead to the outer gate and down the elevator, but before leaving for the next area, go to the control room to the south and unlock the door with an ELECTRONICS check and unlock the cabinet inside. Now you can go back for the gun in the level four locked box, if you didn't already have LOCKPICK four.

ArmoryNow we're checking out the armory. First go southwest and check out the boxes, before heading back up north to the control room. Moving the box requires passing a ELECTRONICS two and COMPUTERS three check, which you should be able to do. Using the crane to move the box will get you to ELECTRONICS three. If you didn't pick ELECTRONICS at character creation, you'll have to wait a little bit.

You can remove the implant from the body inside the room blocked by the boxes, and doing so will increase BIOTECH to three. You can go back to the medbay at main street and insert it immediately if you want.

Then proceed through the gap to the south and choose to SNEAK past. Now you can either sneak to the northwest, or use the panel on the wall next to the door to scare the frogs away for some loot with an ELECTRONICS two check. Pass the ELECTRONICS and LOCKPICK checks in the next room, as well as the module for some ELECTRONICS learning.

You can now pass through the vent to the south, but don't go fighting the frogs in the next room over just yet. Sneak through the room with the scavengers instead for SNEAK learning.

Level 2Take the elevator down, pass the box under the debris (you can come back and get it with a full team later) and sneak into the room with the scavengers. Make sure to have your knife equipped, and sneak around until you reach the guy to the east. Use a takedown to instantly kill him (this is why you want CRITICAL STRIKE at two). Directly north of his position is a level four locked door, which you can open to get to the vault. The rest of the scavengers will be killed by the automated defenses, and you can loot them afterwards, as well as the room through the locked door next to their bodies. This sequence should give you SNEAK three and a level up.

You have two feats to pick, but one of them has to be EDUCATED for that sweet extra tagged skill and bonus experience gain. For your new tagged skill, you can pick whatever you want.

If you didn't take ELECTRONICS two at the beginning, dismantling the monitor next to the vault entrance should give you enough learning to get to ELECTRONICS two, and you can now go do the previous objectives requiring that.

Inside the ArmoryThe reason you're here is the terminal in the southernmost room of the vault, because it'll give you a training token. There's a COMPUTERS check that shouldn't be an issue; pick the 'Crisis Intervention' token. This is how we get our speech skills up. Grab the corpse's spine on the way out of that room, and go loot the rest of the armory. There's a COMPUTERS four check blocking us from a stealth gadget, and a LOCKPICK five cabinet with a laser rifle in it, but we'll come back for it later. (see Hydroponics part of the guide on how to get LOCKPICK five and COMPUTERS four)

Back to the PitGo back to the Pit, specifically the Emporium in Camptown, and install your token to get all your SPEECH skills to three. Install your new spine while you're at it. You can now go pick up Evans if you want, but it's not like you need him. If you manage your SPEECH responses and don't opt for violence every time the opportunity presents itself, you can easily get both PERSUASION and STREETWISE to four before the chapter is done. Impersonate might lag behind a little.

You can technically close the guide there and continue playing on your own, secure in the knowledge you can pass most checks, but the Hydroponics section will show you how to get two more training tokens, one of which will give you enough learning to get into those last locked areas.

Hydroponics

Alright, time to take a look around Hydroponics.

First go talk to Carlos and pick up his mission, then take the elevator down to the living quarters. Sneak into the sleeping area and steal their stuff before continuing down to the main floor. There's nothing for you in the cultivation lab yet. (You can kill the psyker frogs in the Armory or the Hydroponics area for a brain you can give the scientist. This will award you a buff and the option for her to teach COMPUTERS to your character.)

Go northeast once outside, and sneak past the frogs. Go south and use the computer to move the greenhouse unit out of the way. Go east and squeeze through the opening to get the air filtration part for Zeke for a little ELECTRONICS learning.

Continue north, touch the greenhouse unit if you really feel like fighting a frog, continue on if you dont. Pass through the foliage to the northwest; you don't want to fight the creeper yet. The loot on the corpse in there isn't great, anyways. Go up the stairs and examine the machine for a fantastic shotgun. It's so good.

Go inside the tower and repair the elevator panel with an ELECTRONICS three check, after looting the poor schmuck on the floor. In the next room is a corpse next to a ladder, on it is a training token. Proceed down the ladder, pass a COMPUTERS check, take a ride to the next tower, grab the parts for Carlos and return to him. If you ask him if there's anything else you can do for him, you can pass a PERSUASION three check for an alternate option.

