All Ranger, attributes, skills, perks, backgrounds, quirks and stats explained (to the best of my knowledge) from A to Z and beyond.
If you are a new player to Wasteland 3 or a curious Veteran popping in for a look, I do not necessarily recommend reading these entire sections from A to Z. It’s a lot to digest. Do the fun part first and play the game! Make sure to read the tutorials! Experiment! Questions will come naturally. When they do, come here and get them answered as needed.
Some amount of spoilers are unavoidable in this manual. You have been warned.
IMPORTANT!
1.5.0. UPDATE:
As of 1.5.0. one big confirmed but undocumented change is:
You can no longer use utility items to qualify for perks.
E.g. no more investing 4 ranks in Animal Whisperer and using the utility item to unlock/qualify for the rank 5 Spirit Animal perk. Other skills that are notably affected by this change are: Armor Modding, Toaster Repair, and Explosives.
This changed a lot of my builds, and working through those changes and getting the point values absolutely right again is a fair amount of work.
I’ve done a rough sweep of things however, so outside of any mistakes, the advanced builds should be tweaked now to take this change into account.
I will be waiting for DLC 2 (Oct 5th) to do a more thorough audit and update of any guide info or advanced builds, as I suspect it will change things up significantly again.
TO DO LIST (MY REFERENCE ONLY):
1.6.3 update (long overdue)
More team examples
More advanced builds
Review Team Elements
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INDEX:
BASIC BUILDS FOR NEW PLAYERS WHO JUST WANT TO GET STRAIGHT IN (MINIMAL SPOILERS):
A.1 - BASIC ASSAULT RIFLE BUILD
B.1 - BASIC SUBMACHINE GUN BUILD
C.1 - BASIC FLAMETHROWER BUILD
D.1 - BASIC HEAVY MACHINE GUN BUILD
F.1 - BASIC BLADED WEAPON BUILD
G.1 - BASIC BLUNT WEAPON BUILD
J.1 - BASIC SNIPER RIFLE BUILD
PUTTING A TEAM TOGETHER, EFFECTIVE SKILL DISTRIBUTION (MINOR SPOILERS)
MY BRAIN HURTS, MAKE ME A TEAM SO I CAN JUST PLAY ALREADY… (MODERATE SPOILERS)
J.1 - FIRST AID
J.2 - EMERGENCY RESPONSE
A.2 - EFFECTIVE AVERAGE CONSTITUTION (EACON)
B.1 - CONSTITUTION PER LEVEL (CON PER LVL)
D.2 - ACTION POINT (AP) WEAPON BREAKPOINTS
E.2 - HIT CHANCE IN RELATION TO PROBABILITY
E.3 - HIT CHANCE IN RELATION TO DAMAGE
F.1 - CRITICAL CHANCE (CRIT CHANCE)
G.1 - CRITICAL DAMAGE (CRIT DAMAGE)
G.2 - CRITICAL ATTACK DAMAGE FORMULA
H.2 - PENETRATION (PEN) VS ARMOR FORMULA
H.3 - AVERAGE PEN VALUE VS ARMOR
J.2 - STRIKE RATE EFFICIENCY (CHA ONLY)
J.3 - STRIKE RATE EFFICIENCY (CHA + ENDGAME SNIPER RIFLES OR BRAIN CANDY)
J.4 - STRIKE RATE EFFICIENCY (CHA + OPPORTUNIST OR GUNSLINGER, NOT BOTH)
J.5 - STRIKE RATE EFFICIENCY (CHA + OPPORTUNIST + GUNSLINGER)
J.6 - STRIKE RATE EFFICIENCY (CHA + MAJOR TOM (w/ Spirit Animal) + DLC HELMETS)
J.8 - TORRENT STRIKE ANALYSIS (SHOT GUNS & FLAMETHROWERS)
J.9 - TORRENT STRIKE ANALYSIS (SUBMACHINE GUNS & HEAVY MACHINE GUNS)
J.10 - THUNDERING STRIKE ANALYSIS (BLUNT, BLADED, & BRAWLING WEAPONS)
J.11 - NUKE STRIKE ANALYSIS (ROCKET LAUNCHERS & WEIRD SCIENCE WEAPONS)
J.12 - PRECISION STRIKE ANALYSIS (ASSAULT RIFLES, HANDGUNS, & SNIPER RIFLES) WIP
K.1 - ARMOR (see PENETRATION for most answers)
M.1 - CRIT RESISTANCE (CRIT RESIST)
M.2 - CRIT RESIST DAMAGE REDUCTION FORMULA
N.1 - FIRE, COLD, ENERGY, & EXPLOSIVE (FCEE) RESISTANCE
O.1 - STATUS EFFECT RESISTANCE
U.1 - FIRE, COLD, ENERGY, & EXPLOSIVE (FCEE) DAMAGE BONUS
L.3 - MARSHAL “SAVE MY BACON” KWON
M.3 - LUCIA “FIREARMS” WESSON (DLC REQUIRED)
O.3 - SCOTCHMO “THE OK BOOMER”
Q.2 - FIXING UP IRONCLAD CORDITE
Q.3 - IRONCLAD “FOLLOW ME TO KANSAS” CORDITE
R.2 - FIXING UP VICTORY BUCHANAN
ARCHETYPE PRINCIPLES, HOW TO BUILD MORE ADVANCED RANGERS: WIP
OPEN = Flexible builds
SEMI = Limited flexibility
CLOSED = Fixed builds
ST DLC = Steeltown DLC required
A.2 - THE FINISHER (OPEN)
A.3 - THE SPRINGSTEEN (LEADER) (SEMI)
B.2 - THE AVENGER (MEDIC) (OPEN)
B.3 - THE DEMOLITION CHIEF (LEADER) (CLOSED) (REWORKING)
B.4 - THE NOBEL LAUREATE (MEDIC) (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
B.5 - THE FIRE RIPPER (ST DLC) (SEMI)
C.2 - THE FIRE MARSHAL (LEADER) (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
D.1 - HEAVY MACHINE GUN BUILDS:
D.2 - THE SENTRY (OPEN)
D.3 - THE LASER TURRET (ST DLC) (OPEN)
D.4 - THE GADGETEER (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
D.5 - THE ROCKETEER (SEMI)
E.2 - THE HOLLYWOOD ACTION HERO (LEADER) (SEMI) (REWORKING)
E.3 - THE INCREDIBLE HULK (CLOSED)
E.4 - THE SERIAL KILLER (OPEN)
E.5 - THE CAUTERIZER (MEDIC) (CLOSED)
F.2 - THE KNIFE JUGGLER (OPEN)
F.3 - THE F9 (MEDIC) (CLOSED)
F.4 - THE RED PRIEST (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
G.2 - THE CHUNKY MONKEY (OPEN)
G.3 - THE STAG KING (CLOSED)
G.4 - THE NINJA MIME (SEMI)
H.2 - THE MAJOR BOOMS (LEADER) (CLOSED)
I.2 - THE WILD BILL (OPEN)
I.3 - THE BARD (LEADER) (CLOSED)
I.4 - THE DISABLER
J.2 - THE CLASSIC (OPEN)
J.3 - THE SHOT CALLER (LEADER) (CLOSED)
J.4 - THE HOT HEAD (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
J.5 - THE FIRE STORM (ST DLC) (SEMI)
J.6 - THE HAIL STORM (ST DLC) (SEMI)
J.7 - THE WHITE DEATH (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
J.8 - THE LASER SNIPER (credit to /u/jim_sorenson) (REWORKING)
K.2 - THE PACIFIST (MEDIC) (SEMI) (credit to /u/jim_sorenson)
K.3 - THE NUT-SO PACIFIST (LEADER) (CLOSED) (REWORKING)
A.1 - TEAM ELEMENTS (REWORKING)
BASIC BUILDS FOR NEW PLAYERS WHO JUST WANT TO GET STRAIGHT IN (MINIMAL SPOILERS):
All of these builds are very generic and would work with any background and no Quirk. Backgrounds are tweaks to builds, so they don’t matter too much, but Quirks can change starting attributes in all sorts of ways. This means they are harder to plan around (or at least harder for me to tell you how to plan around them, due to so many possibilities). I recommend two approaches to Quirks:
Either don’t take one and have a mini-go at the game until you start feeling comfortable with the systems, then restart and move onto advanced builds with Quirks.
OR
Just avoid Quirks that modify AP. Those are the ones that can mostly make builds a bit trickier to plan around. The rest shouldn’t change the core of these builds too much or at least will change them in very obvious ways (e.g. the Pyromaniac quirk probably means you want your Ranger doing something with fire/explosive damage).
Notably, this makes these builds perfect when respecing Companions. Most don’t come with Quirks (one exception), and most don’t come with Backgrounds that change any fundamentals either (also one exception).
All of these basic builds should be able to beat any difficulty below Supreme Jerk.
Some of the builds do require you to take certain perks within their respective weapon skills. The perks are what shape the build, and will require some basic explanation of how.
I will supply both advanced tips and links to advanced builds at the end of every write-up in order to power up your Ranger should you want to. The builds will contain some spoilers however. You have been warned.
A.1 - BASIC ASSAULT RIFLE BUILD
ASSAULT RIFLE ATTACK COST:
4 AP
PERKS WE ARE WORKING AROUND:
Puncturing Shot - Puncturing Shot is a narrow AOE cone attack that can hit multiple enemies (and allies) for 5 AP. It debuffs armor.
Gopher Hunter - Enemies have 40% less benefit from cover when attacking them (Assault Rifles only).
Double Tap - If you attack a target twice in a row with an Assault Rifle, the second is always a critical hit.
Trigger Happy - Killing an enemy with an automatic weapon gives +3 AP (once per turn)
BUILD INCENTIVES:
Double Tap wants us to attack at minimum twice per turn against the same enemy for the automatic critical hit, and because of Gopher Hunter we can do so with great accuracy.
BASIC OPENING SEQUENCE:
Open with Puncturing Shot on multiple enemies, then try and attack one enemy for 4 AP twice, which is possible with 13 AP total.
The total AP this character wants to end with is 10 AP (13 AP with Trigger Happy).
This means we can Puncturing Shot (5 AP left), hopefully kill one enemy and gain +3 AP (8 AP left), and then attack the same target twice for 4 AP each (0 AP left), and one guaranteed critical hit. It won’t always work out this way, but this just presents the ideal.
Next turn, Puncturing Shot will be on cooldown, so we simply attack twice, hopefully kill one enemy again, allowing us to attack again, and then defend with our 1 AP (+5% evasion) remaining.
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
COOR: 4 > raise to 6 (1st), then raise to 8 (3rd)
LUCK: 2
AWA: 3 > raise to 10 (2nd)
STR: 2
SPD: 6
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 2 > raise to 7 (5th)
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS:
Anything, Assault Rifles don’t push a Ranger in any particular direction.
ADVANCED TIPS:
ADVANCED BUILD EXAMPLE:
B.1 - BASIC SUBMACHINE GUN BUILD
SUBMACHINE GUN ATTACK COST:
4 AP
PERKS WE ARE WORKING AROUND:
Reckless - Gain +15% damage with Submachine Guns while not in cover.
Stormer - If you move more than 5 spaces, your next SMG attack costs no AP (once per turn).
Trigger Happy - Killing an enemy with an automatic weapon gives +3 AP (once per turn)
Spray ‘N’ Pray - A 5 AP attack that increases damage at the expense of accuracy.
BUILD INCENTIVES:
The Stormer perk is archetype defining. Moving means flanking enemy opponents, which means reducing enemy cover bonuses (evasion). If it takes you 3 AP to move 6 spaces, Stormer saves you 1 AP (3 AP to move for a free attack worth 4 AP). To consistently move 6 spaces with 3 AP, we need around 2.0 combat speed.
Reckless also incentivizes moving, but moving and staying out of cover on higher difficulties is highly dangerous. Moving back into cover costs valuable AP. On higher difficulties, this makes Reckless a little less efficient than it should be.
BASIC OPENING SEQUENCE:
The total AP this character wants to end with is 8 AP (11 AP with Trigger Happy).
Move 6 spaces (5 AP left), attack once for free, attack again (1 AP left) and try to kill one enemy to fulfill Trigger Happy (+3 AP, 4 AP left). Attack again (0 AP left).
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
COOR: 4
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
AWA: 5 > raise to 10 (3rd)
STR: 4 > raise to 6 (5th)
SPD: 2 > raise to 6 (1st)
INT: 2 > raise to 5 (4th) > anything remaining
CHA: 2
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS:
First Aid - Incentivizes moving towards downed Allies in order to revive them. This will typically trigger the Stormer Perk meaning you are rewarded for reviving your Ally with a free attack.
Mechanics - Often enemy Turrets are powered by generators that when deactivated, destroy the Turret(s). These generators are usually located deeper into enemy lines, which usually requires moving behind enemies and granting us a flanking shot. Everything this Ranger wants in conjunction with the Stormer Perk.
Nerd Stuff - Nerd stuff allows you to hack enemy Robots onto your side. It has a short(ish) range which again incentivizes moving towards enemies and triggering the Stormer Perk.
Animal Whisperer - See Nerd Stuff, except taming enemy Animals has an even shorter range.
ADVANCED TIPS:
ADVANCED BUILD EXAMPLES:
C.1 - BASIC FLAMETHROWER BUILD
FLAMETHROWER ATTACK COST:
4 or 5 AP
PERKS WE ARE WORKING AROUND:
Move Up! - Gain +0.5 combat speed on the first turn of combat while using Big Guns.
Terrorizer - Flamethrowers engulf characters, reducing their Hit Chance by -15%.
Pressure Cooker - A 5 AP attack that disables enemy vehicles.
Wide spread - Increase the firing arc of HMGs and Flamethrowers by +35%.
BUILD INCENTIVES:
The Terrorizer and Widespread perk are archetype defining. The Pressure Cooker perk would be too if more enemy vehicles existed.
Otherwise, Terrorizer is everything you want on a build that is relying a bit on burn damage to kill your enemies. If they can’t hit/kill you, you have all the time in the world to let them die to burning damage.
While Widespread is available to both weapon types, it really helps Flamethrowers the most. Getting an extra enemy or two in your cone attack really helps boost overall damage output.
BASIC OPENING SEQUENCE:
The total AP this character wants to end with is 11 AP.
Flamethrowers are fairly simple to use. You want to charge forward and attack and debuff as many enemies as possible. With 11 AP you should be able to consistently attack with any Flamethrower twice per turn.
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
COOR: 10
LUCK: 1
AWA: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
STR: 4
SPD: 1 > raise to 2 (1st)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 2 > raise to 7 (3rd)
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS:
Mechanics - Often enemy Turrets are powered by generators that when deactivated, destroy the Turret(s). These generators are usually located deeper into enemy lines, which usually requires moving behind enemies and granting us a flanking shot. Like Shotguns, Flamethrowers have relatively short range.
Nerd Stuff - Nerd stuff allows you to hack enemy Robots onto your side. It has a short(ish) range which again incentivizes moving towards and getting close to enemies.
Animal Whisperer - See Nerd Stuff, except taming enemy Animals has an even shorter range.
Toaster Repair - The Heating Element perk grants +25% fire damage.
Weird Science - Rank 10 grants +30% fire damage.
ADVANCED TIPS:
ADVANCED BUILD EXAMPLES:
D.1 - BASIC HEAVY MACHINE GUN BUILD
HEAVY MACHINE GUN (HMG) ATTACK COST:
6 AP early game, 7 AP mid to late game.
PERKS WE ARE WORKING AROUND:
Move Up! - Gain +0.5 combat speed on the first turn of combat while using Big Guns.
Suppressing Fire - A wide cone attack that debuffs enemies for 5 AP.
Steady Shot - Gain +20% evasion and +10% hit chance in low cover when using a Heavy Machine Gun.
Wide spread - Increase the firing arc of HMGs and Flamethrowers by +35%.
BUILD INCENTIVES:
Steady Shot is archetype defining. This perk turns low cover into high cover, and increases hit chance by an additional 10% (cover provides 10%, Steady Shot adds 10% on top of that, total 20% hit chance). High cover for all 6 Rangers is rare, so being able to turn a low cover spot into high cover with bonus hit chance is a pretty sweet deal.
Move Up! incentivizes skimping on speed (SPD). You typically want to plant this Ranger somewhere central (in low cover) and just keep firing until you need to move again. At 1 SPD, this Ranger has 2.0 Combat Speed on the first turn to position.
Suppressing Fire is a great opening debuff on the first turn that lowers enemy accuracy. Try to hit as many enemies as possible. It does massive damage to demoralized enemies.
Wide Spread is marginal and almost only worth taking if you use Flamethrowers as well. A Basic HMG build has trouble using both HMG’s and Flamethrowers because firing both weapon types in the mid to endgame requires 12 AP total. This is possible of course, but beyond the scope of a basic build. It will be covered in advanced tips.
BASIC OPENING SEQUENCE:
The total AP this character wants to end with is 11 AP.
Use Move up! to charge forward no more than 8 spaces into low cover, then shoot your weapon. After Move Up! expires, you can hop 6 spaces between low cover to advance on enemies. Alternatively on any turn you don’t need to move, use the defend ability for 20% additional evasion per turn.
Consider using the 4 AP for deployables, consumables, or abilities gained through other skills (see complimentary skills for further details).
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 2 > anything remaining
AWA: 6 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 4
SPD: 1 > raise to 6 (4th)
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 2
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS:
Mechanics - A simple way to spend our extra 4 AP. If you aren’t afraid to use consumables, throwing down deployables is a great outlet for extra AP.
Explosives - Same with Mechanics, but now we lob Grenades with our extra 4 AP instead. Cryo and EMP Grenades can be great debuffs.
Sniper Rifles - Consider raising this to 2 only for the Mark Target perk. Mark Target increases hit chance against 1 enemy by 15%. Another outlet for spare AP.
Smoke Grenades are highly valuable defensive consumables that can be used with no skills. They increase evasion by 25% in a small area.
ADVANCED TIPS:
ADVANCED BUILD EXAMPLES:
THE LASER TURRET (Weird Science showcase)
E.1 - BASIC BRAWLING BUILD
BRAWLING ATTACK COST:
2 AP to 3 AP depending on the equipped weapon. Highly recommend sticking to weapons that cost 2 AP to attack however.
PERKS WE ARE WORKING AROUND:
Shaolin Surprise - A finishing move that cost 2 AP.
Extreme Combo - Brawling combo maximum increased to 10x.
Deadly Combo - Brawling combo critical chance increased by 2x.
Flurry of Blows - Brawling attacks cost -1 AP.
BUILD INCENTIVES:
Flurry of Blows is archetype defining. Reducing your attack cost to 1 AP per attack is bonkers and the entire Archetype functions smoother with it.
Deadly Combo makes our combo stacks more efficient by doubling how quick it multiplies our critical chance.
Extreme Combo is for the tough enemies you think aren’t going to die in 5 attacks.
Shaolin Surprise must be used as a finisher. Using it early and erasing combo stacks against tougher targets will result in a damage loss.
BASIC OPENING SEQUENCE:
The total AP this character wants to end with is 11 AP.
Run up and smash things. When your strike meter fills up, use your strike attack and AOE stun as many enemies as possible.
Note: Once stunned, enemies are immune to stuns for 1 round. Consider moving onto other enemies who haven’t been stunned yet.
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (4th)
LUCK: 1 > raise to 2 (1st) > anything remaining
AWA: 1
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (2nd)
SPD: 1 > raise to 6 (5th)
INT: 10
CHA: 2 > raise to 7 (3rd)
The true power of Brawling comes from Flurry of Blows and a maxed out Brawling skill. Until you achieve that, the build can be a real slow start.
With this stat spread, if you put every point into Brawling from level 1, you will unlock Flurry of Blows by level 4 (save any perk point you get for Flurry of Blows). Minor mandatory spoiler about Brawling (highlight): There is an early game Brawling skill book found in the Garden of the Gods, find it and use it to raise Brawling to 10.
Note: The Brawling skill also raises combat speed by 0.5. Because of this, by level 4, this Ranger will have a combat speed of 2.0.
Since this Ranger goes all in on Brawling for the first 4 levels, picking their non-combat skills can be a bit tricky. See complimentary skills below.
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS:
We want skills that don’t have critical early skill checks or immediate needs in the first 4 levels of your game. These typically are:
Leadership - A great choice with our naturally high CHA.
Barter - Just don’t sell anything until you start raising it after level 4. Buying is ok, but be conservative.
Weapon Modding - You don’t need this skill until you have decent weapons worth modding and decent mods worth using.
Armor Modding - See Weapon Modding.
ADVANCED TIPS:
ADVANCED BUILD EXAMPLES:
F.1 - BASIC BLADED WEAPON BUILD
BLADED ATTACK COST:
3 AP
PERKS WE ARE WORKING AROUND:
Bleeding Strike - A special 4 AP attack that does 200% weapon damage, at the cost of -20% hit chance. Deals 300% weapon damage against targets that are burning. Applies bleeding.
Striking Distance - +0.5 combat speed when you have two melee weapons equipped.
Hack ‘N’ Slash - Attacking the same target twice in a row with Bladed Weapon executes a free bonus attack.
Pursuit - If you move more than 3 spaces, your next Bladed Weapon attack has +25% critical chance (+100% vs. Slowed targets).
BUILD INCENTIVES:
Hack ‘N’ Slash and Pursuit are archetype defining.
Hack ‘N’ Slash works a bit wonky. Once you have attacked 1 target twice in a turn, you get a free bonus attack executed automatically. If you attack them twice again in the same turn, you don’t get an additional free attack. Attacking two separate targets twice each in the same turn works correctly and results in a free attack on both targets.
Pursuit encourages or at least rewards us for moving 4 spaces each turn.
Striking Distance allows us to keep SPD at 1 for 2.0 combat speed even. 2.0 combat speed allows us to move 4 spaces for 2 AP. This means if you want to proc the Pursuit Perk, make sure you spend at minimum 2 AP to move (4 spaces total).
Sources of burning for Bleeding Strike include: most Flamethrower Attacks (note! Flamethrowers with the Terrorizer Perk do not count as Burning, even though it is functionally the same thing, this is an unfortunate long standing bug), fire damage attacks, and Molotov Cocktails.
BASIC OPENING SEQUENCE:
The total AP this character wants to end with is 11 AP.
Ideally move 4 spaces each turn towards enemies to proc the Pursuit Perk, then attack 2 or 3 times depending on if you need to retreat back behind cover.
With Bleeding Strike, you can move up to 8 spaces (4 AP) on the first turn, which will leave you with 7 AP remaining. Bleeding Strike for 4 AP, then attack again for 3 AP.
10 CHA means you will have a Strike Attack available every 4 attacks. With the Hack ‘N’ Slash Perk, 9 AP should be 4 attacks per turn, leaving you 2 AP to move as needed.
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
COOR: 6 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 6 > raise to 10 (1st)
AWA: 1
STR: 4 > raise to 10 (4th)
SPD: 1
INT: 1 > anything remaining
CHA: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS:
Animal Whisperer - This Archetype needs to move close to Enemies already, so they are perfectly suited to taming hostile Animals.
Nerd Stuff - See Animal Whisperer.
Toaster Repair - The Toasty perk found in Toaster Repair can be a self-reliant way to burn enemies.
ADVANCED TIPS:
ADVANCED BUILD EXAMPLES:
G.1 - BASIC BLUNT WEAPON BUILD
BLUNT WEAPON ATTACK COST:
4 AP
PERKS WE ARE WORKING AROUND:
Stunning Blow - A chunky attack that stuns enemies and deals double damage against frozen enemies. Cost 5 AP.
Striking Distance - +0.5 combat speed when you have two melee weapons equipped.
Bloodsport - Attacks with Blunt Weapons critically hit stunned and blind enemies.
Shrug It Off - While using a Blunt Weapon, gain +2 Armor for every enemy adjacent to you.
BUILD INCENTIVES:
Stunning Blow and Bloodsport are archetype defining.
Bloodsport wants you to find as many sources of stun as possible. The Stunning Blow ability is one source, and Melee/Brawling strike attacks are a second source. There is a third source provided in advanced tips to avoid spoilers.
Striking Distance allows us to either slow roll SPD increases, or double down on it and fly across the map.
The 2-6 Armor provided by Shrug it Off doesn’t sound like much, but it can work out sometimes to an enemy under penetrating your Armor, which then results in -20% damage taken. Rangers who want Armor, want as much of it as possible. I wouldn’t take it before the Hardened perk however.
Sources of frozen for Stunning Blow include: Weird Science weapons, cold damage weapons, Cryo Grenades and Ice Spikes.
BASIC OPENING SEQUENCE:
The total AP this character wants to end with is 11 AP.
Find a source of stun, attack stunned enemies. It isn’t complicated.
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
COOR: 10
LUCK: 1 > anything remaining
AWA: 1
STR: 4 > raise to 10 (2nd)
SPD: 1 > raise to 10 (4th)
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 2
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS:
Explosives - Grenades provide a way to attack enemies when you can’t/shouldn’t close the distance to them. They also provide a source of status effects like frozen, and burning, which can be important depending on what perks you take.
Armor Modding - Another source of armor eventually.
Animal Whisperer - This archetype needs to move close to enemies already, so they are perfectly suited to taming hostile animals.
Nerd Stuff - See Animal Whisperer.
Mechanics - Often enemy turrets are powered by generators that when deactivated, destroy the turret(s). These generators are usually located deeper into enemy lines, which usually requires moving behind enemies. With high AP and high SPD, this Ranger can be suited to this task.
ADVANCED TIPS:
ADVANCED BUILD EXAMPLES:
H.1 - BASIC SHOTGUN BUILD
SHOTGUN ATTACK COST:
3 AP, with one exception of 5 AP.
PERKS WE ARE WORKING AROUND:
Shredder Shot - A 4 AP special attack that inflicts bleeding on targets. Deals 100% extra damage against targets with armor damage.
Clear Cover - Shotguns do +100% damage vs. cover.
Devastation - Shotgun attacks gain +25% damage for each enemy hit by the same shot.
Counter-Offensive - Attacking a melee enemy on the turn after they hit you deals +50% damage.
BUILD INCENTIVES:
Clear Cover and Devastation are archetype defining.
Clear Cover is what allows us to keep our AWA so low. Sometimes you will essentially whiff a shot to destroy cover, then follow up with more accurate shots after.
Devastation ramps up damage quickly the more enemies hit. Keep a Handgun handy for times where you are only hitting a single target and reserve Shotgun attacks for 2+ targets.
Counter-Offensive is a low priority Perk on higher difficulties. It’s nice to have, but you rarely want to be getting attacked by melee enemies if you can avoid it.
Sources of armor damage for Shredder Shot include: Some unique weapons, and the Puncturing Shot perk available to Assault Rifle Rangers. Another source of armor damage is from shooting enemies in the body with aimed strike attacks (Assault Rifles, Handguns, and Sniper Rifles).
BASIC OPENING SEQUENCE:
The total AP this character wants to end with is 11 AP.
Move as little as possible, target as many enemies as possible, shoot as much as possible. Very straightforward. Stick to cover if you can, you aren’t as tanky as other frontline Rangers.
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
COOR: 6 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
AWA: 1 > anything remaining
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (1st), raise to 6 (5th)
SPD: 6
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 2
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS:
Anything, Shotguns don’t push a Ranger in any particular direction.
ADVANCED TIPS:
ADVANCED BUILD EXAMPLES:
COMING SOON
I.1 - BASIC HANDGUN BUILD
HANDGUN ATTACK COST:
3 AP
PERKS WE ARE WORKING AROUND:
Opportunist - Your strike meter charges a bonus 5% with each successful handgun attack.
Trick Shot - Grants the Trick Shot ability (4 AP). A powerful but inaccurate attack you want to start using once your hit chance is increased significantly.
Draw! - Your first attack after reloading an empty weapon costs no AP.
Counter-Offensive - Attacking a melee enemy on the turn after they hit you deals +50% damage.
BUILD INCENTIVES:
Opportunist is archetype defining. It increases your Strike Rate with handguns significantly, and strike attacks are what Handguns are all about.
Draw! means occasionally when we reload we get to squeeze in an extra attack.
Trick Shot is a significant source of damage against Marked Targets, and should be used anytime you have a reasonable hit chance with it (80%+).
Counter-Offensive is difficult to use, especially for pure Handgun builds which tend to be fragile.
BASIC OPENING SEQUENCE:
The total AP this character wants to end with is 10 AP.
10 AP allows us to Trick Shot for 4 AP and attack twice (three times if Trick Shot hits).
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
COOR: 6 > raise to 8 (3rd)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (4th)
AWA: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
STR: 2
SPD: 1 > raise to 6 (1st)
INT: 1 > anything remaining
CHA: 7
Alternative spread that requires minor spoilers (see below):
COOR: 2 > raise to 6 (1st) > raise to 8 (4th)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
AWA: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
STR: 2
SPD: 2
INT: 1 > anything remaining
CHA: 10
Use the alternative starting attribute line if you do not mind one minor but highly critical spoiler (highlight): In the beginning sequence/tutorial, save a certain lady being held hostage by shooting the Hostage Taker before dialog even starts. Ask the lady you saved about anyone else that survived and she will give you a pack of cigarettes to give to Major Tom near the end of the tutorial. Major Tom increases Strike Rate by 2% and makes 10 CHA very powerful on Handgun Rangers.
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS:
Anything, Handguns don’t push a Ranger in any particular direction.
ADVANCED TIPS:
ADVANCED BUILD EXAMPLES:
J.1 - BASIC SNIPER RIFLE BUILD
SNIPER RIFLE ATTACK COST:
6 AP early game, 7 AP mid to late game
PERKS WE ARE WORKING AROUND:
Mark Target - An ability that increases hit chance against 1 marked enemy by 15% for 2 AP.
Masterful Precision - Precision Strikes with Sniper Rifles have significantly higher chances of inflicting critical effects.
Concentration - Gain +10% hit chance with Sniper Rifles if you don't move for 1 turn.
Chain Ambush - Ambush attacks with Sniper Rifles that kill your target don't end the ambush.
BUILD INCENTIVES:
The Chain Ambush perk is archetype defining. Once you get it, you basically keep your Ranger permanently on ambush until your strike meter fills up. Once it is filled up, a strike attack empowered by the Masterful Precision perk and the Mark Target perk should delete the enemy of your choice with 100% accuracy (strike attacks can’t miss).
Mark Target and Concentration are just accuracy buffs to help overcome enemy evasion and cover bonuses.
BASIC OPENING SEQUENCE:
The total AP this character wants to end with is:
9 AP.
9 AP is enough to Mark Target 1 enemy at the start of combat and then enter Ambush. It’s just that simple. Ensure your Sniper Rifle Ranger is safe behind high cover.
On the turns Mark Target is on cool down, just defend for a 10% evasion boost instead.
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
COOR: 2 > raise to 6 (1st)
LUCK: 2 > anything remaining
AWA: 10
STR: 2
SPD: 1
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 2 > raise to 7 (2nd)
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS:
Animal Whisperer - Taming a Cat gives an extra source of crit chance, which this Ranger wants to gobble up.
Survival - A non-critical skill, but nonetheless, it will boost our raw damage against Animals and Mutants.
Explosives - Sometimes when a Sniper Rifle won’t do, a Rocket Launcher will. Snipers are particularly suited to going full glass cannon and Rocket Launchers heavily favour attack quality over quantity.
Sneaky Shit - Explosives and Sneaky Shit go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly. Saying that, there is a slight conflict of interest created by taking Sneaky Shit. Once you unlock the Chain Ambush perk later in the game, you don’t want to open encounters with your Sniper Rifle Ranger anymore, as this locks you out of entering ambush on the first turn with the amount of AP we have. That’s probably OK if your opening attack is a Rocket, but a single shot will probably never be worth it again. If you do decide to take Sneaky Shit and Explosives on this Ranger, see advanced tips on how you can overcome this conflict of interest.
ADVANCED TIPS:
ADVANCED BUILD EXAMPLES:
PUTTING A TEAM TOGETHER, EFFECTIVE SKILL DISTRIBUTION (MINOR SPOILERS):
Distributing skills across your team can feel overwhelming at first, but doing it effectively is actually fairly straightforward.
There are 22 total skills in the game. 6 of those are combat skills, and typically you only want 1 unique combat skill on each Ranger. That leaves us with 16 non-combat related skills to spread across 4 Rangers and 2 Companions.
At face value, this means a full 6 man squad needs to cover 2.66 non-combat related skills each.
For me, that usually means I have four Rangers with 3 non-combat skills each (12 total), and two Rangers with 2 non-combat skills each (4 total).
Rangers with high Intelligence and Charisma can typically handle more skills, because they typically have more skill points to spend. Therefore, these Rangers are particularly suited to handling 3 non-combat related skills.
Mathematically, it works out like this:
Each skill requires 28 skill points to raise to 10. Increasing skills cost more points per rank as follows:
Rank 1 | Rank 2 | Rank 3 | Rank 4 | Rank 5 | Rank 6 | Rank 7 | Rank 8 | Rank 9 | Rank 10 | |
Points Required | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Best practice is to save skill books (which permanently raise skills by 1 rank) until you are ready to unlock rank 10, as this saves the most skill points (6). This means it actually takes 22 skill points to raise a skill to rank 9, and then you use the skill book to unlock rank 10.
On a Ranger with 1 combat skill and 3 non-combat skills, they would then need 88 skill points total (22 x 4 = 88) to max out all their chosen skills, which wouldn’t be achieved until level 30 (not a realistic level to achieve). Intelligence conveniently shaves 10 points off that 88, bringing it down to 78 skill points required, or a more possible achieved level of 26.
On a Ranger with 1 combat skill and 2 non-combat skills, they would need 66 skill points to max out all their chosen skills. This is achieved at level 22.
Further to that, not all skills need to be prioritised equally, so there is no reason a decently planned 6 man Squad cannot cover everything.
The lower priority skills are (minor spoilers):
This isn’t to say you don’t take these skills at all. It’s the complete opposite. They are all valuable skills worth having. It is more about where you drop your spare points per level when you can no longer necessarily raise your main priority skills first. You may not necessarily make all the skill checks required for these skills, and I know that stresses some players out, but very few are supercritical to make, especially in the early game.
For those who absolutely must make all skill checks, take a deep breath and just trust me on this. It really is OK to miss a few. However, I will provide one spoiler for one semi early skill check that leads to one item you will probably hate missing. This is:
A second tip for players who hate missing skills checks is:
You don’t need to spend your skill points straight away. Sitting on skill points and raising them as needed is a very effective way to navigate the game. You still might miss something though, because sometimes priority skill checks conflict and you just don’t have the points for both. Most of the time you can usually come back and grab the ones you missed later. Dialog based skills checks however are hard to predict without meta-knowledge new players just don’t have. If meeting the most possible skill checks in the game is something you stress about, just save before dialog and reload if you can’t make the check. No one is judging what you do in a single player game.
Do keep your combat skills moderately topped up though! A combat encounter could just be around the corner and sitting on 10 unused skill points, but only 3 points in your combat skill can be detrimental to a Rangers combat performance.
MY BRAIN HURTS, MAKE ME A TEAM SO I CAN JUST PLAY ALREADY… (MODERATE SPOILERS)
Alright then.
If I were a New Player all over again and wanted the most straightforward and easy to understand team I could get, it would be:
Background: Vicious Avenger
Quirk: Prospector
Skills: Nerd Stuff, Animal Whisperer
Background: Mopey Poet
Quirk: Medical Marvel
Skills: Weird Science, Toaster Repair
Background: Explodomaniac
Quirk: Pyromaniac
Skills: Explosives, Mechanics, Armor Modding
Background: Goat Killer
Quirk: Sadomasochist
Skills: Lockpicking, Hard Ass, Leadership
> Note 1: Because we are taking Leadership on this Ranger, we need to adapt this build slightly. Raise COOR to 10 1st, then raise CHA 2nd, then INT 3rd, put anything remaining into LCK. It will allow this Ranger to attack and then use the Rally Perk on the first turn of combat, followed by attacking and using the Demoralize and Mark Target Perk on the second turn of combat.
To no surprise to any veteran player, we are lacking Sneaky Shit, Kiss Ass, First Aid, Weapon Modding, Barter and Survival.
Conveniently, the first two companions you meet cover all of those skills. These two companions are:
(unavoidable spoilers, sorry!)
Marshal Kwon - Build: FIXING UP KWON
Background: Peacekeeper
Quirk: N/A
Skills: Sneaky Shit, Kiss Ass, First Aid, Leadership (rank 5 max)
Lucia Wesson - Build: FIXING UP LUCIA
Background: Gunslinger
Quirk: N/A
Skills: Weapon Modding, Barter, Survival
Note, we lack a Brawler. For new players, Bladed/Blunt Weapon Rangers are simply more forgiving, require less skill dedication to get online, and are straight up stronger early in the game.
ATTRIBUTES:
This section will look to provide and compare the value of each attribute, and also broadly highlight which attributes benefit each Ranger archetype the most. The Ranger archetypes are based around weapons types and are:
Assault Rifles
Submachine Guns
Flamethrowers
Heavy Machine Guns
Brawling Weapons
Bladed Weapons
Blunt Weapons
Shotguns
Handguns
Sniper Rifles
Each attribute will be rated Excellent, Average, or Poor against each Archetype.
E.g. Strength:
Excellent: Bladed, and Blunt weapons
Average: Submachine Guns, Shotguns, Flamethrowers, and Brawling weapons
Poor: Assault Rifle, Heavy Machine Guns, Handguns, and Sniper Rifles
In Wasteland 3, there is little reason not to go all in (full 10 points) on attributes that are deemed Excellent for a Ranger archetype. Average would be where you place left over points, and Poor should typically be avoided.
A.1 - COORDINATION (COOR)
Excellent: Everyone (with some narrow exceptions)
Average: None
Poor: None
The narrow exceptions are:
COOR modifies Action Points (AP), Action Points Max (APMAX), and Status Effect Resistance as follows:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
Status Effect Resistance: | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 7% |
Total: | 2% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 16% | 18% | 25% |
AP & AP MAX: | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Total: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Since 1 AP can also always be converted into 5% evasion, every 2 points in COOR can also then count for 5% evasion as well. This doesn’t mean if you want evasion, you raise COOR for it instead of SPD or LCK. It means, if you do value evasion, increasing COOR from 8 to 10 can translate into a 5% increase in evasion, but also gives you the added flexibility of 1 more AP to use for something else.
TLDR of the above; if your Ranger Archetype values COOR and evasion, but you haven’t maxed COOR yet, max COOR first, then raise SPD or LCK for more evasion as desired.
Excellent: Submachine Guns, Handguns, Shotguns, and Bladed Weapons
Average: Blunt Weapons and Brawling Weapons
Poor: Assault Rifles, Heavy Machine Guns, Flamethrowers and Sniper Rifles
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
Penetration: | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
Total: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | |||||
Lucky Action, Crit & Mega Crit Chance: | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% |
Total: | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 7% | 8% | 9% | 10% |
Lucky Evade, Crit Resist, & Double Healing Chance: | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% |
Total: | 2% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 16% | 18% | 20% |
Lucky Double Money & Scrap Chance: | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% |
Total: | 0.5% | 1% | 1.5% | 2% | 2.5% | 3% | 3.5% | 4% | 4.5% | 5% |
The total average value per point of LCK is very difficult to pin down.
For the PEN component of LCK each point of PEN could be worth anywhere from a 10% to 1% increase in damage. Since 2 points of LUCK = 1 PEN, average damage increase per 1 LCK is between 5% to 0.5%.
The remaining offensive modifiers seem to add up to a very rough average minimum damage increase of around 25%, or 2.5% per 1 LCK.
LCK is subject to so many variables though, that I am at least confident in saying Intelligence (INT) and Awareness (AWA) (for Ranged characters) are considerably more consistent increases in damage per point when compared to LCK offensively. If you value pure offense, raise those attributes first.
I am unsure of the offense comparison between LCK and STR.
That’s LCK's offensive value only. Since LUCK must be measured and weighted by all its properties together when equally compared to all other attributes, my advice is:
Increase LCK if you value all of its properties equally, which includes the defensive properties as well.
DETAILS:
For the value of PEN, see Average PEN values vs Armor.
B.2 - LUCKY ACTION CHANCE
For the value of Lucky Action Chance, it is entirely dependent on what you did to earn it. Lucky Action Chance refunds the total AP cost of the last action taken.
If the last action you took was an attack, then the bonus action has potentially resulted in another free attack. Therefore, at minimum the offensive value of a Lucky Action is an average damage increase of 10% of your total damage when LCK is maxed. How this is determined is:
1 additional successful attack is worth 100% of your total damage per attack at any fixed point. Since 1 in 10 attacks could result in 1 free attack, we divide the extra 100% total damage by 10, which is 10%.
The distinction between total average damage and just an average damage increase is because Lucky Action Chance scales with every other damage modifier you have already, which includes Hit Chance, Crit Chance, Crit Damage and Strike Rate. So while it always represents a 10% increase in your total damage, that 10% is more valuable the stronger your Ranger becomes over time. Therefore:
Lucky Action Chance = average 10% increase in total damage if used offensively. |
B.3 - LUCKY CRIT CHANCE
The value of Lucky Crit Chance is basically the same as crit damage when chance to crit is capped at 10%. It is rolled independently to crit chance, but multiplied by the same crit damage modifier. Therefore at minimum:
Lucky Crit Chance is worth a 10% increase in damage if your Crit Damage modifier was x1. |
Bigger crit damage modifiers equals a bigger average increase in damage from Lucky Crit Chance. With a crit damage multiplier of x2, Lucky Crit Chance is worth a 20% increase in average damage instead.
B.4 - LUCKY MEGA CRIT CHANCE
The value of a Lucky Mega Crit Chance is the same as Lucky Crit Chance, but multiplied further by 3.
E.g. If you did 100 damage, and had a crit damage multiplier of x1, your Lucky Mega Crit Chance damage would be:
(100 + 100%) x 3 = X
or
200 x 3 = 600
100 to 600 is a whopping 500% increase in damage.
However, since that 500% increase in damage only happens 1 out of 10 attacks, you divide the 500% increase by 10, and the damage increase on average is 50%. The formula to calculate Lucky Mega Crit damage is:
Total damage + Crit damage x 3 |
Further increases to your damage multiplier scales Lucky Mega Crit Chance significantly. Consider a crit damage multiplier of x2 instead of x1.
(100 + 200%) x 3 = X
or
300 x 3 = 900
100 to 900 is a whopping 800% increase in damage, or an average damage increase of 80%.
The total value of LCK combined is therefore really tricky to calculate. It is arguably one of the strongest damage attributes in the early game for low PEN weapons. 6 PEN alone can translate to a 60% increase in damage against average enemy armor values of 10, and 30% for those that average 20. PEN however is also one of the only damage attributes that gets worse as the game progresses. It therefore scales the least out of any offensive stat by the end game.
The Lucky Action Chance scales a lot with a Rangers action rate. If a Ranger acts multiple times during a turn, they have a higher chance to trigger a Lucky Action per turn. Actions include everything from attacking, moving, using consumables or reviving/healing an Ally. A Brawler for example can sometimes attack up to 10 times per turn (10 actions), and therefore on average they should be triggering 1 Lucky Action per turn. Lucky Action chance also scales with crit chance and crit damage. If everytime you trigger a Lucky Action, you use it to attack, that translates into a X increase in damage for that turn. If that attack crits, it could be a 2X increase in damage instead.
Lucky Crit Chance and Lucky Mega Crit Chance are also variable increases in damage, but they scale exclusively with crit damage. You cannot increase Lucky Crit Chance or Lucky Mega Crit Chance past 10%, but both base their damage on your crit damage multiplier.
Arguably the best and easiest source of crit damage and crit chance is Intelligence (INT). Because of this, LCK suffers a bit when solely evaluated offensively for archetypes that don’t value PEN (including any low PEN Archetypes that plan to modify weapons with fire, cold, energy and explosive damage). A big chunk of LCK’s offensive potential comes from PEN, and since the remaining parts of it scale significantly with INT, you often have to ask yourself why you aren’t just raising INT first instead. Once you do raise INT (and everything else you want), you usually find yourself short of points to spend on LCK anyway.
LCK is Poor for Assault Rifles, Big Guns, Flamethrowers and Sniper Rifles, because they all have decent base PEN values already, and/or they don’t act often enough per turn. Lucky Mega Crits on Sniper Rifles are also just uncontrollable amounts of extreme enemy overkill. The damage is astronomical when combined, but it’s just statistically more likely you will pop one of the multiple low CON enemies with 3k CON, instead of the Boss enemy with 10k CON who actually deserves it.
It is excellent for Submachine Guns, Handguns, Shotguns and Bladed Weapon Rangers because not only do these Archetypes typically act a lot, they also absolutely love extra PEN. They are also typically best on the frontline and frontline Rangers value the defensive properties of LCK as equally as they do the offensive properties.
LCK basically shines when you value all of it’s properties equally, and not just parts of it.
C.1 - AWARENESS (AWA)
Excellent: Assault Rifles, Heavy Machine Guns, Handguns, and Sniper Rifles
Average: Submachine Guns, Flamethrowers and Shotguns (above average)
Poor: Bladed Weapons, Blunt Weapons, and Brawling
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
Ranged Damage Bonus: | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 8% |
Total: | 3% | 6% | 9% | 12% | 15% | 18% | 21% | 24% | 27% | 35% |
Hit Chance: | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 3% |
Total: | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 7% | 8% | 9% | 12% |
Because hit chance indirectly affects average damage, we can safely say AWA provides 3.5% average ranged damage per point, and an extra 1.3% total average damage per point as well. Put simply, it’s a high amount of damage per point for ranged Rangers. I almost always max it on every ranged Ranger I create, and I always set it to 1 for Melee Combat and Brawling Rangers.
The hit chance component has less value for Rangers that frequently outflank opponents. Melee Combat and Brawling Rangers always outflank opponents, and therefore don’t need the hit chance boost as much.
Shotgun and Submachine Guns also typically play in the front lines and frequently outflank opponents as well, but the damage bonus + the increased hit chance is still difficult to ignore. There are multiple abilities, weapon mods and armor mods that decrease hit chance for some other benefit. Extra hit chance therefore can almost always be appreciated in some way.
D.1 - STRENGTH (STR)
Excellent: Bladed, and Blunt Weapons
Average: Submachine Guns, Shotguns, Flamethrowers, and Brawling Weapons
Poor: Assault Rifles, Heavy Machine Guns, Handguns, and Sniper Rifles
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
Bonus CON: | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 30 |
Total: | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 | 40 | 45 | 75 |
Melee Damage Bonus: | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 8% |
Total: | 3% | 6% | 9% | 12% | 15% | 18% | 21% | 24% | 27% | 35% |
Throwing Range: | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
Total: | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.1 |
CON per level: | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |||||
Total: | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 |
Rangers who subject themselves to getting flanked and who value the highest EACON levels they can get, should consider 10 STR and simply call it a day (especially at the highest difficulty levels). All the better if this is a Melee Combat or Brawling Ranger as well, but there are niche cases where 10 STR can be good on other Ranger archetypes too.