Back to the PitYou can now return to Boone and accept a training token as your reward. Go to the Emporium and install both your new tokens. You should now have COMPUTERS four, which means you can unlock the force field in the Armory and the Outskirts, and LOCKPICK five, which unlocks a cabinet in the Armory.

And that's it. Go forth and explore, Jack!

[NEW] Alternate Route For Maximum Efficiency

Thanks to Kasa for suggesting adding this route to the guide.

This particular route includes more backtracking and doing things in a fairly specific order to get your skill increases, but is the most comprehensive - ideal if you've run through the chapter a few times and want to squeeze the most from those initial hours. If you're making a solo character, this is also the route I would suggest. Remember to grab EDUCATED when you reach level two.

What are the benefits of this route?Taking this route frees up two skill points at character creation to put in whatever you want instead of putting it into ELECTRONICS and CRITICAL STRIKE for convenience. The other two still have to go into SNEAK and COMPUTERS. I guess you could put one of these free point into a weapon skill to get a head start on accuracy... I'll allow it this once.

The PitThe earlier part of the guide concerning The Pit will be the same, except you won't be able to bust into the locked door in the control room by the outer gate using ELECTRONICS (yet). I'd also suggest breaking into the Power Station back room using COMPUTERS.

Map HoppingThis part will basically be a rearranged version of the above routes with some extra bits, so expect a lot of repetition. Fast-travelling using the map is highly recommended.

First you'll go down to Hydroponics, where you quickly talk to Carlos and grab his missions, before heading down the elevator to ground level.

Go northeast once outside, and sneak past the frogs. Go south and use the computer to move the greenhouse unit out of the way, which should give you COMPUTERS three (if you broke into the Power Station back room using LOCKPICK, you'll get COMPUTERS three once you go to the armory). Go east and squeeze through the opening to get the air filtration part for Zeke, putting your ELECTRONICS at two.

Return to the Pit and break into the locked room behind the control room at the outer gate, and unlock the cabinet inside to get LOCKPICKING four. Go to the Outskirts and unlock the level four chest for the handgun.

Head to the Armory, inspect the big crate, operate the crane, grab the implant - you know the deal. When you squeeze through the gap to the frogs, choose stealth, and operate the panel directly north of you to scare off the frogs. This should get ELECTRONICS to three. Loot the corpse.

Go back to Hydroponics and head to the north tower (past where the frogs were); remember to grab the FANTASTIC SHOTGUN by examining the machine at the top of the ladder before heading inside. Interact with the elevator and manipulate the control panel, using ELECTRONICS to get up. Grab the token off the dead body before climbing down the ladder, removing the parts from the central machine, and using the computer to transport yourself to the other tower. Grab the parts for Carlos and make your way to the south tower (called Delta Tower) to deal with the scavs.

Go through the foliage and crawl through the vent to start a stealth run. We're not going to waste our time trying to find a peaceful solution because we want their stuff. Once inside, you go directly north and use ELECTRONICS to unlock the door and interacting with the machine to kill everyone inside. This should increase your SNEAK to three. Loot every corpse, which should yield some very nice armor, but the real treat is probably the best reaction weapon in the chapter - the SMG 'Old Stanley' (If you're playing solo I'd highly recommend using this as your secondary).

Return to Carlos, but ONLY turn in the mission for the parts and DON'T ask if there's anything else you can do yet. You'll return once you have better SPEECH skills. Go down the elevator and sneak into the sleeping quarters of the living area to grab their stuff.

Go to the Pit, break into the Regulator HQ for some SNEAK learning, return to Zeke and pass the ELECTRONICS check before turning in the air filtration parts. Go to Boone and give him the algae, receiving a token in return. Go to the Emporium and install both the tokens, raising your COMBAT skills to three, and ELECTRONICS to four, with a hefty chunk of learning going into LOCKPICK and COMPUTERS as well.

(While you're in the Pit, I would recommend going to Cole to sell some of the garbage you've picked up and buying the Bionic Eye implant. You can also get it for free later through the courthouse eventually, but it's not an easy fight, especially if you're going solo. Money won't be much of an issue, so it's not a big hit to simply buy it. Getting your PERCEPTION to eight unlocks some very nice feats and allows you to find an extra item in the armory as well.)