Front and mid-line Rangers who stick to good cover and have good evasion rates can usually settle for STR between 4 or 6.
I never drop STR to 1 unless said Ranger is playing as far back as possible or plans to consistently have 100% evasion rates (even then, getting flanked is still a big risk). It’s just far too frequent that 1 bullet makes it through from multiple attacks and pops a Ranger with base CON (55). 2 CON isn’t much more comfortable, but 2 CON plus the Healthy and Quick Reflexes perks, and high cover equivalents should consistently allow fragile Rangers to not instantly collapse from the odd bullet that gets through. On Supreme Jerk, I’m not going to make any sweeping promises either though. Sometimes on Supreme Jerk, 10 CON Rangers with good EACON are just unlucky and get obliterated.
E.1 - SPEED (SPD)
Excellent: Bladed Weapons, Blunt Weapons, and Submachine Guns
Average: Brawling, Shotguns, and Handguns
Poor: Assault Rifles, Heavy Machine Guns, Flamethrowers and Sniper Rifles
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
Combat Speed: | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 |
Total: | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.4 |
Evasion: | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 3% | 6% |
Total: | 3% | 6% | 9% | 12% | 15% | 18% | 21% | 24% | 27% | 33% |
Initiative: | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 9% |
Total: | 4% | 8% | 12% | 16% | 20% | 24% | 28% | 32% | 36% | 45% |
SPD is the ugly step-child of attributes. Evasion is an amazing stat to have, and it basically carries the entire attribute alone, but Luck (LCK) generally provides a better balance of offense and defense for archetypes that care about both (and most do).
Coordination (COOR) also completely overshadows it in relation to both evasion and combat speed. Before touching SPD as an attribute, you should always max out COOR first. Every 2 points of COOR provide 1 AP for movement purposes, which is frequently more than SPD can provide per point before COOR is maxed. 1 extra AP is also worth 5% evasion, which is only 1% to 1.3% less than 2 points in SPD.
Increases in initiative are semi insignificant, except in one scenario of questionable value (see Initiative).
It is technically the best defensive stat however, and small differences in evasion levels between Rangers can represent significant increases in survivability.
It’s just that SPD is in this weird conundrum where the saying goes that dead enemies don’t fight back, so the best defense is a good offense. On the other hand, Rangers who can’t die can take unlimited time to defeat their enemies as well, so if defense buys you an extra turn to defeat your enemies, but with less risk, you could argue the best offense is a good defense.
In the end, people like blowing things up with large numbers, so SPD, which only offers defense, along with two other questionable stats, rightfully gets overlooked. It’s basically valuable up until the point enemies stop presenting a challenge, and after that point, more offense does beat out defense in terms of beating/finishing the game.
F.1 - INTELLIGENCE (INT)
Excellent: Assault Rifles, Heavy Machine Guns, Flamethrowers, Handguns, Sniper Rifles, and Brawling (almost mandatory for Brawling)
Average: Bladed Weapons, Blunt Weapons, Shotguns, and Submachine Guns (closer to above average for all of them)
Poor: None
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
Crit Chance: | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% |
Total: | 2% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 16% | 18% | 20% |
Crit Damage Multiplier: | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
Total: | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.1 |
Skill Points: | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Total: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Critical Heal Chance: | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 7% |
Total: | 2% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 16% | 18% | 25% |
Critical Heal Multiplier: | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
Total: | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.1 |
At minimum the damage value of INT alone is 42%. See critical attack damage formula for full details.
I wouldn’t necessarily max INT before Coordination (COOR), Awareness (AWA) and sometimes Strength (STR). The sum of those attributes offer more for their various archetypes in the early game (exception is Brawling, see below). If you want more damage though, INT at minimum is always the second best choice, even when you pursue no other sources of crit chance or damage (LCK is very close behind for certain archetypes).
At it’s best, it’s the fastest scaling endgame attribute in the game. Crit damage multipliers can reach x3 or more, which would mean INT alone is instead a 60%+ increase in damage by itself. But it also turns every additional point of crit chance you can find into at minimum a 2.1% increase in damage each as well. This includes Lucky Crit and Lucky Mega Crit Chance.
E.g If you found 80% more crit chance, INT turns that 80% increase in damage (if your base crit damage multiplier was x1) into a 168% damage increase instead.
It also turns each 1% of Lucky Mega Crit Chance into a 6.3% increase in damage instead of a 3% damage increase.
For offense purposes, INT is a premium stat for a reason, hence why it is Poor for no Archetypes and an argument could be made that it is actually Excellent for everyone. Some archetypes however don’t have room for INT, because they value defense more than offense, or at least a better balance of both through LCK (especially so if they value PEN as well). This is why INT is only Above Average for some archetypes.
The healing boost is barely worth mentioning, and is basically a nice bonus that rarely ever matters.
The skill points are worth discussing though. For some archetypes, 10 extra skill points are massive if it unlocks archetype-defining perks early like Flurry of Blows does for Brawlers. While you would unlock these eventually, the earlier powerboost just cannot be ignored.
On top of that, you could argue that since skill points can always be invested in weapon skills, and weapon skills increase hit chance, INT can technically provide more damage via increases in hit chance as well. The difference between 1 and 10 points in INT is 9 more skill points. This is the difference between increasing a weapon skill at level 1 to rank 7 instead of rank 3, which is a 12% increase in hit chance.
The reality is though, those skill points are frequently spread across non-combat related skills. Those have value too, but not typically for damage.
Again, for Brawlers though, INT is absolutely insane. For most Brawling Archetypes, INT is absolutely a stat they should look to max ASAP, even before Coordination (COOR). Flurry of Blows turns 8 AP which would be 4 attacks per turn into 8 attacks per turn instead. The combo system scales INT dramatically, and rushing the Brawling skill increases hit chance, which increases average total damage as well. Always max INT on Brawlers.
G.1 - CHARISMA (CHA)
Excellent: Handguns, Bladed Weapons
Average: Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, Flamethrowers and Brawling (above average)
Poor: Submachine Guns, Blunt Weapons, and Heavy Machine Guns
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
Strike Rate: | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 4% |
Total: | 2% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 16% | 18% | 22% |
Leadership Range: | 2M | 2M | 2M | 2M | 2M | 2M | 2M | 2M | 2M | 4M |
Total: | 2M | 4M | 6M | 8M | 10M | 12M | 14M | 16M | 18M | 22M |
Experience Bonus: | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 12% |
Total: | 2% | 4% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 16% | 18% | 30% |
Mission Reward Bonus: | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% |
Total: | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 7% | 8% | 9% | 10% |
The bulk of CHA’s benefit comes from it’s impact on strike rate, IMO. It’s value per point of CHA is better examined in the tables provided here. The short answer is 2, 7 and 10 CHA without additional modifiers are good goals to strive for. More or less depends on various additional ways to increase strike rate in conjunction with CHA.
The experience bonus can be significant too, especially when paired with frequently used exploration skills like Lockpicking, Explosives, etc. More levels = more skill points, more attributes and more perks, all of which have incalculable effects on basically everything, including damage.
I still typically don’t chase experience bonuses outside of what I get when I increase CHA for strike rate purposes. If experience bonuses were so significant, it would be a must have stat for every archetype and I simply don’t think this is true, nor do I personally want to create 10 Rangers all with 10 CHA each if I was wrong.
Some Players do overload exp bonuses on one Ranger, and typically they do so because there is a non-intuitive method to pass the EXP of your highest leveled Ranger onto the rest of your squad via the recruitment menu. Some think EXP bonuses were intended to be personalised to the individual who invested in CHA, and others don’t. /u/jim_sorenson from Reddit created this build to showcase how you can leverage extreme exp bonuses.
The leadership range is valuable as well, but high amounts of leadership range to me typically translate into a sloppier form of play. If you consistently need max leadership range from 10 CHA, you are probably playing your team too far apart. I play with a 14m Leadership Range, but I like a 16m leadership range for convenience.
SKILLS & PERKS:
An important thing to note straight away is:
Perks are limited. You can’t take them all. If the average Player reaches level 25 by the end game, you can collect 11 Perks total. It can sometimes feel like a lot, but at the same time can also feel like very little. The last Perk you take is also almost meaningless. You’ll likely only get to use it in the last 2% of the game that matters. Plan well!
There aren’t a lot of skills and perks worth going into a deep analysis for. Instead my approach is to keep this section light. I am going to rate both skills and perks on a priority scale as follows:
SKILLS:
High Priority - These skills are very valuable and there are lots of skill checks for them. Raise it aggressively.
Medium Priority - These skills are also valuable, but there aren’t too many major skill checks for them. Keep them topped up, but you shouldn’t stress about them.
Low Priority - These skills are still valuable, but there are little or no major skill checks for them. When you have spare skill points, place them here.
PERKS:
High priority - Chase these perks, they are archetype defining and very valuable. If you get a perk point and are close to unlocking the rank required to get a high priority perk, hold onto the perk point and wait for it.
Medium priority - You want these perks and should take them immediately if no high priority perks are currently available for a long time.
Low priority - These will typically be filler perks, or niche perks specific to certain builds.
Very low priority - These perks should be avoided or don’t function as intended.
I will make notes on anything else worth mentioning.
A.1 - GENERIC PERKS
A.2 - DEEP POCKETS
Priority: Low to Medium
Could be considered medium priority for Medics and Mechanics.
Description: Quick slots +1.
A.3 - HARDENED
Priority: Medium to Low
The earlier you take this, the more valuable it is (and it is valuable), but perks are limited, so no one would blame you if you skip this.
Description: Armor +2.
A.4 - HEALTHY
Priority: Medium to Low
The earlier you take this, the more valuable it is (and it is valuable), but perks are limited, so no one would blame you if you skip this. Don’t get angry at the Developers though if you skip this and find yourself getting 1 shot in the early game, especially so on higher difficulty levels.
Description: CON +35.
A.5 - QUICK REFLEXES
Priority: Medium
See evasion for why this perk is very valuable.
Description: Evasion +5%.
A.6 - WEATHERED
Priority: Low to Medium
If your build values crit resistance, this is one of the better sources of it and I would bump it up in your typical priority list.
Description: Crit resistance +10%.
B.1 - AUTOMATIC WEAPONS
Priority: Medium
Skill book location: Hoon Homestead.
Every weapon skill should be topped up regularly.
B.2 - PUNCTURING SHOT
Assault Rifles only.
Priority: Medium
Debuffing Armor is useful to a lot of ally archetypes.
Description:
Ability: Puncturing Shot (5 AP)
Fires an Assault Rifle attack that punctures through multiple enemies, hitting anyone in its path. Deals 100% damage vs. stunned targets.
On success: Applies damaged armor.
B.3 - GOPHER HUNTER
Assault Rifles only.
Priority: Medium
Note: Despite the description not stating otherwise, this perk only works with Assault Rifles.
Description: Enemies benefit have 40% less benefit from cover when attacking them.
B.4 - SPRAY ‘N’ PRAY
Submachine Guns only.
Priority: Low to Medium
Good at converting excess hit chances into more damage. You typically want this later in the game rather than early. I tend to run out of perks points before I ever get around to unlocking it though.
Description:
Ability: Spray ‘N’ Pray (5 AP)
Tears up an enemy with twice as many SMG bullets as your normal attack, but has -25% hit chance.
Damage: 100% of weapon damage.
On success: Applies slowed
B.5 - RECKLESS
Submachine Guns only.
Priority: Low to Medium
Low on higher difficulties, because ending your turn standing out of cover could be suicide, and ducking out and back into cover cost to much AP. On lower difficulties, this is a decent more usable damage boost.
Description: Gain +15% damage with Submachine Guns while not in cover.
B.6 - DOUBLE TAP
Assault Rifles only.
Priority: Very low (it’s bugged), otherwise High
It currently only works for the first bullet of the second attack, not the entire attack. It’s pretty terrible as a result. If/when fixed it is archetype defining and should be picked up ASAP.
Description: If you attack a target twice in a row with an Assault Rifle, the second is always a critical hit.
B.7 - STORMER
Submachine Guns only.
Priority: High
Description: If you move more than 5 spaces, your next Submachine Gun attack costs no AP (once per turn).
It’s actually 5 spaces exact or more, but diagonal movement costs more then horizontal movement, so I tend to stick to moving 6 spaces total to proc this reliably.
B.8 - TRIGGER HAPPY
Priority: High
Description: Killing an enemy with an Automatic Weapon gives +3 AP (once per turn).
C.1 - BIG GUNS
Priority: Medium
Every weapon skill should be topped up regularly.
Skill book location: Victory’s room, Patriarch’s Palace.
C.2 - MOVE UP!
Priority: Medium
Description: Gain +0.5 combat speed on the first turn of combat while using Big Guns.
C.3 - SUPPRESSING FIRE
Heavy Machine Guns only.
Priority: Medium
Description:
Ability: Suppressing Fire (5 AP)
A Heavy MG attack that consumes twice as many bullets. Enemies in the area take minor damage and are Suppressed, losing -0.8 combat speed and -20% hit chance for 2 turns. Deals 300% damage vs. Demoralized targets.
Damage: 100% of weapon damage (this is incorrect).
On success: Applies suppressed.
The suppressed status counts as the slowed status for the purpose of proccing the Pursuit perk in Melee Combat.
This skill does not do 100% of weapon damage. How it actually works is it fires 1 bullet at each enemy in its AOE cone. E.g. if your HMG does 19-26 x9 (or 19-26 damage per bullet), Suppressing Fire will do 19-26 damage to each enemy hit. Demoralized targets take 300% of 19-26 damage.
C.4 - TERRORIZER
Flamethrowers only.
Priority: High
If you use Flamethrowers, this perk makes what’s considered a weaker weapon type significantly more useful.
Description: Flamethrowers engulf characters, reducing their Hit Chance by -15%.
C.5 - PRESSURE COOKER
Flamethrowers only.
Priority: Very low
Not enough enemy vehicles to make this an interesting pick.
Description:
Ability: Pressure Cooker (5 AP)
Superheat an enemy’s vehicle with your Flamethrower. Deals 40% of vehicle’s CON in fire damage over the next 2 turns, and prevents the vehicle from taking any actions.
Damage: 100% of weapon damage.
On success: Applies Pressure Cooker
C.6 - STEADY SHOT
Heavy Machine Guns only.
Priority: High
Description: Gain +20% evasion and +10% hit chance in low cover when using a Heavy Machine Gun.
C.7 - WIDE SPREAD
Priority: Medium
Description: Increase the firing arc of HMGs and Flamethrowers by +35%.
D.1 - BRAWLING
Priority: High
Skill book location: Garden of the Gods, at Bellamy’s workshop.
Brawling just functions 100% smoother when it reaches the Flurry of Blows Perk at rank 10.
How the combo system works for Brawling Rangers:
Each attack adds a combo point against the enemy you are attacking. Each combo point multiplies your total crit chance, crit damage against that enemy per combo point. It also lowers enemy armor by 1.
E.g. if you have a 10% crit chance, every time you attack an enemy, it will increase your total crit chance against that enemy by 20%. That does not increase your crit chance to 30%! It increases it by 2%!
20% of 10% is 2%! Increasing the combo count to x5 means a 100% increased crit chance.
E.g. 10% + 100% = 20% crit chance against the same enemy
The Extreme Combo perk means we can have x10 stacks instead of x5. If you attack the same enemy 10 times, your crit chance is increased by 200%.
E.g. 10% + 200% = 30% crit chance against the same enemy
The Deadly Combo perk means we increase our crit chance against the same enemy by 40% per attack, instead of 20%.
5 attacks against the same enemy is a 200% increased crit chance.
10 attacks would be a 400% increased crit chance.
Efficiently speaking, this means at minimum Brawlers want a 33% chance to crit. 33% + 200% = 99% chance to crit after 5 attacks.
If you land all 10 attacks against 1 target before they die, you could get away with a 20% chance to crit instead. 20% + 400% = 100% chance to crit after 10 successful attacks.
Further increases to crit chance can matter. Going from 33% crit chance to 38% means you will reach 98.8% crit chance every 4 successful attacks. 45% crit chance means 3 attacks to reach 99%.
Crit damage is multiplied the same way, and while there is a cap on crit chance, there is no cap on increased crit damage.
D.2 - SHAOLIN SURPRISE
Priority: Low
2 separate 1 AP attacks are often more valuable than anything this ability can put out damage wise, except maybe against very high armor targets.
Description:
Ability: Shaolin Strike (2 AP)
A crippling Brawling attack that penetrates through the target’s defenses. For every 1 combo meter built up, it provides +2 armor penetration and +10 damage. After use, it resets your combo meter. Deals +100% damage to Demoralized targets.
Damage: 100% of weapon damage.
The one interesting part of this quirk is its AP cost is fixed at 2 AP. If you have a Brawling weapon that attacks for 4 or 5 AP, and use it with Shaolin Strike, the ability will still only cost 2 AP.
D.3 - EXTREME COMBO
Priority: High
Description: Brawling combo maximum increased to 10x.
D.4 - DEADLY COMBO
Priority: High
Description: Brawling combo critical chance increased by 2x.
D.5 - FLURRY OF BLOWS
Priority: High
Almost had its own category of super duper crazy high priority. This perk is what makes Brawlers work. Almost all builds are centered around rushing this Perk ASAP.
Description: Brawling attacks cost -1 AP.
E.1 - MELEE COMBAT
Priority: Medium
Every weapon skill should be topped up regularly.
Skill book location: Snowed Inn Resort, on a Dorsey.
E.2 - BLEEDING STRIKE
Bladed weapons only.
Priority: Medium to Low
This is a great Perk if you have a consistent way to light enemies on fire. The best way to light enemies on fire are Flamethrower attacks. Unfortunately Flamethrower attacks with the Terrorizer Perk don't count as burning for the purpose of triggering Bleeding Strike. As a result, I value this perk less than it could be unless this interaction gets fixed.
Description:
Ability: Bleeding Strike (4 AP)
An aggressive bladed attack that deals an extra +100% damage and inflicts Bleeding, but has -20% hit chance. Targets that are Burning receive +200% damage.
Damage: 200% of weapon damage.
On success: Applies Bleeding.
E.3 - STUNNING BLOW
Blunt weapons only.
Priority: Medium
Stuns are pretty important to Blunt Weapons.
Description:
Ability: Stunning Blow (5 AP)
A focused blunt attack that stuns the target enemy, but has -15% hit chance. Frozen enemies take +100% damage.
Damage: 100% of weapon damage.
On success: Applies Stunned.
E.4 - STRIKING DISTANCE
Priority: High
Make sure you plan to keep two Melee Combat/Brawling weapons equipped.
Description: +0.5 combat speed when you have two melee weapons equipped.
E.5 - BLOODSPORT
Blunt weapons only.
Priority: High
Description: Attacks with Blunt weapons critically hit Stunned, Blind, Shocked, Bleeding and Poisoned enemies.
E.6 - HACK ‘N’ SLASH
Bladed weapons only.
Priority: High
Description: Attacking the same target twice in a row with Bladed weapon executes a free bonus attack.
E.7 - PURSUIT
Bladed weapons only.
Priority: High
Description: If you move more than 3 spaces, your next Bladed Weapon attack has +25% Critical Chance (+100% vs. Slowed targets).
E.8 - SHRUG IT OFF
Blunt weapons only.
Priority: Low
Description: While using a Blunt weapon, gain +5 armor and +10% status effect resistance for every enemy adjacent to you.
F.1 - SMALL ARMS
Priority: Medium
Every weapon skill should be topped up regularly.
Skill book location: Godfisher Wind Farm, Yuma County Speedway.
F.2 - SHREDDER SHOT
Shotguns only.
Priority: Low
Bleeding as a status effect isn't that valuable. Armor damage is quite common, but not common on multiple targets. I rarely find good excuses to use this ability as frequently as I would like to. I might be underestimating it though, especially on builds dedicated to Shotguns exclusively.
Description:
Ability: Shredder Shot (4 AP)
Fires a Shotgun shell that inflicts Bleeding on anyone hit. Deals +100% against targets with armor damage.
Damage: 100% of weapon damage.
On success: Applies Bleeding.
F.3 - OPPORTUNIST
Handguns only.
Priority: High
Description: Your strike meter charges a bonus 5% with each successful Handgun attack.
F.4 - TRICK SHOT
Handguns only.
Priority: Medium
The hit chance penalty is severe on this one. It's really good once you have very high hit chances however.
Description:
Ability: Trick Shot (4 AP)
Fire a Handgun attack that has -50% hit chance. If this attack hits, you gain an instant +3 AP and your strike meter is instantly filled. Deals +100% damage vs. Marked targets.
Damage: 100% of weapon damage.
On success: Applies Damaged Weapon.
F.5 - CLEAR COVER
Shotguns only.
Priority: High to Medium
Sometimes this can be amazing. Other times the cover you want destroyed most is indestructible…
Description: Shotguns do +100% damage vs. cover.
F.6 - DRAW!
Priority: Medium to High
Draw! can be devastating on some builds, but in regular use it's just a nice to have perk, but not a critical one.
Description: Your first attack after reloading an empty weapon costs no AP.
F.7 - DEVASTATION
Shotguns only.
Priority: High
Description: Shotgun attacks gain +25% damage for each enemy hit by the same shot.
F.8 - COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
Priority: Low
Description: Attacking a melee enemy on the turn after they hit you deals +50% damage.
Priority: Medium
Every weapon skill should be topped up regularly.
Skill book location: Union Station.
G.2 - MARK TARGET
Priority: High
Description:
Ability: Mark Target (2 AP)
Reduces an enemy’s evasion by -15%. Marked Targets also take +50% damage from Precision Strikes.
On success: Applies Marked.
G.3 - MASTERFUL PRECISION
Priority: High
Description: Precision Strikes with sniper rifles have significantly higher chances of inflicting critical effects.
G.4 - CONCENTRATION
Priority: High
Description: Gain +10% hit chance with sniper rifles if you don't move for 1 turn.
G.5 - CHAIN AMBUSH
Priority: Medium to Low
On higher difficulties, you really need to maximise attack quality in order to get this Perk working as consistently as you would want it to. If you aren't regularly killing 2 to 3 enemies on ambush with this perk, skipping it and focusing on attack quantity and quality together might give you the better result.
Description: Ambush attacks with sniper rifles that kill your target don't end the ambush.
H.1 - ANIMAL WHISPERER
Priority: Low
Skill book location: Denver Airport, Denver Ruins.
Utility item location: Grooming Brush, Bizzare Exterior.
Skill armor location: N/A
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 5 (4 checks can be backtracked)
Bizarre area:
Rank 7 (not a mandatory check at all)
Denver area:
None
Aspen area:
None
Yuma County area:
Rank 9
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
H.2 - ANIMAL TRAINING
Priority: High
Description: Animal Companions gain bonus CON and damage.
H.3 - SPIRIT ANIMAL
Priority: High
Description: Animal Companions provide improved passive bonuses.
H.4 - VENGEFUL BOND
Priority: Low to Medium
If your pets are constantly on the brink of death and you don't care about that or even worse, you're the one who consistently puts them there, then this perk is great, for you. You're a monster, but the payoff is awesome. For those of us with a soul, this perk probably won't proc enough to make it worth it, especially since it's so high up in an already low priority skill.
Description: If your Animal Companion drops to 25% CON, gain +50% Critical Chance and +2 AP.
I.1 - EXPLOSIVES
Priority: Medium to High
There are a lot of explosive skill checks in the game, but there are not a lot of critical explosive skill checks that need making. You can always shoot any explosives you can't disarm immediately.
Skill book location: Arapaho Caravan.
Utility item location: Defusal Kit, Ash’s corpse, Little Hell, Aspen.
Skill armor location: N/A
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 6 pre Old Survivalist Bunker (only 1 rank 6 check)
Rank 9 Old Survivalist Bunker (only 1 rank 9 check)
Bizarre area:
Rank 5
Denver area:
Rank 7 (only 3 rank 7 checks)
Aspen area:
Rank 10 (only 1 rank 10 check)
Yuma County area:
Rank 10
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
I.2 - DUCK AND COVER
Priority: Low
Description: Fire and explosive resistances +20%.
I.3 - BOMB RECOVERY
Priority: Low
Description: Disarming landmines has a 33% chance to drop a grenade.
I.4 - MINESWEEPER
Priority: Low
Description: You no longer set off landmines when stepping on them.
Perception +1.
I.5 - MORTAR BLAST
Priority: Low to Medium
I personally don't like this Perk, but I respect people that do.
Description:
Ability: Mortar Blast (7 AP)
Target an area with your Rocket Launcher and fire it into the air. The rocket falls down, bombarding the area below for +100% damage 1 turn later.
I.6 - HIGH IMPACT
Priority: High
Description: Targets directly hit by rockets or grenades are automatic critical hits.
I.7 - BLAST RADIUS
Priority: High
Description: Grenade blast radius and other AoE abilities gain +40% radius.
J.1 - FIRST AID
Priority: Low
Skill book location: Old Survivalist Bunker, Broadmoor Heights.
Utility item location: Stethoscope, Doc Parker, quest reward.
Skill armor location: N/A
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 4 (only 2 non-critical rank 4 checks)
Bizarre area:
None
Denver area:
Rank 4 (very non-critical rank 4 check)
Aspen area:
Rank 8 (only 1 rank 8 check)
Yuma County area:
None
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
Priority: High
Description: When an ally is Downed in battle, gain +1 Combat Speed for 2 turns.
J.3 - OVERHEALING
Priority: Low
Description: Using healing items also boosts the target's max CON by +25% for 3 turns.
J.4 - PHYSICAL THERAPY
Priority: High
Description: Reviving allies has a chance of buffing them (+6% per First Aid level).
J.5 - HYPOCRITIC OATH
Priority: Medium
The only issue this perk suffers from is the fact that it is on a low priority skill. Typically you're in no rush to max out First Aid, so by the time you get to unlocking this Perk, you're usually past the stage where your Rangers are downed frequently enough for it to matter.
Description: Gain +50% damage for 2 turns after reviving a downed ally.
K.1 - SNEAKY SHIT
Priority: Low to Medium
The skill checks are rare enough that this can stay low. When the checks do come up though, you typically don't want to set the Alarms off, as it usually prevents you from attacking first. Attacking first is good.
Skill book location: Little Vegas, Downtown Colorado.
Utility item location: N/A
Skill armor location: N/A
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 4 pre Old Survivalist Bunker (only 1 rank 4 check)
Rank 6 Old Survivalist Bunker (only 1 rank 6 check)
Bizarre area:
Rank 3
Denver area:
Rank 7
Aspen area:
Rank 7
Yuma County area:
Rank 9
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
K.2 - SECOND CHANCE
Priority: Low
Description: Detection Time +1.0 seconds.
K.3 - CLOSE CALL
Priority: Very low
Description: Alarms and Traps have a 66% chance to malfunction when you or any squad member sets them off.
K.4 - LIGHTS OUT
Priority: High
Sneaky Shit is worth cranking aggressively for this perk alone.
Description: Sneak Attack Damage +100%.
L.1 - WEIRD SCIENCE
Priority: Low
Skill book location: In a chest where Gift is located, Little Hell, Aspen.
> Note 1: Taking this chest will result in the Breathers attacking you no matter what.
Utility item location: Thick Glasses, Union Station.
Skill armor location: N/A
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 4 (1 skill check only)
Rank 7 (2 skill checks only, can be collected at convenience)
Bizarre area:
Rank 6 (1 skill check only, not mandatory)
Denver area:
Rank 6
Aspen area:
Rank 6
Yuma County area:
None
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
L.2 - OVERCHARGE
Priority: High to Low
The more frequently you attack per turn, the less valuable this Perk is.
Description:
Ability: Overcharge
Charge your weapon, empowering it to deal bonus energy, cold, or fire damage on it’s next attack. Your weapon has a 5% chance of blowing up in your face.
On success: Apply Overcharged, 5% to apply Overload.
Grants +30% fire, cold or energy damage. You need to be doing one of those damage types to benefit from this perk.
Some people believe this perk destroys your weapon 5% of the time. It does not, the weapon merely overloads and kills your Ranger instead. So it’s a 1 in 40 chance your Ranger will kill themselves when they use this ability.
L.3 - MICROWAVE RESEARCH
Priority: Low to Medium
For this perk to be worth it, you need to both specialise in Energy weapons and ideally have a weapon that shoots multiple bullets per attack.
This is because the flat damage bonus from Microwave Research is applied per bullet, not per attack. E.g. If Microwave Research counts for +10 flat damage, but you shoot 3 bullets in one attack, it's adding +10 damage per bullet, for a total of +30 damage. 10 bullets? +100 damage. This perk is not worth it on single bullet attacks (e.g Sniper Rifles and Handguns), nor on Blunt and Bladed weapons. It's ok on single AP Brawling attacks.
Description: Energy damage is increased by 0.5 for every point of armor the target has
L.4 - CONDUCTIVE BEAMS
Priority: Very low
The damage from this perk is trivial to non-existent on higher difficulty levels.
Description: Energy attacks have a 20% chance to electrocute enemies, dealing energy damage to them and anyone standing nearby for 2 turns.
M.1 - ARMOR MODDING
Priority: Low
Skill book location: Sister Nancy Forge (Weapon Modding 5 skill check), Denver Ruins.
Utility item location: Modder’s Kit, The Sanctified Piscitelli, Bizarre interior.
Skill armor location: N/A, but if you have the Steeltown DLC, Handy (located in the Ghosts hideout) can join you at Ranger HQ and provides +1 Armor Modding.
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
None
Bizarre area:
None
Denver area:
None
Aspen area:
None
Yuma County area:
None
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
M.2 - TENDER LOVING CARE
Priority: High
Description: All squad members gain +8 Armor while the perk owner is present.
N.1 - LOCKPICKING
Priority: High
There are 0 critical Lockpicking skill checks in the entire game, but you definitely want this almost obnoxiously high for the loot and abundant exp it provides…
Skill book location: Brig, Ranger HQ.
Utility item location: N/A
Skill armor location: N/A
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 7 pre Old Survivalist Bunker
Rank 9 Old Survivalist Bunker
Rank 10 Patriarch’s Palace
Bizarre area:
Rank 8
Denver area:
Rank 8
Aspen area:
Rank 10
Yuma County area:
Rank 10
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
Priority: High
Skill book location: Department of Energy.
Utility item location: PDA, Ranger HQ vault.
Skill armor location: Tricky Dick Mask, Long John, Bizarre Interior (hint: take Ironclad Cordite).
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 4 (there is 1 rank 5 skill check, but very non-critical, can be backtracked at convenience)
Bizarre area:
Rank 7 (1 rank 7 skill check)
Denver area:
Rank 7
Aspen area:
Rank 9
Yuma County area:
Rank 10
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
O.2 - TARGETING OVERRIDE
Priority: Very low
Enemies already attack hacked Robots and I have no indication that this perk actually does anything.
Description: Robots you hack will now be attacked by other enemies.
O.3 - ELECTRIC LEAKAGE
Priority: Low
O.4 - OVERCLOCK
Priority: Low
Description: Hacked robots emit an electric burst every turn, dealing Energy Damage to enemies nearby.
P.1 - MECHANICS
Priority: Medium
Skill book location: Machine Shop, Downtown Colorado Springs
Utility item location: Jimmie Longhaul, Downtown Colorado Springs
Skill armor location: Machine Shop Helmet, Machine Shop, Downtown Colorado Springs OR MacTavish’s Mask, MacTavish’s corpse, Machine Shop, Downtown Colorado Springs.
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 6 (one rank 7 check in the Ward Estate, Broadmoor Heights, can be hard to push for early, not 100% worth it)
Bizarre area:
Rank 7 (one rank 9 check at the Clown Museum, can be really hard to push for early, and a alternate option is available)
Denver area:
Rank 7 (one rank 9 check in Union Station, not worth stressing about)
Aspen area:
Rank 9
Yuma County area:
Rank 7
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
P.2 - STRUCTURAL WEAKNESS
Priority: Low
Description: Bonus damage to Robots and Vehicles +20%.
P.3 - HANDY
Priority: High
Description: Deployables gain +25% CON and deal +25% damage
P.4 - REINFORCED PLATING
Priority: Low
Description: Repairing vehicles and robots also boosts the target's max CON by +33% for 3 turns.
P.5 - FORTIFY
Priority: Low
Description: Repairing friendly vehicles, robots, and deployables grants +7 Armor for 3 turns.
Q.1 - SURVIVAL
Priority: Low
Skill book location: Opie, Aspen.
Utility item location: Binoculars, Bizarre exterior.
Skill armor location: N/A
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 3 (really not worth stressing about)
Bizarre area:
None
Denver area:
None
Aspen area:
None
Yuma County area:
None
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
Q.2 - BIG GAME HUNTER
Priority: Low
Description: Bonus damage to Animals and Mutants +20%.
Q.3 - EXPLORER’S INSTINCT
Priority: Low
For new players, this is the perfect last perk you ever take, just to make sure you haven’t missed anything before finishing the game.
Description: Instantly reveals the entire World Map and all discoverable locations.
R.1 - TOASTER REPAIR
Priority: Low
You can backtrack for the majority of toasters that matter.
Skill book location: Ananda Rabindranath, Ranger HQ (after he’s recruited).
Utility item location: Toaster Repairman’s Badge, Ranger HQ (in the Toaster).
Skill armor location: MacTavish’s Mask, MacTavish’s corpse, Machine Shop, Downtown Colorado Springs.
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 4 pre Old Survivalist Bunker
Rank 6 Old Survivalist Bunker
Rank 8 Patriarch’s Palace
Bizarre area:
Rank 6
Denver area:
Rank 7
Aspen area:
Rank 7
Yuma County area:
Rank 10
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
R.2 - TOASTER EXPERT
Priority: Low
Description: Bonus loot when repairing broken toasters.
R.3 - BREAKFAST BANDIT
Priority: Low
Description: Bonus loot when repairing broken toasters.
R.4 - HEATING ELEMENT
Priority: High
This perk is the payoff for taking this skill basically.
Description: Fire damage bonus +25%.
R.5 - TOASTY
Priority: Medium
Description: Your first attack every turn will inflict Burning.
S.1 - WEAPON MODDING
Priority: Low to Medium
There is one crucial mid game skill check in Denver that warrants having this skill at rank 5 early. Outside of that one instance, you can basically raise this skill at your leisure.
Skill book location: Tellurium Mine.
Utility item location: Modder’s Kit, The Sanctified Piscitelli, Bizarre interior.
Skill armor location: N/A, but if you have the Steeltown DLC, Handy (located in the Ghosts hideout) can join you at Ranger HQ and provides +1 Weapon Modding.
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 1
Bizarre area:
Rank 6 (very non-critical)
Denver area:
Rank 5 (pretty critical)
Aspen area:
None
Yuma County area:
None
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
S.2 - SCROUNGER’S TOUCH
Priority: Low
Extras weapon mods are nice, especially if you are crafting aggressively to upgrade weapons and need low tier weapon mods to fuel higher tier weapon mods instead. It’s also a way to turn field stripped weapons into some amount of profit as well.
Description: Field Stripping now has a chance of providing weapon mods.
S.3 - POWDER PACKER
Priority: High to Low
If you are going to take this perk, take it early, or don’t take it all. It’s pretty good for finding extra Rockets.
Description: Your entire party finds +25% bonus ammo when looting, at a minimum of +1.
S.4 - EXPERT DISASSEMBLER
Priority: Medium to High
As of patch 1.4.0, scrap becomes really valuable if you craft aggressively. I tend to mod multiple weapons with fire, cold, energy and explosive damage, and the weapon mods that do that cost a lot of scrap. In my most recent playthrough, I field stripped literally every weapon I found and definitely found a use for all the extra scrap I generated.
Description: Field Stripping weapons yields +30% more scrap
T.1 - BARTER
Priority: Medium to Low
There are some solid early game money making skill checks worth discovering (as high as rank 6, check around Little Vegas). They aren’t critical though, so you can slow roll this skill too, especially if you are happy holding onto items you may want to sell until Barter is finally at a reasonable rank.
If you aggressively field strip weapons for scrap, Barter may be a higher priority for you. If you have no weapons to sell, early game cash flow can actually be pretty tight.
Skill book location: Tellurium Mine.
Utility item location: Monocle, quest reward, Gideon Reyes, OR purchased from Ananda Rabindranath, Bizarre exterior/Ranger HQ.
Alternative: Silver Dollar Necklace, Little Hell, Aspen.
Skill armor location: N/A
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 6
Bizarre area:
Rank 6
Denver area:
None
Aspen area:
None
Yuma County area:
None
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
T.2 - PENNY PINCHER
Priority: Low to Medium
If you aren’t disciplined with your purchases, thisperk becomes more valuable.
Description: Buying multiple items provides a 20% discount.
T.3 - ANTIQUES APPRAISER
Priority: Low to Medium
This can be a semi-decent source of cash if you are field stripping most of your weapons for scrap instead of selling them. If you aren’t hurting for cash, delay this perk, don’t sell any junk, and then if you do find yourself broke or needing cash, take this perk and sell off all your junk then.
Description: Junk items (excluding scrap) have a 5% chance of being sold for 40x their value.
U.1 - HARD ASS
Priority: Medium (High in the DLC)
The reason this is ranked medium, despite having some high checks, is simply because those checks aren’t typically critical ones worth making.
Skill book location: Quest reward for Nightmare in the Bizarre, Bizarre.
Utility item location: Veteran’s Ranger Star, Jarett Dorsey’s corpse, Ambush site OR Aviators, Doctor Denver, Union Station.
Alternative: Star of Bravery, Riley Woodson, Ranger HQ (must save all the Rangers in Little Hell).
Skill armor location: Scrap Helmet, Arapaho Caravan.
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 4 pre Old Survivalist Bunker
Rank 7 Old Survivalist Bunker
Bizarre area:
Rank 7
Denver area:
Rank 8
Aspen area:
Rank 8
Yuma County area:
Rank 10
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
V.1 - KISS ASS
Priority: High
Skill book location: Church, Broadmoor Heights.
Utility item location: N/A
Skill armor location: N/A
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 6
Bizarre area:
Rank 7
Denver area:
Rank 6
Aspen area:
Rank 10
Yuma County area:
Rank 10
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
W.1 - LEADERSHIP
Priority: Medium
Hit Chance is really good, especially so in the early game.
Consider that +6% hit chance is like 2 free ranks in weapon skills for 5 Rangers each. Pushing this to a reasonable level early (rank 5 is a good stopping point) allows you to skimp a bit on combat skills for those 5 Rangers early. Skimping a bit on combat skills early means high priority non-combat skills can get raised just that much more aggressively first.
Skill book location: Vic’s room, Little Hell, Aspen.
Utility item location: Leader’s Banner, Human Outreach Mobile Gift Shop, Denver Ruins.
Skill armor location: Bardic Tights, Ranger HQ, delivered after beating the Bard’s Tale game in Quarex’s place, Bizarre interior. Need the hint book found in Denver Airport, Denver.
Skill check area benchmarks:
Colorado Springs area:
Rank 2 (non-critical)
Bizarre area:
None
Denver area:
None
Aspen area:
None
Yuma County area:
None
Steeltown DLC:
Investigating
W.2 - RALLY
Priority: High
Description:
Ability: Rally (4 AP)
Provide +2 AP bonus to allies in a radius around you.
On success: Applies Rallied.
W.3 - DEMORALIZE
Priority: Medium
Description:
Ability: Demoralize (2 AP)
Insult your enemies, distracting them and reducing their hit chance by -20% and critical chance by -25%.
On success: Applies Demoralize.
X.1 - COMBAT SHOOTING
Priority: Medium to High
Skill book location: Complete Garyl Wolfe’s quest by turning in all the Synth bounty heads.
Utility item location: N/A
Skill armor location: N/A
This skill raises your critical hit chance by 5% per rank. Using the skill book automatically sets it to rank 1.
BACKGROUNDS:
Unfortunately not all Backgrounds are made equal. For the most part however, their impact on any given build is minimal, so it is OK to pick one that is flavourful, even on the highest difficulty levels.
I’m simply going to rate these between flavourful, and useful.
A.1 - BOOKWORM
EFFECT: Experience bonus +5%
RATING: Useful
Experience bonuses when stacked with high priority skills can lead to lucrative early game level leads.
B.1 - DESERT CAT
EFFECT: Perception +1
RATING: Flavourful
Unless inXile knows something we don’t, Perception isn’t a very fleshed out mechanic. It’s rare you miss any hidden items in Wasteland 3 (that we know of), and +1 Perception is unlikely to make a difference when you have at least one Ranger with high Awareness and/or a decent Sneaky Shit skill already.
C.1 - DISCIPLE OF THE METAL
EFFECT: Fire damage +15%
RATING: Useful
Any Ranger primarily doing fire damage could consider this background.
D.1 - EXPLODOMANIAC
EFFECT: Explosive damage +15%
RATING: Useful
Any Ranger primarily doing explosive damage could consider this background.
E.1 - GOAT KILLER
EFFECT: Critical Chance: +5%
RATING: Useful
Any Ranger aiming to stack crit chance will appreciate this background. With max INT for example, Goat Killer translates into a 10.5% average damage increase for comparative purposes. Without INT, another background might be more suitable.
F.1 - GREASE MONKEY
EFFECT: Damage to robots and vehicles +15%
RATING: Useful
Slightly niche, but there is room to appreciate this on Rangers who convert their sole source of damage to fire or cold damage. These damage types come with a -30% damage malus against inorganics, and this background can ease that penalty.
G.1 - LETHAL WEAPON
EFFECT: Melee Damage +10%
RATING: Useful
Any offensively oriented Melee Combat or Brawling Ranger can appreciate 10% more damage.
H.1 - MANNERITE
EFFECT: Kiss Ass +1
RATING: Useful
Out of all the Backgrounds that increase skill ranks, this one is probably the most impactful. Kiss Ass does not have a utility item to boost it to Rank 10, so this Background should save you 5 skill points, provided you use the Kiss Ass skill book to raise it from rank 8 to 9.
I.1 - MONEYBAGS
EFFECT: Barter +1
RATING: Useful
This background should save you 4 skill points in Barter, provided you use the Barter skill book to raise it from rank 7 to 8, then the background to keep it at rank 9, and then the utility item for rank 10 when buying/selling items.
J.1 - MOPEY POET
EFFECT: Evasion +5%
RATING: Useful
Useful is a bit of an understatement. See evasion to understand why a 5% increase in evasion can be significant.
K.1 - PALADIN
EFFECT: Crit resistance +15%, Leadership range +5m
RATING: Useful
Crit resistance is a fairly valuable and rare stat to find, so getting 15% of it can be a game changer on certain builds.
Leadership range is slightly less valuable, but +5m helps Leader builds with lower CHA a lot.
L.1 - RAIDER HATER
EFFECT: Bonus damage to humans +10%
RATING: Useful
The most common enemy types in the game are humans, so this is a decent damage increase option for Rangers that aren’t stacking crit chance, or fire/explosive damage.
M.1 - SEX MACHINE
EFFECT: Combat Speed +0.2
RATING: Useful
Reaching rounded numbers (1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, etc. etc.) in Combat Speed is actually useful to a lot of builds. Notably, 10 Speed provides 2.8 Combat Speed exact, and Sex Machine rounds that up to 3.0 neatly.
While there are lots of ways to find 0.2 combat speed if needed, those typically have opportunity costs as well.
E.g. if you modify your leg armor with 0.2 combat speed, you are giving up on 6% evasion with an alternate mod instead.
The net effect often just translates into 2 saved attribute points in SPD, or allowing you to use an alternative leg armor mod, or leg armor piece.
N.1 - STONER
EFFECT: Status effect resistance 15%
RATING: Useful
While I wouldn’t say status effect resistance is the most important stat in the game, you can stack enough of it to basically become immune to them. This background helps with that.
O.1 - THE BOSS
EFFECT: Hard Ass +1
RATING: Useful
The least impactful of the backgrounds that raise skill ranks. There are 2 items (a utility item and a helmet) that can already raise Hard Ass from rank 8 to 10, as such, you will likely use the Hard Ass skill book to raise this from 6 to 7, and then this Background will keep it at rank 8, saving you only 3 skill points. The utility item and helmet can then raise it to 10 when needed.
On the flipside, the total skill points saved, including this background, skill book, utility item and helmet totals 18 points. 18 total skill points saved buys you 8 ranks in another skill.
P.1 - VICIOUS AVENGER
EFFECT: Penetration +2
RATING: Useful
Any Ranger build that cares about penetration should take a hard look at this background. It’s the highest early game damage increase for low PEN weapons by far.
It’s downside is: it goes obsolete if you plan to eventually modify your mid or end game weapons with fire, cold, energy, or explosive damage.
QUIRKS:
Quirks can be quite important to Ranger builds and definitely shape them in all sorts of different ways. Rather than simply rating them, my goal here will be more about explaining a Quirk's more ideal use cases and then how to work around it’s drawbacks.
A.1 - BLUNDERER
EFFECT: +15% melee damage
DRAWBACK: -50% critical chance
EVALUATION:
Both as bad as it looks and not as bad as it looks. +15% melee damage isn’t a lot, but on the right builds, it’s free. Notably, the -50% crit chance has no effect on lucky critical hit chance or lucky mega crit chance. It also has no effect on the Bloodsport perk (attacks with Blunt Weapons critically hit stunned and blind enemies) available to Blunt Weapons.
It does need further testing with the Pursuit Perk (if you move more than 3 spaces, your next Bladed Weapon attack has +25% Critical Chance (+100% vs. Slowed targets)). It’s likely this translates to 50% crit chance vs slowed targets, making this Quirk not worth it for that Archetype.
This Quirk feels designed for Blunt Weapon Rangers that pursue LCK early over INT basically. A case could be made that you could/would raise INT with Blunderer as well, because the crit damage multiplier from INT is still valuable for auto crits fueled by a consistent source of stuns and blinds.
B.1 - BOP BAG
EFFECT: +6 Armor
DRAWBACK: -0.4 Combat Speed
EVALUATION:
6 armor is outstanding to have early game, but somewhat decreases in usefulness late game. 6 armor alone is difficult to evaluate, but if the sum of your armor means enemies are consistently under penetrating your Ranger, Bop Bag could be facilitating a 20% to 30% drop in incoming damage.
Notably, a lot of useful armor mods decrease armor. The Phase Temper Controller raises fire, cold, energy and explosive resistance (FCEE Resistance) by 60%, but decreases Armor by -4. As enemies start using more and more FCEE damage, Bop Bag then translates a strong early game armor bonus into a strong late game FCEE resistance bonus.
The Threat Intelligence armor mod (new to patch 1.4.0) also lowers Armor in exchange for a 25% melee/ranged damage bonus. Once again, Bop Bag will make your early game tankier when it matters most, but can be converted into an offensive bonus down the road if you want.