Now that CRITICAL STRIKE is above one, you can get into the Armory, so that's what we're gonna do. Head past the area where you scared off the frogs, COMPUTERS'ing and ELECTRONICS'ing as you go along, before sneaking past the guards and going down the elevator. Get into the armory the same way as described in the main guide, sneaking and killing. Your SNEAK should now be at four. Loot the corpses, do your business in the armory, which should get LOCKPICK to five and the Crisis Intervention token, and head back to the Pit.

Once back in the Pit, install the spine as well as the new token to get your SPEECH skills to three (if you're planning on picking up Evans, now is the time to do so). Now skip on over to the Power Station and turn in the module to Zeke, and use your COMPUTERS on the following prompt to get it to four.

You can now pick up the armor in the Outskirts and the stealth gadget in the Armory at your earliest convenience. You may also return to Carlos and turn in the Scav mission, and pass the PERSUASION check when asking if there's anything else you can do. (It would be obvious to combine them by going to the Armory and picking up the stealth gadget before killing the frogs on level one, so you have a brain you can bring the scientist, Maryam, in Hydroponics as well. Remember to steal from her while turning it in to get a better battery for your gadgets.)

And now you can enjoy the rest of the chapter as you wish, but I will post some tips below to get the most out of your game.

[NEW] General Tips

This section will have various tips and tricks, but will contain minor spoilers for certain missions.

Companion Tips EXP is divided evenly among characters in your party. Because of this I would recommend putting off turning in missions until getting Evans and/or especially Faythe because of their low starting level and skills (You get Faythe through Earl's missions). Because Jed is already level three, he won't level up during this chapter and essentially just takes away EXP and COMBAT learning you and your other companions have more need for.

REMEMBER TO GIVE YOUR COMPANIONS THE EDUCATED FEAT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

If you're using my versatile character builds, focus your companions' tagged skills into COMBAT skills, especially defensive skills like EVASION and ARMOR. Tagging one weapon skill in particular can also be useful. Don't tag a melee skill - they suck.

If you plan on using Faythe at all, toughen her up by taking her as your only companion to easy fights like the frog in the greenhouse unit in Hydroponics, the frogs in the Armory, the first couple of matches in the Courthouse, and the fight with the two guys holding up a third in the Outskirts. If it's a fight with more than one enemy, kill all but one quickly and let the last one wail on her for a while as she fights back to get that EVASION and ARMOR up.

When you do the mission to get Faythe, let her kill the guy and tell her it was the right thing to do afterwards to get a decent feat. There's no point in her getting her THIEF feat since you'll be doing all the lockpicking and sneaking anyways.

Also Faythe related; spec her into a ranged weapon. She has such low health, low defensive skills, and poor STRENGTH, that trying to make her melee will get her killed. Because of her low stats, enemies are also guaranteed to focus on her during combat.

Actually, don't try to make any character go melee, even Jed. There's nothing melee can do, that shotguns can't do better (maybe this'll change in the future).

Give vulnerable characters the Energy Armor from the Armory. 40 extra HP is very valuable for characters with poor defensive stats. It also lets them get hit, and thus get EVASION and ARMOR skill learning, without actually losing health.

SPEECH Tips Use PERSUASION over STREETWISE whenever possible, since it's more difficult to get the former to four in chapter one.

Use STREETWISE to scare off the would-be robbers close to your home for good learning.

Using STREETWISE to get money out of both Braxton and Jonas will get it to four when combined with the above (Remember to pick "Why me?" when talking to Braxton to get the option).

Take the cores from Isaiah peacefully to get STREETWISE and PERSUASION learning.

When doing 'Lamb among Wolves', choose to speak to McNeil and pick the first option for good learning as well. I wouldn't recommend sneaking in to grab the Deacon, since your SNEAK will already be at level four and you need the SPEECH learning more.

When speaking to Jed for the first time, choose the PERSUASION option. If you've done all the above suggestions, it should now be at four, and you can now murder your way through the rest of the encounters in the chapter for COMBAT learning .

COMBAT Tips Your COMBAT learning from killing enemies will vary depending on what happens during the encounter. If you kill an enemy extremely quickly without them touching you, you'll get CRITICAL STRIKE learning when they die (Other characters on your team might get this learning instead of the killer, for some reason). If they miss their attacks, you get EVASION, and if they hit you get ARMOR. If they've both hit and missed, you'll often get both to varying degrees.