The -0.4 combat speed can be penalizing for certain builds, but for others, I almost consider it a bonus. For example, take a Big Guns user with the Move Up! Perk (+0.5 combat speed on the first turn of combat). A Big Gun user shouldn’t need to move a lot once in position, but because they are typically positioned in the middle, they do value evasion a fair bit. If you raise SPD to 5, that gives you a combat speed of 1.9 exactly, but also a clean +15% evasion. Bop Bag drops that back to 1.5 combat speed. The net effect is, instead of SPD granting evasion and combat speed, each point of SPD is instead granting 3% evasion and 1.5 Armor. Because of the Move Up! perk, on the turn we want to get into position, we have 2.0 combat speed (which should be all you need), but on the turns you don’t want to move much, you have an extra 12% Evasion and 6 Armor instead. This same exchange can be done for defensively oriented Melee/Brawling archetypes via the Striking Distance Perk and the 0.5 combat speed bonus granted by 10 ranks in Brawling.
C.1 - CIRCUS FREAK
EFFECT: +0.4 combat speed and +25% crit resistance
DRAWBACK: -2.0 seconds detection time
EVALUATION:
Disclaimer: You do not need to look like a clown to use this Quirk. On Ranger creation, select the Quirk first, then if you desire, modify your appearance after.
A very strong Quirk when fully capitalized on. Bonus combat speed can almost always translate into 4 free attribute points to spend somewhere else than SPD, and crit resistance only gets better and better the higher you have it. This Quirk has a lot of free and valuable stats packed into it.
Prior to patch 1.4.0, the Cyborg utility item Nociception Clamp provided a 100% crit resist, significantly reducing the long term value of Circus Freak. It now only provides 50%, which in turn has made Circus Freak way more valuable instead. A Ranger with the Nociception Clamp, Circus Freak and the Weathered perk will have a total crit resistance of 90%. See crit resistance to fully understand how valuable this can be.
We still haven’t talked about the bonus combat speed. A 0.4 bonus combat speed means most Rangers can leave SPD at 2 or 7 for 2.0 or 2.5 combat speed even. Whether you're leaving SPD at 2 or 7, the net result is 4 attribute points or itemization choices you can make somewhere else. A easy example is comparing 4 points spent in LCK instead of 4 points in SPD. 4 Speed is 12% Evasion and 0.4 Combat Speed, where as 4 points in LCK is 8% lucky evasion and lucky crit resist chance, and 4% lucky crit, lucky mega crit, and lucky action chance.
D.1 - DEATH WISH
EFFECT: +3 max AP and +3 AP
DRAWBACK: Cannot wear Armor
EVALUATION:
If you have read the stat section ACTION POINT (AP) WEAPON BREAKPOINTS in its entirety, you will have a headstart in understanding the value of this Quirk.
Prior to 1.4.0 this Quirk was pretty valuable as a damage increase for glass cannon archetypes who struggled to reach 2 attacks per turn early and mid game when compared to Quirks like Sadomasochist or Way of the Squeezins. It was never super good for archetypes with lower AP attack costs, due to diminishing returns on increased attacks per turn.
After 1.4.0 with the release of armor mods that increase melee/ranged damage by 10% to 25%, this Quirk diminished in value a lot. We know that Death Wish comparatively accounts for a 42.85% damage increase in conjunction with COOR when enabling 7 AP cost attacks to attack twice per turn. Sadomasochist with the most basic Armor mod that increases melee/ranged damage by 10% already matches the 43% damage increase provided by Death Wish alone. So the comparison comes down to whether or not 8 attribute points spent somewhere else than COOR can make up the remaining 57.15% damage increase. The short answer is:
Yes you can.
Given the new armor mods end at 25% increased damage, not 10%, and there are armor sets in the Steeltown DLC that boost fire, cold, and energy Damage by 30%, it’s very easy now to increase attack quality over attack quantity when allowed to wear armor.
There is still a niche case for Death Wish with Ranger builds that care about strike attacks. These two cases are Brawlers who can use the additional AP to stun more enemies per turn (they can afford not to wear armor when enemies can’t fight back) and CHA based Sniper Rifle Rangers who aren’t using Rocket Launchers (Rocket Launchers very much favour improved attack quality over attack quantity).
E.1 - DOOMSDAY PREPPER
EFFECT: +15 CON, +33% status effect resistance
DRAWBACK: Cannot read skill books
EVALUATION:
More detrimental than people might think. Skill books on a 3 skill Ranger can save you 18 skill points, which is the equivalent of 6 levels. As most 3 skill Rangers max these out by level 22, taking this Quirk means you are potentially delaying maxing them until level 28.
The other downside to this Quirk is it is mostly overshadowed by another Quirk further down the list.
Despite that, well planned teams should have enough skill points that 1 Ranger not getting to use skill books won't make or break a game.
On the other hand, status effects are one of the least dangerous things to protect from in my opinion, excluding maybe new content in the Steeltown DLC.
F.1 - LONE WOLF
EFFECT: +30% initiative, +15% healing bonus
DRAWBACK: No Leadership benefits
EVALUATION:
Initiative just isn't implemented well enough to even consider putting this on a Leadership build. Yes, Leaders don't benefit from the increased hit chance provided by the Leadership skill already, but they do benefit from the Leadership multi-kill and boss kill buffs. This Quirk prevents those buffs. It's also cheap enough to drop 5 ranks into Leadership on a second Ranger and pass on 5% extra hit chance to your main Leader as well.
As implemented, this Quirk is almost worse than No Quirk and one of the few Quirks I seriously suggest avoiding.
G.1 - MEDICAL MARVEL
EFFECT: +5 CON per level
DRAWBACK: Cannot be revived in combat
EVALUATION:
On difficulty levels lower than Supreme Jerk, this Quirk can be quite valuable provided you aren't playing like a suicidal maniac. On Supreme Jerk, even the toughest Rangers sometimes randomly get popped like a pinata at a kids birthday party. Learning to roll with the punches and picking up downed Rangers is just part of the process of playing on Supreme Jerk, and this Quirk prevents you from doing that.
H.1 - MIME
EFFECT: +2.0 second detection time
DRAWBACK: -10 CON and -0.5 metre throwing range.
EVALUATION:
Disclaimer: You do not need to look like a Mime to use this Quirk. On Ranger creation, select the Quirk first, then if you desire, modify your appearance after.
Detection time is another feature that isn't fully fleshed out and therefore not very important. I think in all my playthroughs, I could count 1 time where I wished I had slightly more detection time, and it's in the newly released Steeltown DLC.
That said, the drawbacks are so marginal, Mime could be considered at least slightly better than No Quirk.
I do want to point out that it's possible I am underrating this Quirk for console players. On PC, lining up an attack before getting detected is straightforward enough. I don't have first hand experience to know if this is trickier to do using a controller.
I.1 - POINDEXTER
EFFECT: +1 bonus skill point every 2 levels
DRAWBACK: -8 CON and -3 CON per level
EVALUATION:
A very underrated Quirk.
Typically, any Quirk that boosts combat performance in some way tends to be the popular choice among most players.
Poindexter does not do that, or at least, not directly. Using Poindexter just to raise your available skill points for your primary skills is typically unnecessary, especially for Veteran Players who can navigate their way through most anticipated skill checks without any issue or added assistance.
What the extra skill points earned by Poindexter can do is translate themselves into combat advantages via skill dips for perks or other benefits.
If we assume an end-game level of 26, Poindexter provides 13 skill points total.
What do 13 skill points buy you? Let’s look at some examples:
It can provide Rank 7 in one skill.
For some skills that basically means Rank 10 (+3 added from the skill book, utility item, and helmet combined). That can mean 1 less skill another Ranger needs to worry about, and that Ranger can then leverage those saved skill points into a combat advantage for themselves. E.g. the freedom to pursue powerful perks like Chain Ambush, Lights Out, etc. etc. more aggressively.
Toaster Repair is a good example of a Rank 7 skill that can be raised to Rank 10 via its skill book and equipment, but it also unlocks the Heating Element Perk (which raises Fire Damage by 25%). This means Poindexter on the right Ranger is not only translating to a saved skill for some other Ranger, but eventually a 25% boost to Fire damage for themselves as well! That’s the equivalent of the Pyromancy Quirk.
Rank 7 in the Small Arms skill provides the Draw! Perk which can allow high attack weapons to sometimes attack for their reload cost instead (think Rocket Launchers for example, which attack for 6 AP, but reload for 4 AP).
It can provide up to Rank 4 in one skill and up to Rank 5 in another.
Rank 4 + utility item in Animal Whisperer is access to a Pet with both the Animal Training and Spirit Animal perk.
Rank 5 is access to the Striking Distance perk in the Melee Combat skill.
Rank 5 in Weird Science is +15% fire, cold and energy Damage and access to the Overcharge perk.
Rank 5 in Leadership can provide +5% hit chance to our primary Leader, while also unlocking the Rally and Demoralize perks.
Rank 2 in the Sniper Rifle skill provides Mark Target, which raises Squad accuracy against 1 target, precision strike damage for Snipers, Handguns and Assault Rifles, and Trick Shot Damage for Handgun Rangers.
Most importantly:
13 points can buy you Rank 7 in Combat Shooting. That's 35% more crit chance!
All of the above are just the combinations I’ve found.
That all sounds amazing right? Right? There is a downside.
You don’t get the 13 skill points straight away. This means there is still a balancing act to be had in using those extra points in an appropriate way to get any available combat advantages to occur before the actual end-game kicks in and before those advantages may no longer matter.
The negative CON per level is actually fairly annoying. It means 2 STR Rangers no longer scale CON and need 4 STR instead. Staying at 2 STR might be OK for a Sniper Rifle Ranger, but I personally like 4 STR on most of my Rangers already, which means I actually need 6 STR on whomever I give Poindexter too in order for them to have a similar durability...
The alternative is taking it on a 10 STR Ranger. By level 26, they’ll have 88 CON less than normal, which isn’t insignificant, but is diluted a little from their already larger pool.
J.1 - PROSPECTOR
EFFECT: Occasionally gain valuable gold nuggets while digging
DRAWBACK: -1 quick slots
EVALUATION:
New players should highly consider this Quirk. When you have no idea what's going on, it’s easy to make a bunch of impulsive purchases veteran players would avoid and then suddenly find yourself broke. The new player experience is all about messing up and trying things out, so make it easier on yourself and dig yourself up some gold nuggets.
Just don’t put this Quirk on your Mechanic, or your Medic. You’ll thank me later.
K.1 - PYROMANIAC
EFFECT: +25% fire damage and +25% explosive damage
DRAWBACK: 15% chance to catch on fire when using the same
EVALUATION:
A fairly straight forward Quirk for once. If you primarily plan to do fire or explosive damage, this is great. It’s downside is rarely relevant. Burning yourself just isn’t that dangerous, until the one time it is, which is exactly when you are really low on CON for the turn, and then proceed to incinerate yourself at the end of it. It will happen, roll with it, it's a solid Quirk.
Note, if you are only using this to boost Rocket Launcher damage, consider Sadomasochist or Way of the Squeezins instead. Rocket Launchers are equally affected by ranged damage bonuses as they are explosive damage bonuses. So while your Rocket Launcher would exclusively benefit from the Pyromancy quirk, other non-explosive attack types won’t. Sadomasochist and Way of the Squeezins will affect both however.
L.1 - SADOMASOCHIST
EFFECT: +33% Melee/Ranged damage
DRAWBACK: +33% damage received
EVALUATION:
Any glass cannon Ranger build will benefit from this Quirk a lot. It’s the Sniper Rifle Quirk as well. If you haven’t taken both Sadomasochist and Goat Killer on a Sniper Rifle Ranger for at least one playthrough yet, you probably know something about this game I don’t, or you’re just determined to be different.
For every other archetype? Well… It’s workable. Slam weapon mods on that raise weapon range and basically turn other archetypes into fake Sniper Rifle Rangers as well…
Alternatively, stack a tonne of evasion, sit behind high cover, and pray you don’t get flanked. Technically this is also the Sniper Rifle way, minus the stacking a tonne of evasion part...
Basically, take this Quirk, be a Sniper Rifle Ranger, or be a fake one. It just works. Archetypes that are well suited to being fake Sniper Rifle Rangers include:
Handgun, Assault Rifle, and Heavy Machine Gun Rangers.
M.1 - SERIAL KILLER
EFFECT: +3 AP per kill (once per turn)
DRAWBACK: -1 AP
EVALUATION:
A premium Quirk for archetypes that have lower AP attack costs (Bladed Weapons, Handguns, Shotguns and Brawling, sometimes Blunt Weapons, and Submachine Guns) but also amazing for Assault Rifles.
Handguns in particular are well suited to sitting on 10 AP exactly with max COOR and an opening sequence of: Attack (7 AP left), attack (4 AP left), Trick Shot (0 AP left) for a kill, which grants 3 AP from Serial Killer and 3 AP from Trick Shot for 2 more attacks. Because of the Draw! Perk, this sequence is never interrupted by having to reload, a problem other archetypes run into when increasing attack frequency too much.
For Bladed, Blunt and Brawling Archetypes, the best use of Serial Killer on higher difficulties is actually the freedom to go out of cover, kill something, and then retreat back behind cover, which is ideally in a direction towards your next targets.
Assault Rifles and Submachine Guns can stack Serial Killer with the Trigger Happy perk, giving them a potential 16 AP per turn after a kill. That’s a whopping 4 attacks per turn. For Assault Rifles using the Double Tap perk as well, 4 attacks per turn is exactly what you want to see and Assault Rifles are almost designed to pick off entrenched low CON targets behind cover.
16 AP for Submachine Guns is great too, but you want to pair that with a 3.0 combat speed and the Stormer Perk for maximum efficiency. With 10 total starting AP:
Move 6 spaces (8 AP left), attack for free with the Stormer Perk. Attack again (4 AP left), attack again and kill 1 enemy (0 AP left), get +6 AP from Trigger Happy and Serial Killer, attack again (2 AP left), reload (0 AP left). Sometimes you might need to reload before the final attack. The reload is what makes Serial Killer a tiny bit awkward for Sub Machine Gun Rangers. If you don’t reload, future sequences get interrupted in weird ways that can result in a fair bit of AP waste.
If you only have 2.0 combat speed with a Submachine Gun, you want 9 total starting AP for a slightly awkward sequence of:
Move 6 spaces (6 AP left), attack for free with the Stormer Perk. Attack again (2 AP left), kill 1 enemy and gain +6 AP from Trigger Happy and Serial Killer (8 AP left), attack again (4 AP left), attack again (0 AP left). On most Submachine Guns, you should be out of ammo now, so next turn, you will reload (7 AP left), move 6 spaces (4 AP left), attack for free with the Stormer Perk, attack again (0 AP left), kill 1 enemy and gain +6 AP from Trigger Happy and Serial Killer, attack again (2 AP left), and reload again.
On higher 7 AP attack cost weapons, Serial Killer warps your playstyle a bit and can be slightly awkward to use. With max COOR, your total AP potential per turn with Serial Killer is only 13 AP, 1 AP short of consistently attacking twice per turn with 7 AP weapons. You could eat food to achieve a potential 14 AP, but what I find tends to happen is, you waste single shot high damage attacks hunting down low CON targets for kills. If you underestimate your damage trying not to waste too much damage, you sometimes don’t make a kill and kind of end up sitting there awkwardly wishing you took Sadomasochist instead.
N.1 - TWO-PUMP CHUMP
EFFECT: +2 AP for the first two turns
DRAWBACK: -1 AP for 6 turns
EVALUATION:
A front loaded Serial Killer essentially. For some archetypes, a front loaded Serial Killer is just amazing. The archetypes that attack for 7 AP can now conveniently eat food for 14 AP if they desire and unleash a salvo of attacks in the first two turns of combat. Two-Pump Chump and food is like having Death Wish, but being able to wear Armor.
In the early game, combat can last past 2 turns however, but the penalties after Two-Pump Chump expires are pretty manageable.
The hope with this Quirk is you have done enough damage in the first two turns of combat that subsequent turns are mostly about clean-up, instead of a prolonged back and forth gun fight with a now gimped Ranger who blew his load too early.
Notably with Sniper Rifle Rangers, 13 AP exact allows them to open with a Sneaky Shit empowered Rocket Launcher attack worth 6 AP and then immediately enter Chain Ambush for clean up. All without needing to eat food. If combat lasts longer than 2 turns, conveniently, entering Chain Ambush with 10 AP instead of 7 AP is a 15% hit chance increase. Very strong Quirk for some Sniper Rifle builds. You lose out on some attack quality without Sadomasochist, but have more attack quality than Death Wish when allowed to use the new armor mods that improve Ranged/Melee Damage in helmets.
For most other archetypes, Serial Killer just works out better, especially in prolonged gunfights.
O.1 - VARANGIAN BLOOD
EFFECT: When an ally is downed, enter Berserker Rage (+100% critical chance and +3 AP for 1 turn)
> Note 1: It actually lasts 2 turns, not 1. This may not be intentional, but I believe this happens because Varangian Blood typically procs on Enemy turns, not Ranger turns. As such, the Ranger turn immediately after the Enemy turn doesn't seem to count or register, and because of that, you get the buff a second turn as well. If Varangian Blood does happen to proc on Ranger turns, it seems to work as expected, and only lasts the turn it procced instead.
DRAWBACK: -20% Evasion for the next two turns after Berserker Rage ends
EVALUATION:
Terrible if you are godly at the game, and even more horrible if you use the mighty quicksave/quickload button frequently when combat encounters start going south. Awesome otherwise. I play this game a lot, and on Supreme Jerk I still make mistakes that result in Rangers sometimes going down (aka, just bad luck right?). As a result, I really like this Quirk. When you don't need it, you are winning already, because any encounter where Allies aren't going down is an encounter you are going to beat. When you do need it though, it's clutch. I tend to use it on Medics, which grants them +3 AP to go fix up downed Allies along with a damage boost to compensate for any additional AP loss.
It's good on any archetype really, but especially shines on Handgun or Shotgun Rangers with the Draw! Perk combined with the Explosives skill as well. When Varangian Blood procs, equipping, reloading and attacking with that Rocket Launcher will only cost you 4 AP instead of 10. Who needs a Medic when you can just end the encounter on the spot and pick everyone up after?
P.1 - WASTE ROAMER
EFFECT: Immune to bleeding, poison, shock, burning, and frozen
DRAWBACK: -15% experience bonus
EVALUATION:
The almost 100% better Doomsday Prepper.
While Doomsday Prepper protects against status effects like Slow, Demoralize and the new Steeltown DLC debuffs, the most common status effects you face are bleeding, poison, shock, burning, and frozen. This makes you 100% immune to those effects with a significantly less severe penalty compared to Doomsday Prepper.
The -15% experience bonus can be harsh, but putting it on Rangers with high CHA, or Rangers with frequently used skills like Lockpicking or Explosives can mitigate the EXP loss a lot.
Q.1 - WAY OF THE SQUEEZINS
EFFECT: +50% Melee and Ranged damage while drunk
DRAWBACK: -20% Melee and Ranged damage
EVALUATION:
When drunk, this is a net 30% melee and ranged damage bonus with no immediate penalty, but being drunk also raises melee damage bonus by a further 25%, so this Quirk is of particular interest to Bladed, Blunt and Brawling archetypes.
When you aren't drunk, your melee and ranged damage bonus is reduced by 20%. There is an additional hidden penalty associated with this Perk however, because being hungover after getting drunk also imposes a -2 AP penalty until the debuff is cleared. Even if you get drunk again, the -2 AP penalty still applies unless you let the debuff expire or clear the hungover status with Crystal Clear (consumable).
The drunk buff might last 1 or 2 combat encounters, so fueling this Quirk consistently is going to take a steady use of alcohol and Crystal Clear. If you find yourself constantly broke, avoid this Quirk. If you are the type of person who hoards or forgets to use consumables, also avoid this Quirk.
If you can break the cycle of hoarding items you never plan to use, this Quirk is very powerful on any and every Archetype basically.
STATS:
> Note 1: BASE STATS are Ranger stats without any modifiers at all. This distinction is important because you cannot create a Ranger with attributes that equal 0 (they’re always at minimum 1), and attributes modify stats. For example, base CON is 50, but 1 point minimum in Strength grants 5 CON. Therefore a Rangers minimum starting CON is 55. I provide base stats without any modifiers because it helps when determining and comparing the exact value of each attribute.
A.1- CONSTITUTION (CON)
BASE: 50
CON is the amount of damage you can take. When it drops to zero, your Ranger goes into the downed state for 3 turns. A Ranger in the downed state can be revived by adjacent party members for 2 AP. Each time a Ranger is downed, the Rangers downed time quota is reduced by 1 per injury (removing injuries will remove downed time penalties). Once a Ranger downed time quota is depleted, the Ranger is considered incapacitated and must be revived by a Nitro Spike (consumable).
> Note 1: The Permanent Death difficulty modifier means once your Rangers downed time quota is depleted, they are dead permanently and cannot be revived by a Nitro Spike. You can replace dead Rangers at Ranger HQ.
A.2 - EFFECTIVE AVERAGE CONSTITUTION (EACON)
EACON is the average amount of damage you can take, including all modifiers such as CON, armor, evasion, crit resistance, fire, cold, energy and explosive resistance (FCEE Resistance), and status effect resistance.
E.g. If a Ranger has 100 CON and 50% Evasion, their EACON is 150 (100 x 1.5 = 150).
> Note1 : EACON is not calculated for you by the game, and it is difficult to calculate manually since it is subject to so many variables. Don’t stress though, calculating your EACON on the fly is not at all necessary in relation to your success at the game, even on the highest difficulties levels.
Knowing EACON exists is important in relation to understanding a Rangers total in-game survivability. On higher difficulties, just increasing your CON and armor alone (for example) will not necessarily create a Ranger that can take a lot of punishment. A Rangers survivability is more about increasing your EACON through all the avenues available to you (CON, armor, evasion, crit resistance, FCEE resistance and status effect resistance). Some of those avenues are more important than others. The typical order of importance is:
Evasion > CON > Armor > Crit Resistance > FCEE Resistance > Status Effect Resistance. |
The simplest way to understand EACON is with a basic example.
If a Ranger had 550 CON and enemies hit the Ranger for 2400 damage across 10 independant attacks, 2 of which critical hit, what would it take for the Ranger to survive?
If we only relied on CON and armor, and that armor happened to reduce damage by 50%, the enemies would still do 1200 damage and our Ranger dies.
So let’s look at the enemy's attack pattern and break it down. The enemy's attack pattern is:
200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 400 > 400
> Note 1: 400 represents a critical hit
Total damage: 2400
With 50% evasion, we on average should eliminate half the shots:
200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 400 > 400
Total damage remaining: 1400 (still dead)
With 50% crit resist, we eliminate 1 crit:
200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 200 > 400 > 400
Total damage remaining: 1000 (still dead)
If we still had armor levels that reduced the remaining damage by 50%, we live! 50% of 1000 is 500, and our Ranger survives with 50 CON remaining. Heal up to full and our tanky Ranger with an effective average constitution could take on another 2400 damage the next turn.
B.1 - CONSTITUTION PER LEVEL (CON PER LVL)
BASE: 0
The bonus amount of CON received for each level-up. It is modified by your Strength (STR) attribute. Every 2 points in STR increases this by 3 (odd STR values provide no increase).
E.g. A level 10 Ranger with 2 STR (2 STR increases base CON by 5 and CON per level by 3) will have a base HP of 55 plus 3 CON per level for an end total of 85 CON:
55 + (3 x 10) = 85
C.1 - HEALING BONUS
BASE: 100%
Determines how much better the effects of healing are on your Ranger.
E.g. if an item heals your Ranger for 100, and the Ranger has a Healing Bonus of 100%, the total amount healed will be 100 (100 x 1 = 100). If you increase your Healing Bonus to 150%, the total amount healed will be 150 (100 x 1.5 = 150).
Healing Bonus has OK returns at best for high CON Rangers in combat. Outside of combat, healing consumables should be abundant enough that using 2 consumables instead of 1 is typically better than actively aiming to increase this stat at the expense of any other option.
BASE: 6
How many action points you can perform in combat. Different actions (attacking, moving, reloading, and more) have different AP costs.
Since every action has a cost, Action Points are all encompassing and can almost always be converted into or compared to any other stat. For example:
Etc. etc.
Even in the worst scenario where you have no logical actions worth taking, you can always convert excess AP into evasion at a rate of 5% evasion per AP. You can also save 2 excess AP per turn (see APMAX) for the following turn where it might prove more useful.
AP is so universal and so flexible, it’s difficult not recommending every Ranger acquire as much of it as possible. There is almost always something worth doing with every amount of extra AP you can get and extra is rarely ever a total waste.
D.2 - ACTION POINT (AP) WEAPON BREAKPOINTS
Each weapon type in Wasteland 3 costs varying amounts of AP to attack with. Per weapon type, typically these AP values are:
Assault Rifles: 4 AP per attack
Submachine Guns: 4 AP per attack
Brawling Weapons: 2 to 3 AP per attack (1 to 2 AP with a Perk)
Heavy Machine Guns: 6 AP early, 7 AP by mid to end
Flamethrowers: 4 to 5 AP per attack
Bladed Weapons: 3 AP per attack
Blunt Weapons: 4 AP per attack
Handguns: 3 AP per attack
Shotguns: 3 to 5 AP per attack
Sniper Rifles: 6 AP early, 7 AP by mid to end
The big concept to understand is, if you only attack once per turn, that represents 100% of your total damage per turn.
If you can increase your AP enough to attack twice, you have increased the damage you do per turn by another 100%.
100% + 100% = 200%
(a 100% increase from 100%)
However if you increase your AP enough to attack 3 times, it’s only a further 50% increase in damage.
100% + 100% + 100% = 300%
(only a 50% increase in damage from 200%)
Going from 3 attacks to 4, is then only a further 25% increase in damage, etc. etc.
The takeaway here is, increasing attacks per turn has diminishing returns. At some point, increasing the quality of your individual shots could match or outweigh trying to attack 1 additional time.
E.g. if we increase the quality of 3 attacks by 33.33%, it will do the same damage as 4 attacks.
133.33% + 133.33% + 133.33% = 400% damage
(same as 100% x 4)
With max Coordination (COOR), most Rangers can only have 11 AP without assistance. As you can see from the breakpoints above, a lot of weapons types therefore cannot attack twice per turn. Since attacking twice instead of once is such a lucrative increase in damage, finding clever combinations through quirks, perks, utility items, and weapon mods is half the fun and challenge when creating your Rangers.
DETAILS:
Let’s look at a simple comparison between two Quirks, Death Wish (+3 AP, cannot equip any armor) and Sadomasochist (+33% damage, take 33% more damage) on two different Rangers.
A Handgun Ranger with 9 AP can attack 3 times per turn. Death Wish increases our AP to 12, so now we can attack 4 times per turn, for a total of 400% damage per turn. At the expense of all our equippable armor of course.
Sadomasochist (Sado) increases the quality of our original 3 shots by 33%, and therefore 3 attacks at 133% = 399% damage.
The damage outcome is basically the same, but in this instance, Sado allows us to wear armor, and wearing armor has both offensive and defensive value. The winner here is probably Sado.
For a Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) Ranger, Death Wish is probably one the most straightforward ways to double our damage output per turn. If a HMG Ranger maxed COOR, and took Death Wish, they would have 14 AP total and could attack twice per turn with mid and end game HMG’s. It’s not Death Wish alone that’s allowing the HMG to shoot twice per turn though, there is a Coordination (COOR) component in there as well. The damage breakdown is:
8 points in COOR (4 AP) is providing us a 57.15% increase in damage.
Death Wish (3 AP) is providing a 42.85% increase in damage.
Total damage increase: 100%
If we stuck to 1 shot instead, could 8 points somewhere else and the Sado Quirk compete? Possibly. Both the Death Wish and Sado HMG Rangers are likely to max Awareness and INT both, so the next best offensive comparisons come with Sado providing 33% damage, and 8 points in LCK or CHA making up the 66% difference then 8 points in COOR and Death Wish.
Raising our CHA to 10 would mean we Strike Attack every 4 turns at 1 attack per turn, whereas keeping it at 2 and attacking twice per turn means we Strike Attack every 5 turns instead. So the answer isn’t likely to be Charisma.
8 points in LCK however is 8% Lucky Action, Crit and Mega Crit Chance, as well as 5 PEN. PEN is unlikely to matter much on a HMG who have high PEN values already, but the Lucky Crit and Mega Crit chances backed by INT on a HMG can be significant.
Lucky Crit Chance = 19.2% average increase in damage
Lucky Mega Crit Chance = 57.6% average increase in damage
Since we can’t lucky crit and lucky mega crit at the same time, we have to take the average damage between both, which is 38.4%. Therefore our total damage increase is:
71.4% (33% + 38.4%) + 8% Lucky Action chance
It’s closer than I expected, let me put it that way, and since the Sado + LCK combo allows us to wear armor, you could make up that rough 20% difference somewhere, but with all the defensive value of getting to equip armor as well.
The conclusion is, attacking more frequently comes at an opportunity cost from somewhere. If you can increase the quality of your attack by the same increase an extra shot grants, but for less effort, do it. More shots are not always better. They are way easier to calculate though, so if you do not have a degree in Wasteland 3 like I do at this point, go ahead and just do what’s easiest, crank up your attacks per turn. Nobody's judging.
BASE: 0%
How often your attacks land. Hit chance is primarily influenced by attributes, skills, cover bonuses and your equipped weapon. It is modified by your target’s evasion, cover bonuses, and your weapons effective range.
In any tactical game, hit chances impact on character performance is significant and it modifies almost every other damage increase a Ranger can receive. For example, you cannot critically hit an opponent if you cannot hit them first. Your Strike Meter does not fill up if you miss, etc. etc.
Your hit chance can exceed 100%, but your chance to hit any target is always capped at 95%. Therefore:
You always have a 5% chance to miss your target. |
Ranger hit chance is reduced by enemy evasion, and enemies can have varying levels of evasion that make hit chances higher than 100% absolutely relevant.
E.g. An enemy with 20% evasion standing outside of cover would need a total Ranger hit chance of 115% to ensure you can hit them for the max 95% chance to hit.
The game doesn’t cheat. 95% chance to hit still means 1 in every 20 attacks on average will miss. The game does not care about realism either. 1 in every 20 attacks made point blank and staring at the enemy straight in the face will still occasionally miss 1 in every 20 attacks.
Strike attacks cannot miss and therefore are extremely valuable.
E.2 - HIT CHANCE IN RELATION TO PROBABILITY
Becoming better at tactical games is knowing the game doesn’t cheat and learning to anticipate or mitigate bad luck, especially in relation to hit chance.
E.g. If it is absolutely vital you kill a target in order to avoid losing, an advanced player would recognise that even a 95% chance to hit could result in a loss in 1 out of 20 occasions.
They might be happy with that risk and make the attack.
Alternatively they might choose to anticipate and mitigate it further by having a backup attack with a 50% chance to hit available afterwards. The probability of both those attacks missing is 2.5%. While on paper, that difference might seem trivial, the advanced player has actually doubled the chance they might succeed. Two separate attacks at 95% and 50% chance to hit should only result in a loss on roughly 1 out of 40 occasions, instead of the original 1 out of 20. In 1 out of 40 occasions though, they still lose. Even 2 attacks at 95% chance to hit will lose once in every 400 occasions. Alternatively, consider a decrease in hit chance from 95% to 90%. At 95% hit chance, the advanced player had a 1 in 20 chance to lose. At 90% they now have a 1 in 10 chance to lose instead. A simple 5% decrease in accuracy doubled the chance they could lose.
Winning at tactical games therefore means consistently looking out for both those minuscule and large percentage increases to achieve additional success. In relation to hit chance, this means looking to consistently make better quality attacks individually or concurrently that result in higher chances of success based on the outcome you want or need to achieve in the moment.
E.3 - HIT CHANCE IN RELATION TO DAMAGE
Since your hit chance in Wasteland 3 is between 0 and 0.95 (95%). Each 1% decrease in hit chance also represents a 1% decrease in your total average damage over time and vice versa (but capped at 95%).
Your Rangers total average damage over time at any individual moment is calculated as follows:
(average total base damage x total damage modifiers) x hit chance |
For simplicity's sake, let’s assume our Ranger had perfect 100% accuracy all the time.
If your base damage was 100 with no modifiers, your damage would be:
(100 x 1) x 1 = 100
If we increased our damage modifiers by 10% the outcome would be:
(100 x 1.10) x 1 = 110
Let’s now lower our accuracy to 65% and no damage modifiers:
(100 x 1) x 0.65 = 65
Now add our 10% damage modifier back in:
(100 x 1.10) x 0.65 = 71.5
With a 65% chance to hit, our average damage with and without modifiers went down by 35%. Going from 100 to 65 average damage is a 35% decrease in average damage, which is the same decrease going from 110 to 71.5.
65 ÷ 100 = 0.35 (35%)
71.5 ÷ 110 = 0.35 (35%)
Let’s presume you want to turn your average damage of 100 into 1000 and you aren’t interested in more damage after that (for example, all enemies in the game only had 1000 CON max).
At 100% chance to hit, you would need a damage multiplier of 10:
(100 x 10) x 1 = 1000
Each attack you make would consistently pop 1 enemy per attack.
At 50% chance to hit, you would need a damage multiplier of 20:
(100 x 20) x0.5 = 1000
Not only is achieving the extra x10 multiplier probably harder to do than increasing hit chance by 50%, in this scenario, half of the time you actually pop 1 enemy for 2000 damage, and the other half of the time you miss and kill no one.
Same average damage, but a completely different picture from an efficiency perspective. This concept is called overkill and can be a present issue in gameplay. 10k damage looks fancy, but if it only obliterates 2% of your enemies, you’re probably better off toning damage down for other stats, especially hit chance.
The TLDR is;
In Wasteland 3, until you are consistently hitting every attack 95% of the time, increasing your damage at the expense of hit chance is generally a mistake. That doesn’t mean you need to itemise and crank hit chance at the expense of everything else though. A good portion of increasing your hit chance comes naturally from your skills, and a major bulk of it comes from negating enemy cover. Negating enemy cover mostly comes down to positioning, maneuverability and cover destruction.
If you made it through all that, a lot of the above becomes a lot more relevant when attempting to compare the value of various attributes, skills and weapon mods.
F.1 - CRITICAL CHANCE (CRIT CHANCE)
BASE: 0%
Your chance to inflict critical damage on enemies when attacking.
For a naked Ranger with no other critical damage modifiers, each point of crit chance initially represents a straight 1% increase in damage. That relationship almost immediately changes when you equip a weapon (weapons often increase your critical damage modifier).
To discover this, we multiply our crit chance by our critical damage modifier (crit damage). A naked Ranger with no other modifiers has a crit damage multiplier of x1.
Therefore:
1% crit chance x 1 = 1% increase in damage.
After a 100% crit chance, the only way to scale its damage higher is with further increases to your crit damage modifier. The relationship between crit chance and your crit damage modifier is better explored below.
G.1 - CRITICAL DAMAGE (CRIT DAMAGE)
BASE: 1.0x
How much extra damage you’ll do when you get a critical hit on a target.
With a base crit multiplier of 1.0x, if you increase your crit chance to 100%, your average damage bonus from a critical strike is 100%. Therefore the formula for critical attack damage is:
G.2 - CRITICAL ATTACK DAMAGE FORMULA
Crit chance x crit damage = X% increase in damage E.G. 100% crit chance x1 crit damage = 100% increase in damage (1% per point of Crit Chance) |
If you were doing 100 average damage per attack, with 100% crit chance and a crit damage modifier of x1, your damage would be:
100 + 100% = 200
If you increase your crit damage further to x2, each point of crit chance is now worth 2%. 100% Crit Chance would now equal a 200% increase in damage per attack. The same 100 average damage would increase to 300 per attack.
100 + 200% = 300
For clarity sake, let’s look at some less clean numbers as well:
Crit chance = 33%, crit damage = 1.5x:
33% x 1.5 = 49.5% average damage increase
In this example each point of crit chance is worth a 1.5% increase in damage.
Crit chance = 65%, crit damage = 2.3x:
65% x 2.3 = 149.5% average damage increase
In this example each point of crit chance is worth a 2.3% increase in damage.
Critical strikes are one of the more lucrative ways to increase Ranger damage output and shouldn’t be ignored.
BASE: 0
Determines the amount of a target’s armor that your attacks will bypass. Matching or exceeding an enemy’s armor will deal full damage.
PEN shares a natural relationship with armor, and the formula for this relationship is:
Penetration ÷ Armor capped at 80% for non-penetrating attacks |
E.g. if the enemy has 10 Armor and you have 5 PEN, your damage would be reduced by 50%.
5 PEN ÷ 10 Armor = 0.5 (or 50%)
Capped at 80% for non-penetrating attacks means if PEN ÷ ARMOR exceeds 80%, it does not increase past 80% until PEN = ARMOR. This is better observed in a table:
PEN ÷ 10 ARMOR
PEN | ARMOR = 10 |
0 | 0.0 (0.0%) |
1 | 0.1 (10%) |
2 | 0.2 (20%) |
3 | 0.3 (30%) |
4 | 0.4 (40%) |
5 | 0.5 (50%) |
6 | 0.6 (60%) |
7 | 0.7 (70%) |
8 | 0.8 (80%) |
9 | 0.8 (80%) |
10 | 1.0 (100%) |
Against 10 Armor, each additional point of PEN results in a 10% increase in damage.
Once you hit the 80% cap at 8 PEN, damage increases stop. 9 PEN is the exact same result as having 8 PEN. When you reach 10 PEN, you do full damage (or 100% damage).
Let’s look at a larger scale for a clearer explanation:
PEN ÷ 20 ARMOR
PEN | ARMOR = 20 |
0 | 0.00 (0.0%) |
1 | 0.05 (5%) |
2 | 0.10 (10%) |
3 | 0.15 (15%) |
4 | 0.20 (20%) |
5 | 0.25 (25%) |
6 | 0.30 (30%) |
7 | 0.35 (35%) |
8 | 0.40 (40%) |
9 | 0.45 (45%) |
10 | 0.50 (50%) |
11 | 0.55 (55%) |
12 | 0.60 (60%) |
13 | 0.65 (65%) |
14 | 0.70 (70%) |
15 | 0.75 (75%) |
16 | 0.80 (80%) |
17 | 0.80 (80%) |
18 | 0.80 (80%) |
19 | 0.80 (80%) |
20 | 1.00 (100%) |
Against 20 armor, each additional point of PEN results in a 5% increase in damage.
Once you hit the 80% cap at 16 PEN, damage increases stop. 17 to 19 PEN is the exact same result as having 16 PEN. When you reach 20 PEN, you do full damage (or 100% damage).
No explanation has been given on why the formula is capped at 80%. The outcome though is an efficiency increase for armor vs PEN. PEN needs to work harder versus armor in order to achieve 100% damage.
E.g. Against armor levels averaging 100 instead of 10 or 20, PEN between 81 and 99 is the exact same as PEN 80. Only when you reach PEN 100 will you do full damage.
Each point of PEN also experiences a steady decrease in value as average armor levels rise. Summatively, average PEN values against armor are:
H.3 - AVERAGE PEN VALUE VS ARMOR
PEN | AVERAGE ARMOR LEVELS | 1 PEN DAMAGE INCREASE VS ARMOR |
1 | 10 | 10.0% |
1 | 20 | 5.0% |
1 | 40 | 2.5% |
1 | 50 | 2.0% |
1 | 100 | 1.0% |
Fire, cold, energy and explosive damage types (FCEE damage) all set PEN to 100+ and bypass armor completely. Modifying low PEN weapon types with FCEE damage can result in a significant increase to damage against high armor targets.
Worth noting is energy damage comes with a -30% damage modifier against Humans, Animals, and Mutants (organics). Humans are the most common enemy type found in Wasteland 3. Due to the -30% damage modifier against organics, unless enemies have armor levels exceeding 42.8% of your Rangers total PEN stat, switching to energy damage for 100+ PEN is not worth it. The same -30% damage modifier applies for fire and cold damage against Robot, Vehicles, and Synths (inorganics). Explosive damage sets PEN to 100+, but like normal damage, it is neutral vs both organics and inorganics. Tricked out explosive weapons will shred everything equally, but won’t perform as well as fire and cold damage versus organics, nor energy damage vs inorganics.
BASE: 100%
Determines bonus damage dealt to unaware targets you attack out of combat.
If your sneak attack damage is 100%, a opening attack of 100 would do 200 damage:
100 + 100% = 200
Raise it to 200% and your opening attack would do 300 damage:
100 + 200% = 300
Sneak attacks can be a critical hit as well. Combining high sneak attack damage with a high average crit damage can be encounter ending when combined with AOE attacks, or at minimum it can often delete the highest threat enemy on the battlefield when used with a single target attack, all before combat even starts.
There is no active way to sneak in the game. So long as you are outside of combat and are outside of an enemies sight range, you are automatically considered to be sneaking. If you are inside their sight range, your Rangers detection time stat kicks in and you have X seconds to move out of/through their sight range, interact with an object, sneak attack, or get caught and roll initiative.
Sneak Attacks are basically free extra damage. Area of effect (AOE) attacks are the ideal opening attack to use with Sneak Attack damage, since the damage multiplier gets added to every target hit within the AOE.
BASE: 6%
How quickly you build up your strike meter. When your meter is full, you can unleash a strike attack.
My aim with this manual was to be as spoiler free as possible, however with strike rate, the pool of modifiers are so narrow and small, it’s difficult to discuss the topic without considering each of them, or at least at minimum the % each of these modifiers can add to your total strike rate. To understand why, first let's find out how strike rate works.
Everytime a Ranger attacks and hits their strike meter is filled up by their strike rate. The strike meter caps at 100%.
Therefore if your strike rate was 10%, it would take you exactly 10 successful attacks to fill up your strike meter to 100%.
Attacks include strike attacks! Therefore after your first 10 successful attacks, if your Ranger chooses to strike immediately, your strike meter empties to 0%, but the strike attack itself fills it up by 10%. It would then only take you 9 more normal attacks to fill it up to 100% again.
If you don’t strike immediately after your 10th attack, your strike meter stays full at 100% and all attacks afterwards cannot fill up the strike meter past 100%. Therefore:
Excess Strike Rate does not carry over past 100%. |
E.g If you raise your strike rate to 14%, it would take you 7 attacks to fill your strike meter to 98% (14 x 7 = 98%). To then get to 100%, you would need to attack 1 more for a total of 8 attacks, but 12% of your Strike Rate is wasted because it can't go past 100% (14 x 8 = 112). The wasted 12% does not carry over into your next empty strike meter. Once you use your strike attack, you start again at 0%, but the strike attack itself will fill your strike meter up by 14%.
Lets then look at CHA’s total influence on Strike Rate:
J.2 - BASE STRIKE RATE 6% + CHA ONLY (NO OTHER MODIFIERS)
CHA | BASE + CHA | ATTACKS REQUIRED (to fill Strike Meter) | % decrease in ATTACKS REQUIRED | WASTE |
0 | 6% | 17 | 2% | |
1 | 8% | 13 | 23.5% | 4% |
2 | 10% | 10 | 23.1% | 0% |
3 | 12% | 9 | 10.0% | 8% |
4 | 14% | 8 | 11.1% | 12% |
5 | 16% | 7 | 12.5% | 12% |
6 | 18% | 6 | 14.3% | 8% |
7 | 20% | 5 | 16.7% | 0% |
8 | 22% | 5 | 0.0% | 10% |
9 | 24% | 5 | 0.0% | 20% |
10 | 28% | 4 | 20.0% | 12% |
As you can see, for the purposes of strike rate, different CHA totals have more efficient value and returns than others. I’ve highlighted the most efficient values in yellow.
In the end, without modifiers, the most efficient amounts of CHA to settle on are: 2, 7, and 10 for Strike Rate purposes only. CHA 8 to 9 have no value, and 3 to 6 are significantly less efficient per point than 2, 7, and 10 respectively.
There are 8 more independent sources that modify strike rate further. These are:
Each of these values, independently or combined, will adjust how much CHA a Ranger wants for strike rate purposes. Rather than analyze each one, I will simply provide tables of the more relevant combinations and highlight the efficient amounts for you in yellow.
> Note1: I will not be analyzing the unique utility item, as acquiring it is not an intuitive experience for most players (IMO).
> Note 2: Major Tom and the DLC Helmets overall impact on strike rate is actually fairly minimal for most Rangers. They effectively save 1 or 2 points of CHA, and therefore shift most breakpoints down by 1 or 2. For Player created Handgun Rangers however, Major Tom or a DLC Helmets impact on Strike Rate is actually fairly significant. This impact will be shown/discussed at the relevant table. Major Tom and the DLC Helmets combined also result in new breakpoints shown at this table.
> Note 3: I will only analyze end game Sniper Rifles (+15% Strike Rate) because my assumption is most players will increase attributes up to their end game goal, not their early or mid game goals. Conveniently, this also covers Rangers only using Brain Candy as an additional modifier as well.
J.3 - BASE STRIKE RATE 6% + 15%
END GAME SNIPER RIFLES OR BRAIN CANDY ONLY
TOTAL STARTING STRIKE RATE: 21%
CHA | BASE + MODIFIER + CHA | ATTACKS REQUIRED (to fill Strike Meter) | % decrease in ATTACKS REQUIRED | WASTE |
0 | 21% | 5 | 5% | |
1 | 23% | 5 | 0.0% | 15% |
2 | 25% | 4 | 20.0% | 0% |
3 | 27% | 4 | 0.0% | 8% |
4 | 29% | 4 | 0.0% | 16% |
5 | 31% | 4 | 0.0% | 24% |
6 | 33% | 4 | 0.0% | 32% |
7 | 35% | 3 | 25.0% | 5% |
8 | 37% | 3 | 0.0% | 11% |
9 | 39% | 3 | 0.0% | 17% |
10 | 43% | 3 | 0.0% | 29% |
> Note 3: Conveniently for end game Sniper Rifles and Brain Candy combined, 2 and 7 CHA are still the most efficient amounts (40% total Strike Rate for 2 CHA, and 50% Strike Rate total for 7 CHA).
J.4 - BASE STRIKE RATE 6% + 5%
OPPORTUNIST PERK, HANDGUNS ONLY
TOTAL STARTING STRIKE RATE: 11%
CHA | BASE + MODIFIER + CHA | ATTACKS REQUIRED (to fill Strike Meter) | % decrease in ATTACKS REQUIRED | WASTE |
0 | 11% | 10 | 10% | |
1 | 13% | 8 | 20.0% | 4% |
2 | 15% | 7 | 12.5% | 5% |
3 | 17% | 6 | 14.3% | 2% |
4 | 19% | 6 | 0.0% | 14% |
5 | 21% | 5 | 16.7% | 5% |
6 | 23% | 5 | 0.0% | 15% |
7 | 25% | 4 | 20.0% | 0% |
8 | 27% | 4 | 0.0% | 8% |
9 | 29% | 4 | 0.0% | 16% |
10 | 33% (35%) | 4 (3) | 0.0% (25.0%) | 32% (5%) |
> Note 4: For Rangers using Opportunist (Handguns only) and Brain Candy combined, 4 CHA also becomes efficient (19% + 15% = 34%, or a Strike Attack every 3 attacks, and 2% waste).