Only characters who have been attacked during the encounter will get defensive learning, so bait enemies into attacking characters you want to have better defenses. A good way to discourage enemy attacks towards a specific character is by using gadgets. You can draw fire by lowering their EVASION through equipping heavy armor.

Characters get learning in WEAPON skills by simply attacking enemies, so these skills increase naturally during combat encounters. Whenever you crit, you also get CRIT learning.

Like mentioned above, some easy combat encounters to get your COMBAT skills up are: the frog in the greenhouse unit in Hydroponics, the frogs in the Armory, the first couple of matches in the Courthouse, and the fight with the two guys holding up a third in the Outskirts. Arguably, if you have two or three companions, the big frog fight in Hydroponics isn't bad either, assuming the frogs don't break your legs in the first round. Quicksave outside to be safe.

Have at least one character on your team with high REACTION; preferably the character that gets attacked the most or is closest to the action. The GUNFIGHTER feat (requires DEX eight), LONE WOLF (if you're solo), and TRUE GRIT are good options. Combine with the OPPORTUNIST feat to reduce enemy AP by 4 on a successful REACTION hit. Use the 'Old Stanley' SMG to essentially become an auto-turret (on my solo character I ended up having a 91% reaction chance by the end, using that gun and the above feats).

REACTION shots are taken upon every enemy movement and attack action, and the same character can keep taking shots as long as they have the ammo for it. This is especially useful for punishing melee characters. If you have good enough REACTION you can often end up killing enemies on their own turn, especially if they attack more than once per round.

CRIT chance is the last thing to be affected by EVASION, which is why those damn frogs crit all the time even if your EVASION is high. Take the TOUGH BASTARD feat to cap their chance at 5%, and CRITICAL THINKER to increase your own (good to combine with multishot weapons with a low hit/high graze chance, like SMGs).

Gear & Items Once your character(s) have the scav goggles you're immune to low-level blinding, meaning you don't have to worry about friendly fire from flash grenades if you're getting bogged down in melee.

Similarly, the effects of smoke grenades are diminished when wearing (especially those) goggles, so obscuring your position to give enemies a harder time hitting you is a good idea when you're outnumbered.

Gas grenades lower all stats and place a DOT on affected characters. Use them early in a fight for a decent combat advantage.

You can use the stealth gadget in combat and enemies will not be able to target your character, even if you're attacking, if they fail detecting you (depends on their thermal vision percentage and proximity). This is especially useful when playing solo, since you can get 2 (or 3 if you have an upgraded battery) rounds of taking no enemy fire, depending on their vision.

From doing the mission after saving Hank in the Outskirts, you might end up with a damage upgrade for the distortion field gadget causing 5-7 damage per enemy melee attack, as well as a 15% ACC debuff. Combine with high REACTION and EVASION to mercilessly bully melee characters.

Once you have BIOTECH at three, don't heal your characters at the medbay. You'll be able to heal 15 HP per medkit, and at 25 credits per medkit, it's usually cheaper than going to the doc. Don't enable auto heal, and instead try to get the most out of each medkit even if it might mean not completely maxing out the health of everyone (wasting a whole medkit healing 3 HP kinda sucks.)

Remember to unload weapons before selling them; you don't get more money for selling a loaded weapon and you need the ammo, anyway

Tips For 'Little Shop Of Horrors'

This is where you get your squad leader (and a bonus INT) implant, but the fight can be tricky if you're doing it alone or with just one companion.

When the fight starts you position your character, or a companion if you have one, at this spot to cut the enemies off from running into cover back there. It will also give you the opportunity to run into cover if you're a pansy without TRUE GRIT as a feat.

Other tips:

Save one or two Stasis grenades for this fight and use one on the three enemies clustered together at the bottom when the fight starts, and a second one if you haven't killed the two primary guys by the time it wears off. Flashbangs also come in handy, here.

Remember to pick up the energy armor from the armory for a free 40HP shield.

Almost everyone in this fight has somewhat poor accuracy, so having taken a feat to improve your EVASION comes in handy here.

Focus Manfred first, then Jimmy.

If you're lacking in armor and weapons, go stealth kill the scavs in Hydroponics by turning off their frog pacification machine and loot their corpses.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2500127005					

More Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game guilds

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