> Note 5: This table also conveniently covers the Gunslinger background (unique to a Companion only) who is also not using the Opportunist perk. That combination is covered below.
> Note 6: Major Tom and the DLC exclusive Helmets most significant impact is shown at CHA 10, highlighted in green. Prior to 1.3.3, Player created Handgun Rangers could not achieve the 34% Strike Rate required for a strike attack every 3 attacks without using consumables or the unique utility item. Major Tom (without the Spirit Animal Perk) or the DLC Helmets are the last 2% required to put strike rate for player created Handgun Rangers at 35%. Conveniently, when using Brain Candy (15%), they achieve a clean 50% Strike Rate as well. A strike attack every 2 or 3 attacks for player created Handgun Rangers is a significant milestone and therefore the full 10 CHA is definitely worth considering.
J.5 - BASE STRIKE RATE 6% + 5% + 5%
OPPORTUNIST PERK + GUNSLINGER (BACKGROUND)
TOTAL STARTING STRIKE RATE: 16%
CHA | BASE + MODIFIER + CHA | ATTACKS REQUIRED (to fill Strike Meter) | % decrease in ATTACKS REQUIRED | WASTE |
0 | 16% | 7 | 12% | |
1 | 18% | 6 | 14.3% | 8% |
2 | 20% | 5 | 16.7% | 0% |
3 | 22% | 5 | 0.0% | 10% |
4 | 24% | 5 | 0.0% | 20% |
5 | 26% | 4 | 20.0% | 4% |
6 | 28% | 4 | 0.0% | 12% |
7 | 30% | 4 | 0.0% | 20% |
8 | 32% | 4 | 0.0% | 28% |
9 | 34% | 3 | 25.0% | 2% |
10 | 38% | 3 | 0.0% | 14% |
> Note 7: For the Companion with the Gunslinger background, using Opportunist, and Brain Candy combined, 10 CHA becomes very valuable. It’s the 3rd only way to achieve a 50%+ strike rate, or a strike attack every 2 attacks (38% + 15% = 53%, 6% waste). The only other CHA value worth considering when using Brain Candy is 2 for a strike attack every 3 attacks (20% + 15% = 35%, 5% waste).
>Note 8: If you factor in and also add Major Tom (w/ Spirit Animal Perk) and a DLC Helmet combined, 2 CHA = 26% Strike Rate, and 6 CHA = 34% Strike Rate.
J.6 - BASE STRIKE RATE 6% + 4% + 2%
MAJOR TOM (w/ SPIRIT ANIMAL PERK) + DLC HELMETS
TOTAL STARTING STRIKE RATE: 12%
CHA | BASE + MODIFIER + CHA | ATTACKS REQUIRED (to fill Strike Meter) | % decrease in ATTACKS REQUIRED | WASTE |
0 | 12% | 9 | 8% | |
1 | 14% | 8 | 12.5% | 12% |
2 | 16% | 7 | 14.9% | 12% |
3 | 18% | 6 | 16.7% | 8% |
4 | 20% | 5 | 20.0% | 0% |
5 | 22% | 5 | 0.0% | 10% |
6 | 24% | 5 | 0.0% | 20% |
7 | 28% | 4 | 25.0% | 12% |
8 | 30% | 4 | 0.0% | 20% |
9 | 32% | 4 | 0.0% | 28% |
10 | 34% | 3 | 33.3% | 2% |
> Note 9: Putting Major Tom and a DLC Helmet combined on Rangers with no other strike rate modifiers results in a unique and powerful 34% strike rate previously only achieved by Handguns and Sniper Rifle Rangers when CHA is at 10. Highly worth looking into and considering for non Handgun or Sniper Rifle Rangers.
An overlying concept to understand with strike attacks is that they always have 100% hit chance. This alone can make strike attacks increase total average damage by a lot if you are using it to attack into heavy cover/evasion. At minimum, since we always have a 5% chance to miss, strike attacks will always represent a 5% increase in total average damage. That of course doesn’t paint the full picture however, as strike attacks come in a number of varieties that modify weapon attacks in different ways:
Torrent Strike - exclusive to Shotguns, Flamethrowers, Submachine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns.
Thundering Strike - exclusive to Blunt, Bladed and Brawling weapons.
Precision Strike - exclusive to Assault Rifles, Handguns and Sniper Rifles.
Nuke Strike - exclusive to Rocket Launchers and some Weird Science weapons.
What info isn’t given is how these strike attacks boost or affect weapon damage or other variables. Courtesy of some data digging by /u/Muken, we have the following info:
J.8 - TORRENT STRIKE ANALYSIS (SHOT GUNS & FLAMETHROWERS)
Since Shotguns and Flamethrowers already do AOE damage, their Torrent Strike increases base damage by 100% damage, as well as increases cone angle and range by 20%.
This makes the average damage increase of Torrent Strike for Shotguns and Flamethrowers fairly easy to calculate in relation to strike rate.
At a simple 100% damage increase, you only need to divide how many attacks are needed to initiate a strike attack to calculate the average damage increase. E.g. if you have a strike rate of 10%, it takes you 10 attacks to charge a strike attack. 100% divided by 10 is an average 10% increase in damage.
If your strike rate was 20%, it takes 5 attacks to charge your strike meter and therefore the average damage increase from a strike attack is 20% (100% / 5 = 20%).
That average increase in damage however is per target . If you are hitting three enemies, 20% strike rate is boosting damage by 60%. Therefore the formula for Shotgun and Flamethrower strike attacks is:
(100% ÷ number of attacks to charge strike meter) * enemy targets hit |
J.9 - TORRENT STRIKE ANALYSIS (SUBMACHINE GUNS & HEAVY MACHINE GUNS)
Torrent Strike for Submachine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns allows for these weapon types to attack in a AOE instead of single target damage only. Therefore, it does not increase the base damage of these weapons. The damage boost comes from attacking multiple targets instead of single targets.
The big takeaway here is that using your strike attack to hit a single target isn’t really worth it, unless you need to hit that target with 100% accuracy. To get the most out of these strike attacks, you want to be hitting more than one target.
The average damage increase for these weapons are therefore a bit trickier to calculate. The formula is:
(100% x (enemies hit - 1)) ÷ number of attacks to charge strike meter |
E.g. If you have a strike rate of 10% and hit two targets, your average damage increase from your strike attack is:
(100% x 1) ÷ 10
Or an average damage increase of 10%.
If you hit 3 targets?
(100% x 2) ÷ 10
Or an average damage increase of 20%.
If your strike rate was 20%, and you hit 4 targets, your average damage increase would be:
(100% x 3) ÷ 5
Or an average damage increase of 60%.
J.10 - THUNDERING STRIKE ANALYSIS (BLUNT, BLADED, & BRAWLING WEAPONS)
Thundering Strike is very lucrative for Blunt, Bladed and Brawling weapons.
It not only stuns all targets hit, but also increases base damage by 75% and also converts single target attacks into AOE damage.
At minimum, when hitting one target, the damage increase is:
75% ÷ number of attacks to charge strike meter
So if you have a 10% strike rate, the average damage increase is 7.5% (75% ÷ 10 = 7.5%).
The formula for average damage increase from Thundering Strike on multiple targets is:
((175% x enemies hit) - 100%) ÷ number of attacks to charge strike meter |
E.g. If you have a strike rate of 10% and hit two targets, your average damage increase from your strike attack is:
175% x 2 - 100% = 250%
250% ÷ 10 = 25%
If you had a strike rate of 20% and hit three targets, your average damage increase from your strike attack is:
175% x 3 - 100% = 425%
425% ÷ 5 = 85%
J.11 - NUKE STRIKE ANALYSIS (ROCKET LAUNCHERS & WEIRD SCIENCE WEAPONS)
Similar to Shotguns and Flamethrowers, Rocket Launchers and most Weird Science weapons that can strike attack already attack in a AOE. The result is, a Nuke Strike increases damage by 50% only, as well as range and radius by 20%, but they also set enemies on fire.
Therefore the average damage increase formula is:
((50% ÷ number of attacks to charge strike meter) * enemy targets hit) + any burn damage |
E.g. If your strike rate was 20%, it takes 5 attacks to charge your strike meter and therefore the average damage increase from a strike attack is 10% (50% / 5 = 10% + any burn damage).
Similar to Shotguns and Flamethrowers, this average damage increase is multiplied by enemies hit. E.g. if you hit three enemies, the average damage increase would be 10% x 3 = 30% + any burn damage.
J.12 - PRECISION STRIKE ANALYSIS (ASSAULT RIFLES, HANDGUNS, & SNIPER RIFLES ) WIP
Precision strike damage in relation to strike rate is very difficult to calculate. Based on my rough analysis, they are definitely worth it, but a lot of the power comes not just from the damage increases, but the various debuffs as well, which are hard to evaluate objectively. The debuffs are useful, and lowering a tough enemies hit chance and damage with a precision strike to their arm for instance can sometimes be way better than just a straight head shot. For now (and this is still a WIP), I’ll just list the various precision strikes you can make:
Body (Plating):
Deals 35% bonus damage (bugged or description error, no bonus damage is added), and reduces target’s armor by 75%.
Head:
+25% bonus damage.
50% (75% w/ Masterful Precision ) chance: +75% bonus damage instead.
Legs:
Reduces target’s combat speed by 0.8.
75% (90% w/ Masterful Precision) chance: Inflicts Bleeding on the target.
Arms (Turret):
Reduces target’s hit chance by 25%.
30% (56% w/ Masterful Precision chance: Deals +50% bonus damage and reduces target’s damage by 25%.
CPU:
Deals +15% bonus damage.
20% (42% w/ Masterful Precision) chance: Causes target to go berserk and attack its allies.
Treads:
Reduces target’s combat speed by 0.8.
40% (66% w/ Masterful Precision) chance: Inflicts Shocked on the target.
More to come as I work my way through another playthrough on Oct 5th.
BASE: 0
Represents your protection from normal sources of damage. Higher Armor reduces damage received, unless the attacker’s penetration meets or exceeds your Armor.
See Penetration (PEN) for most answers.
A few armor specific points however:
We don’t know enemy penetration values, and because of this, it’s difficult to determine the optimal value of armor at any point. The basic advice is:
More is almost always better, unless you are going glass cannon, in which case armor is of little value at all.
If enemies are bypassing your 10 or 15 armor every time, it’s basically the same as having 0 armor. Once armor is fully penetrated, damage against it is 100%.
Small increases in armor can matter though. Even 2 additional points of armor could theoretically drop an enemy's incoming damage down by 20%, if it means they suddenly under penetrate your armor by exactly 1. A 20% drop in incoming damage won’t mean much if you are sitting at 2 STR though.
Thus for armor to be effective, you must follow good EACON principles.
Be mindful that fire, cold, energy, and explosive damage all bypass armor. If you have 50+ armor and no fire, cold, energy, and explosive resistance, the enemy will shred through your HP regardless.
BASE: 0%
How effectively you avoid enemy attacks. The higher this number, the more swings and bullets will miss their mark.
Evasion might be in the top 3 most important stats to consider when playing on higher difficulties. The fact is, Rangers get shot at a lot. It’s significance early and mid-game are incredible, and up until the point you are ending combat before enemies get a chance to shoot back, it’s impact on surviving enemy return fire cannot be ignored.
Evasion is a non-linear return on survivability. Like hit chance, small increases to evasion can represent huge returns in survivability. Before we get into this, first let’s look at cover bonuses in Wasteland 3.
Low and high cover provide a whopping 40% and 60% boost to evasion. It also provides a 10% increase to hit chance. It’s paramount that players on higher difficulties make effective use of cover. Getting flanked (which negates cover) is devastating on Ranger EACON levels. Building evasion levels on top of cover bonuses is the cornerstone of survivability in Wasteland 3.
Let’s examine the impact stacking evasion has on survivability:
A Ranger with no other evasion modifiers, behind high cover, has 60% evasion and will be hit 2 out of every 5 attacks. If we increase evasion by 20%, it means we are now avoiding 1 out of 5 attacks instead. 1 out of 5 attacks can also be expressed as 2 out of 10 attacks. A 20% increase in evasion has therefore doubled our survivability from 2 out of 5, to 2 out of 10. To double our survivability again, we would want to be hit 2 out of 20 attacks instead. In order to achieve this, we only need to increase evasion by another 10% (total 90%). In order to double our survivability again, we would only want to be hit 2 out of 40 attacks, and that requires an evasion total of 95%. 97.5% would double that again, and so forth and so forth until you reach 100% evasion.
An extra 35% evasion on top of 60% is almost trivial to achieve, and if the enemy hit chance was capped at 100%, it might be considered enough. Like Rangers though, enemies have hit chances higher than 100%, so realistically Rangers need evasion levels higher than 35% + cover to achieve nigh immunity to damage.
A 5% chance to be hit still doesn’t paint the full picture however. While 1 in 20 attacks succeeding might feel safe on paper, evasion isn’t rolled per attack, it’s rolled per bullet. The amount of attack rolls rolled against Rangers are deceptively higher than counting attacks alone. If 3 Enemies target your Ranger, you would feel fairly safe evading 3 single attacks. If each of those 3 attacks were actually 5 bullet bursts, that’s actually 15 individual attack rolls made against your evasion stat. The odds of 1 out of 15 bullets hitting are a lot higher than 3 single attacks. If the bullet that passed through represented 55 damage, your 1 Strength (STR) base CON Ranger with 95% evasion and 55 CON is starting to sweat a lot. Imagine if said Ranger didn’t bother increasing evasion at all, and instead relied only on high cover. 60% evasion means on average 6 out of those bullets should hit our Ranger. Just go ahead and call the Medic now.
Without some CON to back up Evasion, even Rangers with 95% evasion rates are going to feel fragile in relation to the onslaught of bullets they face. You either need to find a way to pad CON a bit, or you need to crank evasion to a consistent 100% for absolute certainty nothing will get through. Even with 99% evasion, 1 in 100 bullets that do 55 damage will kill a base CON Ranger.
So, it’s paramount Rangers find high cover, but because the Developers all have the Sadomasochism quirk, high cover is often scarce. 6 Rangers all neatly tucked behind high cover is rare. Most of the time, you will need to deal with a mix of high and low cover together.
Rangers who consistently find themselves in low cover need to compensate for evasion rates 20% less than everyone else. If they don’t, their odds of survivability drop significantly. Thus, IMO, if you want to escape the scenarios where your team is getting obliterated as soon as Enemies return fire, you need to take a hard look at your EACON levels across the entire team. Rangers on the frontline, taking low cover, and getting shot at a lot absolutely need high EACON levels. Snipers, who can sit in the backline, hopefully behind full cover, avoiding attention, don’t. Enemies tend to target who they can hit however. If you underestimate enemy movement ranges, your 1 STR, 1 SPD Sniper tucked in the back, might just face a rogue AI enemy that decides they can kamikaze their way towards the Snipers position because that Ranger is the easiest person on your team they can hit within their weapon range.
Stacking evasion shouldn’t be hard though. Don’t go out and start cranking Speed (SPD) on every Ranger you create. Remember, AP can be converted to evasion at 5% per AP. Moving into low cover and simply choosing to defend with 4 remaining AP instead of attacking, going into overwatch, or saving 2 AP is already enough to at least boost evasion levels in low cover to a high cover equivalent. Provided you can survive the enemies return fire, realistically, there is zero rush to obliterate enemies in the first turns of combat. A Ranger that moves into cover, shoots once, and saves 4 AP for 20% more evasion is a Ranger who will more likely survive until the next turn. If they can survive until the next turn, and each turn after that, their damage potential is basically unlimited. A dead Ranger who shot twice the previous turn, but then died because 40% evasion felt like enough, does 0% damage the next turn and costs resources from someone else on the team to pick them back up.
M.1 - CRIT RESISTANCE (CRIT RESIST)
BASE: 0%
Determines your ability to shrug off critical hits. If resisted, a critical hit is deflected and does no damage (0 damage).
Crit resist is a significant but difficult defensive stat to evaluate.
To attempt to evaluate it, we need to know enemy crit chances and enemy crit damage. We know crit chance by looking at enemy info during combat, but we don’t know what their crit damage multiplier is.
A hunch tells me enemy crit damage might simply be x1, because x1 might be all that is needed to make crits against the player lethal in relation to average Ranger CON levels. Enemies don’t need to do 10k damage when 2k is just as devastating. Also, if it did vary, it would logically make sense to show any variations to the player, and since they don’t, maybe it's just not that mysterious. At least working with x1 gives us a baseline of how much damage Crit Resist can prevent at minimum and if crit damage amongst enemies do vary, we know at least it will prevent more. So let’s work with what we have and see how we go.
If an enemy's crit damage multiplier is x1, and their average damage was 100, a critical attack would be worth 200. If an enemy had a 25% crit chance, their average attack damage over 8 attacks would look like this:
100 (normal attack) > 100 > 100 > 200 (crit attack) > 100 > 100 > 100 > 200 (crit attack)
Total: 1000 damage
If we had 50% Crit Resist, we should ignore 1 out of 2 critical attacks (represented above by the strikethrough). In this instance it means we reduced average damage to 800 from 1000, or by 20%.
The Weathered perk for example increases crit resistance by 10%. If that was your sole source of crit resistance, and the enemy also had a 25% crit chance, the average damage reduction of the Weathered Perk is 4%. The increase of crit resist from 10% to 50% therefore multiplied our 4% reduction by 5 (4% * 5 = 20%), which matches our findings above.
Therefore the formula to calculate the damage reduction of crit resistance appears to be:
M.2 - CRIT RESIST DAMAGE REDUCTION FORMULA
(TOTAL DAMAGE - (TOTAL CRIT DAMAGE x CRIT RESIST )) ÷ TOTAL DAMAGE |
To save you doing the math, here is the average damage prevented by Crit Resist 10%, 50%, and 100% against average enemy Crit Chances in increments of 10%.
ENEMY CRIT CHANCE | Damage prevented by CRIT RESIST 10% | Damage prevented by CRIT RESIST 50% | Damage prevented by CRIT RESIST 100% |
10% | 1.82% | 9.10% | 18.2% |
20% | 3.33% | 16.65% | 33.3% |
30% | 4.62% | 23.10% | 46.2% |
40% | 5.71% | 28.55% | 57.1% |
50% | 6.67% | 33.35% | 6.67% |
60% | 7.50% | 37.50% | 75.0% |
70% | 8.24% | 41.20% | 82.4% |
80% | 8.89% | 44.45% | 88.9% |
90% | 9.47% | 47.65% | 94.7% |
100% | 10.00% | 50.00% | 100% |
The takeaway is that crit resistance can potentially reduce a lot of damage and more importantly, it helps normalise incoming damage by making it less volatile. Crit resistance would get better if enemies had higher crit damage multipliers, but based on some rough calculations, it doesn’t appear to increase its average prevention by much at all. For instance, if enemies had a 2x Crit Damage multiplier instead of 1x, at 30% enemy crit chance, the damage prevented per 10% of crit resist is 5.63% instead of 4.62%. A whopping 1.01% difference.
My personal observation is it starts showing consistent returns when you reach 40%+ crit resist, but even smaller amounts will help Rangers who care about their EACON.
Do note though, that while this is the average damage prevented by Crit Resist over time and that average percent is worth knowing to determine its value, it isn’t necessarily how it translates into the game. Even giving a Ranger with 55 starting CON the Weathered perk means 1 in 10 crits from the enemy will do 0 damage. If you have no other perks worth taking, sometimes it’s nice to have your bacon saved 10% of the time. Likewise a 550 CON Ranger with 75% Crit Resist is still going to violently explode 25% of the time when that 700 damage mega crit decides it's the Rangers time to meet their maker. Crit resist less than 100% is more about preventing a Ranger getting crit two or three times in a row. You hope you have enough EACON to handle one crit, and then hope your crit resist buys you enough time to heal up before the next one.
N.1 - FIRE, COLD, ENERGY, & EXPLOSIVE RESISTANCE (FCEE RESISTANCE)
BASE: 0%
Determines how resistant this character is to fire, cold, energy and explosive damage.
For once, a relatively straightforward attribute.
Since fire, cold, energy and explosive attacks all have 99 PEN, they effectively negate armor as a defensive stat.
FCEE Resistance is the way to protect Rangers from FCEE damage.
If you have 50% FCEE Resistance, FCEE damage is reduced by 50%.
Rangers with low CON relying on evasion to survive should pay attention to explosive resistance in particular. Most explosives have a 100% chance to hit and completely bypass evasion. Explosive resistance is the only way to reduce or eliminate that damage type.
Significant fire and cold damage is rare enough that I don’t stress too much about them as a stat. Fire is probably more common than cold though. Energy damage is very common however, but it doesn’t bypass evasion. It does bypass armor, so if you find your tankiest Rangers are dying to energy attacks, they either need more evasion or more energy damage resistance.
O.1 - STATUS EFFECT RESISTANCE
BASE: 0%
Determines your chance to shrug off the penalties and damage dealt by negative Status Effects.
Some consider this stat quite valuable, but I mostly consider it a convenience. Status effects just aren’t typically that dangerous, but they can be a giant nuisance. It’s unlikely a status effect like burning, bleeding, poison or shocked would kill you during turn based combat, but outside of combat, these status effects tick down in real time instead and suddenly that poison debuff, if not cured, will likely kill your Ranger who is suffering from it. A simple First Aid Kit however can also negate most of the damage done over time by most status effect debuffs, so even outside of combat, the threat should be minimal.
The frozen status effect can be really annoying to deal with in combat however, but the enemies use it so rarely that it isn’t worth optimizing against either.
This is why I consider status effect resistance a nice to have stat, but not a mandatory one worth chasing.
The Steeltown DLC did increase the need for status effect resistance a bit. The debuffs put on your team in the DLC can be really harsh in terms of maneuverability, and the enemies in the DLC are designed around exploiting Rangers who cannot maneuver effectively. While the importance is increased for the DLC, it still doesn’t make it a priority stat, simply because the increased need for the DLC is only temporary until the DLC has been completed.
BASE: LEVEL 0
The level of radiation this character can mitigate. This will either reduce or completely eliminate the effects.
Rarely comes into play and there isn't much to discuss.
You do need more of it, but when you do, the game is blatantly obvious about it.
Otherwise, ignore this stat.
BASE: 0
Determines how many additional combat turns you can cling to life while downed, before you can become incapacitated.
This stat is base 0, but all Rangers normally have 3 turns in the downed time state before becoming incapacitated. Increasing this stat by 1 would mean you have 4 turns instead of 3.
Injuries are acquired every time a Ranger enters the downed state. If your downed time quota is 1, and you receive 1 injury, your downed time quota would be reduced back to 0. Therefore your allies have 3 turns to revive you before you become permanently incapacitated instead of 4.
Getting to a point where a Ranger is continually downed typically means something has gone terribly wrong. In those scenarios, it may pay to remove injuries with a Suture Kit (consumable) immediately after reviving your Ranger. Injuries also come with additional debuffs other than the -1 downed time modifier, so there are some additional benefits to removing injuries straight away on revival.
The Physical Therapy perk has a % chance of buffing Rangers on revival. When the buff happens it replaces the injury. This means you have replaced both a debuff and the -1 downed time modifier with a buff instead. If you find your Rangers frequently entering the downed state, consider a dedicated Medic using this perk.
BASE: 100%
Bonus to damage when using melee weapons, including brawling weapons.
Melee Damage Bonus is a simple damage increase to all melee attacks. If your base damage was 100 damage and you increased your Melee Damage Bonus by 50% (total 150%), you would do 150 damage instead.
The formula to calculate total damage is:
BASE MELEE DAMAGE x MELEE DAMAGE BONUS |
100 x 150% = 150
S. 1 - RANGED DAMAGE BONUS - BASE: 100%
Bonus to damage when using ranged weapons, including Rocket Launchers and Flamethrowers, but not Grenades or other throwable consumables.
Ranged Damage Bonus is a simple damage increase to all ranged attacks. If your base damage was 100 damage and you increased your Ranged Damage Bonus by 50% (total 150%), you would do 150 damage instead.
The formula to calculate total damage is:
BASE RANGED DAMAGE x RANGED DAMAGE BONUS |
100 x 150% = 150
Worth noting, since Rocket Launchers and Flamethrowers count as ranged attacks, an interesting comparison occurs between a few specific Quirks.
The quirk Sadomasochism increases ranged and melee damage by 33%, and Way of the Squeezins increases ranged and melee damage by a net 30%. Pyromaniac increases fire and explosive damage by 25%. Each quirk has different downsides.
If you were solely looking to increase Rocket Launcher and Flamethrower damage by the highest amounts you could, Sadomasochism and Way of the Squeezins would be the way to go. If you aren’t happy with their downsides however, Pyromaniac is a good substitute. On the other hand, Pyromaniac won’t benefit any other normal, cold or energy damage you do, whereas Sadomasochism and Way of the Squeezins will (because most damage, even when it is fire, cold, energy or explosive is also considered melee or ranged damage as well, and these damage modifiers stack). Pyromaniac will affect throwable consumables that do fire or explosive damage, but Sadomasochism and Way of the Squeezins won’t.
BASE: 100%
Bonus to normal damage dealt by this character.
I actually cannot determine why this stat exists. As far as I know, all damage types are covered by Ranged, Melee or FCEE Damage bonuses already. Throwable consumables that do normal damage wouldn’t be modified by the other damage types, but as far as I know, those don’t exist.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
U.1 - FIRE, COLD, ENERGY, & EXPLOSIVE DAMAGE BONUS (FCEE DAMAGE BONUS)
BASE: 100%
Bonus to damage when using any fire, cold, energy, or explosive attack type damage, including any weapon modified to do one of type of FCEE damage.
The main idea to note is:
FCEE damage bonuses stack with Melee and Ranged damage bonuses. E.g.
A Melee weapon that does fire damage will be increased by both your melee damage bonus and your FCEE Damage Bonus as well.
The formula to calculate total damage is:
BASE FCEE DAMAGE x FCEE DAMAGE BONUS |
100 x 150% = 150
Stacking melee and ranged damage bonuses with FCEE damage bonuses are a great way to elevate total damage.
Note that, because FCEE damage resistance on enemies is quite rare, doing some form of FCEE damage is almost always superior to just doing normal damage alone. FCEE damage in conjunction with ranged and melee Damage bonuses not only scale harder, but they will also completely bypass enemy armor, negating the need for the Penetration stat completely.
Fire and cold damage also do 30% bonus damage against organic enemies, but -30% damage against inorganic enemies.
Energy damage does 30% bonus damage against inorganic enemies, but -30% damage against organic enemies.
Explosive damage, like normal damage, is neutral against both organic and inorganic enemies equally.
A interesting interaction to take note of is:
If for example a weapon does cold damage inherently, and you modify that weapon to do fire damage instead, the bonus damage against organic enemies jumps from +30% to +60%. It also decreases the damage against inorganic enemies from -30% to -60%.
If you modded the same inherent cold damage weapon to energy damage, the damage bonuses would cancel eachother out, and the end result is a energy damage weapon that is neutral versus all enemies. The reverse is true for an energy damage weapon modified to do cold damage instead.
It’s currently unknown whether or not the above two interactions are intended or not.
BASE: 0
How easily you can spot hidden objects in the world, such as traps and alarms.
Another important but hard to evaluate stat. I typically always start with a Ranger that has max Awareness (AWA), followed by a reasonable and consistent investment in the Sneaky Shit skill. Subsequently:
It seems naturally cranking up AWA and Sneaky Shit, as well as acquiring PER increasing perks means I have always had enough PER when needed (I think). I rarely boost it via equipment or utility items either, unless said equipment fits into a larger plan.
I do know some map locations are locked behind higher PER checks, but that also has never presented an issue for me personally, because I usually only enter areas when the game prompts me to head in that direction. By then, I usually have enough PER to meet the required checks anyway.
I'll update this section in the future as I find more info out and consult with other players, but for now, my advice is:
Try to increase it naturally via attributes and skills as much as possible, and pad it with perks. There doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to stack a lot of it however, unless you are an avid world map explorer heading into areas you aren't necessarily supposed to be at.
BASE: 1 METER
Determines how far you can chuck Grenades and other throwable items. It is modified by your Strength (STR) attribute.
I wouldn't stress about this stat. If a Ranger wants STR for CON or melee damage bonus, the added throwing range is a nice extra. Otherwise it's not worth increasing STR just for extra throwing range.
BASE: 0%
Determines your chances of getting the first combat turn if an enemy detects you.
Courtesy of /u/Muken, the prevailing theory on initiative is:
Enemies do not appear to have an initiative attribute.
If you attack first, your entire team goes first. The best advice then to this day is:
Shoot first, ask questions later.
If the enemy detects you or a dialog option results in them deciding to initiate combat though, the entire enemy team goes first instead.
The player's initiative stat then appears to be a flat % chance your Ranger(s) will go first despite the enemies getting the jump on you.
E.g. if a Ranger has 40% initiative, that is a 40% chance said Ranger will go first despite the enemy getting the jump on you. 80% initiative = 80% chance etc. etc.
So, if you can't shoot first, suddenly initiation matters a lot. This is a bit hard to fix because technically then you would want high initiative increases on your entire team, not just individual Rangers. 1 or 2 Rangers winning initiative against 10 enemies is about as useless as 0. On higher difficulties, getting caught out of cover, with no chance to act prior to enemy fire is almost suicide.
Beat the initiative system by attacking first, and if you can’t, try to pre-position your team behind cover before an unknown fight. Pre-positioning behind cover is very powerful.
Of course, there is one exception where initiative might matter.
Any Ranger that has the Rally perk unlocked through the Leadership skill tree, who can also consistently win initiative, can use the Rally ability to grant 2 AP to your entire team. Rangers granted 2 AP from Rally can use that AP straight away, despite losing initiative. 2 AP for each Ranger might be enough for your remaining team to all scramble behind cover and hopefully survive the beating they are about to receive.
BASE: 1.8 SECONDS
Determines how long it takes enemies to detect you.
Very rare that this stat matters above what you get both at a base level and naturally from your one Ranger specialising in the Sneaky Shit skill already. Situations where your entire party needs more time to sneak past enemies simply don’t exist enough to warrant increasing it on anyone else except your dedicated Sneaky Shit Ranger already.
BASE: 1.4
Determines how far you can move during combat per each Action Point.
Combat speed can be useful, but it competes with Action Points (AP) for relevancy.
With 1 Speed (SPD), Rangers can move 1.5 tiles for 1 AP, or alternatively 3 tiles for 2 AP. If a Ranger wanted to move 3 more tiles, they would spend 2 more AP, or 6 tiles total for 4 AP. Increasing Combat Speed to 2.0 would mean the Ranger would only need 3 AP to move 6 tiles instead. The issue is, to get 0.5 more Combat Speed, you need 5 points in SPD, and for all that expenditure into SPD, the Ranger only saved 1 AP over 6 tiles. 1 AP is 2 points in Coordination (COOR). Even if the Ranger wanted to move 12 tiles instead of 6, the total amount of AP saved by increasing SPD by 5 is 2 AP. 2 AP is only 4 points in COOR.
In effect, until COOR is maxed, there is little reason to increase SPD first, unless you are increasing SPD for evasion as well. COOR offers larger returns on movement than SPD, with all the flexibility of added AP. A Ranger only wants more combat speed in order to make maxed out AP more efficient.
E.g. Increasing combat speed to 3.0 means we move 6 tiles in 2 AP, which if COOR is maxed, is a net gain of 2 AP for that Ranger provided they consistently want to move 6 tiles each turn.
AA.1 - QUICK SLOTS
BASE: 2
How many usable items this character can equip at a time.
Provided you don’t hoard consumables for the next rainiest day and instead use them regularly (highly recommended by the way), increasing quick slots can be surprisingly useful. My dedicated Medic could easily fill 3 or 4 quick slots alone, both for the convenience and the added flexibility. The other Ranger I may increase quick slots on is my Mechanic, who at minimum may want to hold a healing item, a defensive deployable and an offensive deployable as well.
Saying that, base 2 is usually enough for everyone else.
AB.1 - LEADERSHIP RANGE
BASE: 0 METERS
How far the effects of Leadership apply. The higher this number, the farther away squad members can be from you and still receive Leadership effects.
There currently isn’t an intuitive way to know how big your leadership range is out in the field. How I check it is by comparing it to Ranger weapon ranges. The level 1 starting Assault Rifle for instance has a range of 18 meters, which is the same leadership range granted by 9 CHA. The level 1 starting Handgun has a range of 10.5, which is roughly the same leadership range granted by 5 CHA.
How much leadership range you want really depends on how tight your squad plays. I tend to be conservative in my squad movements, keeping the team close enough together in a way where they can all support each other and decrease the chance one Ranger gets singled out by enemy fire. If you play more loosely, a bigger radius might work better for you.
AC.1 - EXPERIENCE BONUS
BASE: 0%
How quick a learner you are. The higher this number, the more experience points (EXP) you will earn, and the faster you will level up.
When this experience bonus is stacked and combined with high priority skills that give lucrative amounts of skill check based bonus EXP, the end result can be Rangers who are 3, 4 or even 5 levels higher than the rest of your squad.
Normally, such a discrepancy between levels balances itself out, because if you are funneling all the best EXP sources to one Ranger, who is rapidly outleveling the rest of your Squad, in theory, your remaining Rangers should suffer a bit from that outcome by being at a lower level then they could be had EXP been better spread out.
1 Ranger, who is 3 to 5 levels ahead of everyone else also cannot necessarily cover all skills as effectively as a balanced team who are only 1 to 2 levels apart instead. The larger level difference simply shouldn’t compensate enough compared to the alternative.
Thus, in more traditional playthroughs, EXP Bonuses and bonus EXP granted through skill checks are typically better spread out amongst your entire Squad, then it is concentrated on one individual team member.
That advice isn’t saying stack Charisma (CHA) on all your team equally for best results. Far from it. It’s entirely OK to have one 10 CHA Ranger and five 2 CHA Rangers on your Squad, and then simply accepting there will be a level difference between squad members. What it does mean though is, you may want to spread out some of the higher priority skills who have higher frequency skill checks to the squad members with lower CHA, so that they don’t fall significantly behind in levels compared to the high CHA Ranger.
A simple example is considering the value of the Lockpicking skill. It is the most frequently used skill check in the game, bar none, and it gives ludicrous amounts of bonus exp. You could put Lockpicking on a high CHA Ranger and accelerate their level difference significantly more from the rest of the Squad. It’s a valid approach and it has its own unique merits in relation to certain builds. Alternatively, you could consider putting Lockpicking on a low CHA Ranger, and the end result would be that the low CHA Ranger with Lockpicking will more likely keep pace level wise with the high CHA Ranger using lower priority skills instead.
Where concentrating EXP on one Ranger leads to advantages is:
COMPANION BUILDS:
Since you can respec Companions now, there are unlimited possibilities in creating Companions, and it would be impossible to list them all. Most of the basic builds work for any Companion, and some of the Advanced builds might work as well.
All of the FIXING UP builds assume you do not plan to respec your Companion and these are more geared towards new players who don’t want the complication of thinking about and analyzing 6 player created Rangers instead of 4.
L.1 - MARSHAL KWON:
UNIQUE BACKGROUND: Peacekeeper (+30% Initiative)
Kwon is a fairly average companion, but you also get him early, so he usually ends up on most people's squad and then kind of just ends up sticking around.
His Peacekeeper unique background is of very limited benefit. See initiative for more detail on why this is the case.
His skill set is ok. In an ideal world, Sneaky Shit is better on a Ranger with higher quality AOE attacks, or in combination with the Explosives skill.
He will do better with a Submachine Gun then he would with an Assault Rifle, but Submachine Guns are such a quality weapon type, I tend to dedicate a player created Ranger to them instead. Another non-respeced Companion does them better as well. I usually stick Kwon to Assault Rifles in my playthroughs and he largely ends up in a dedicated support role. His points in First Aid is perfect for this and Kiss Ass is ultimately one less skill your squad needs to worry about.
L.2 - FIXING UP KWON
NO RESPEC ASSUMED
Keeping him canon means sticking to Assault Rifles or Submachine Guns, which for his purposes is fine. I tend to keep him using Assault Rifles, but also equip him with a Rocket Launcher and delegate him to a support role and opener for the Squad. Outside of his opening attack, he’ll rarely attack, and instead focus on using certain abilities and consumables to support squad members. He will also be the squads dedicated Medic. If he does attack, Assault Rifles are highly accurate and superb finishers. Focus Kwon’s attacks on near dead enemies entrenched in high or low cover and you can’t go wrong.
Fixing up canon Kwon isn’t difficult, with only one caveat:
Using him in the way I intend to fix him up might not be 100% Supreme Jerk viable, and to make it more Supreme Jerk viable would require a respec out of Kiss Ass and possibly First Aid for Explosives instead.
The idea behind equipping a Rocket Launcher on Kwon is:
Because we are only using Rockets as an opener, Sneaky Shit is the only immediate damage modifier we need for it. It will raise our Rocket Launcher damage (on opening attacks while sneaking) by 10% per level, whereas Explosives would only raise it by 5% per level.
> Note 1: Because Kwon won’t meet the Explosive requirements for Rocket Launchers, he will never critically hit or strike with them. This is OK. His Crit Chance will never be high anyway, and the Lights Out Perk in the Sneaky Shit skill will compensate.
STARTING > END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 2
AWA: 4 > raise to 10 (4th)
STR: 4
SPD: 3 > raise to 6 (3rd)
INT: 2 > raise to 5 (5th)
CHA: 4 > raise to 7 (2nd)
MANDATORY SKILLS:
Automatic Weapons (rank 9) - Default Kwon skill.
Sneaky Shit (rank 9) - Default Kwon skill.
Kiss Ass (rank 9) - Default Kwon skill.
First Aid (rank 5) - Default Kwon skill.
Leadership (rank 5) - We want the Rally and Demoralize perks for our team support role.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Lights Out
Rally
Puncturing Shot
Double Tap
Demoralize
Emergency Response
Quick Reflexes
Gopher Hunter
Trigger Happy
Physical Therapy
Overhealing
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Open with Rockets, Grenades or Assault Rifle pot shots, then Rally for the team. If you eat food for 12 AP per turn, you can Demoralize as well.
Subsequent turns are spent targeting low CON enemies entrenched behind cover.
L.3 - MARSHAL “SAVE MY BACON” KWON
A more refined and improved Marshal Kwon support build that leverages his Peacekeeper background in the best way I could imagine. Very new player friendly, especially if this is your first go at the Supreme Jerk difficulty level.
STARTING > END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 6 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 1 > raise to 2 (6th)
AWA: 5 > raise to 10 (4th)
STR: 4
SPD: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
INT: 1 > raise to 2 (5th)
CHA: 2 > raise to 7 (2nd)
FIXED SKILLS:
Automatic Weapons (rank 9) - This doesn’t need to be raised aggressively, and can be stopped at Rank 7 for the Double Tap perk until other skills are maxed out first.
Sneaky Shit (rank 9) - We want the Lights Out perk ASAP.
Explosives (rank 8) - We want the High Impact perk pretty quickly. Keep the +1 explosives utility item equipped for rank 10.
First Aid (rank 5) - Use the First Aid skill book to unlock rank 6, and then use the utility item for rank 7 to unlock the Physical Therapy perk. Normally I like First Aid higher, but skill points are tight. Kwon has enough spare action priority that it's ok if he is spending more time patching people up.
Leadership (rank 5) - We want the Rally and Demoralize perks for our team support role ASAP.
Brawling (rank 1 initially, then rank 4 by the end game) - Rank 1 allows us to use the Foam Finger craftable Brawling weapon. This gives us the Inspire Ability which grants +10 hit chance, +10 crit chance and +2 AP to our team. It stacks with the Rally ability. Rank 4 eventually gives us 0.2 combat speed, allowing you to equip leg armor with evasion increasing armor mods while still maintaining 3.0 combat speed.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Lights Out
Rally
Puncturing Shot
Double Tap
Demoralize
Emergency Response
High Impact
Gopher Hunter
Overhealing
Trigger Happy
Deep Pockets
Physical Therapy
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
We found an excuse to stack initiative!
Kwon is our team Medic, opener, but more importantly, he will also save our bacon when we can’t/don’t get to attack first!
On encounters where you are fairly certain you can attack first, open with a Sneaky Shit empowered Rocket Launcher attack or throw a Grenade. Follow it up with Rally and Demoralize (only if you eat food for +1 AP or open with a Grenade instead of a Rocket). Second turn, when everyone is in position, equip the Foam Finger from your backpack and Inspire your team for another +2 AP, +10 hit chance and +10 crit chance.
On encounters you are less certain about or you are detected by enemies, your hope is Marshal Kwon wins initiative (and he should, because you are going to stack initiative on him). If he does, immediately equip the Foam Finger and both Rally and Inspire on the same turn. This leaves Kwon with 3 AP and lots of Combat Speed to find good cover, but more importantly, anyone on your team who lost initiative will now have 4 AP to spend to scramble and find cover themselves. Anyone who doesn’t survive the enemy onslaught, Kwon can pick up and patch up the turn after.
M.1 - LUCIA WESSON:
UNIQUE BACKGROUND: Gunslinger (+5% Strike Rate)
Lucia is one of the more interesting/powerful Companions you can take with your team. Her Gunslinger background gives a unique and universal 5% strike rate when using any weapon.
As such, her strike rate breakpoints often allow you to do more strike attacks with any weapon type. Two examples only (other combinations exist):
At 7 Charisma (CHA) (20%) + Gunslinger (5%), Lucia strikes 4 times instead of 5.
At 10 Charisma (28%) + Gunslinger (5%) + Major Tom (2%), Lucia strikes every 3 times instead of 4.
It’s a deceptively powerful background.
M.2 - FIXING UP LUCIA
NO RESPEC ASSUMED
Because of Gunslinger and Opportunist, we can keep CHA at 2, and this gives us a Strike Rate of 20%.
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 6 (3rd), raise to 8 (6th)
LUCK: 3 > raise to 4 (2nd), raise to 10 (4th)
AWA: 6 > raise to 10 (5th)
STR: 1 > raise to 2 (1st)
SPD: 4
INT: 5 > raise to 6 (7th)
CHA: 2
Complicated stat increases, but it should get us where we need to be.
FIXED SKILLS:
Small Arms (rank 9) - Default Lucia skill.
Weapon Modding (rank 7, then anything leftover) - Default Lucia skill.
Barter (rank 8) - Default Lucia skill.
Survival (rank 8) - Default Lucia skill.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Opportunist
Devastation
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Trick Shot
Clear Cover
Draw!
Penny Pincher
Powder Packer
Expert Disassembler
Scrounger’s Touch
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Nothing fancy here, with 10 AP you:
Open with Trick Shot (6 AP left), if it lands gain +3 AP (9 AP left), then attack three times (0 AP left). Use precision strikes anytime they come up.
M.3 - LUCIA “FIREARMS” WESSON (DLC REQUIRED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A Lucia build that still semi-focuses on her canon skill set, but expands on it and specialises her in doing fire damage.
BACKGROUND: Gunslinger
QUIRK: N/A
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 6 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 2
AWA: 7 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (2nd)
SPD: 2 > raise to 5 (4th)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (6th)
CHA: 2 > raise to 4 (5th)
FIXED SKILLS:
Small Arms (rank 9) - There isn’t much of a reason to rush this past rank 7, except that the extra accuracy is nice for the Trick Shot perk.
Weapon Modding (rank 9) - We are staying philosophically close to canon Lucia’s skill layout, and this is part of it. It could be replaced by something else however.
Barter (rank 8) - See above.
Toaster Repair (rank 7) - We are here for the Heating Element perk.
Sniper Rifles (rank 5) - We are here for the Mark Target Perk and we are also going to eventually use the unique Red Ryder BB Gun.
Weird Science (rank 5) - We are here for the +15% fire damage.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
None (mostly), this build has spent absolutely every single skill point it has.
Dropping a rank out of Weapon Modding for 5 skill points will give you access to a pet. A Cat is probably the best choice. Doing this change likely depends on how much you value scrap. If you don’t use a lot of it, take the Pet instead and drop Scrounger’s Touch and Expert Disassembler for Animal Training and Spirit Animal instead.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Powder Packer
Opportunist
Quick Reflexes
Mark Target
Trick Shot
Antiques Appraiser
Draw!
Masterful Precision
Heating Element
Scrounger's Touch / Overcharge
Expert Disassembler
Healthy
MANDATORY ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Guardian
Barrel: Columbium Barrel
Scope: 32mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: Incendiary Linkage
Magazine: Max Capacity Mag
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Man Cannon
Barrel: Titanium-Cobalt Barrel
Scope: 38mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: Incendiary Linkage
Magazine: Advanced Materials Mag
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Red Ryder Range Model Air Rifle
Barrel: Leave empty
Scope: Leave empty
Underbarrel: Wide Spectrum Light
Magazine: Leave empty
ARMOR:
Elite Pyro Exo Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Elite Pyro Exo Suit [Trauma Insert Plate]
Elite Pyro Exo Leg Armor [Ceramo-Silk Patches]
UTILITY ITEM:
Noah’s Teddy Bear or Anabolic Injector
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo
Injury Kit
MANDATORY PETS:
N/A
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Since we are aggressively modifying weapons with fire damage, this build doesn’t need LCK like typical Handgun builds would.
We are not using Shotguns. Modifying both Shotguns and Handguns to do fire damage is too expensive and impractical.
Instead, once you get the Red Ryder BB Gun, and you have the Draw! perk, you are going to go for this opening sequence:
At the start of combat, equip the Red Ryder BB Gun from your backpack or keep auto-reload off at the end of combat (option available in gameplay settings). Assuming 11 AP, attack and blind two enemies with the BB Gun (9 AP remaining). Mark Target one enemy you plan to Trick Shot (7 AP remaining). This should fill your strike meter to 100%. Strike attack with your Handgun (4 AP remaining). Trick Shot the marked target (0 AP remaining, but +3 AP if you hit), then strike attack again with your Handgun.
Strike attacks against legs count as the slow debuff.
Pair Lucia “Firearms” Wesson with a Melee Combat Ranger specialised in Blunt or Bladed weapons. Blunt/Bladed weapon Rangers automatically land critical hits against blind/slowed enemies.
N.1 - JODIE BELL
UNIQUE BACKGROUND: Driver (Quick Slots +1)
There is nothing remarkable about Jodie Bell as a companion, but also nothing unremarkable either. Her core build is solid enough and she should fit easily into most teams. Early Mechanic and First Aid checks aren't plentiful. Any Mechanic skill checks you do miss, you can easily back track on.
Her unique Background does lean her towards Mechanics and First Aid as well. Outside of those two skills, there isn't a huge reason to need more quick slots.
First Aid on a Sniper sounds awkward, but that’s because we are programmed to think Snipers are fragile and need to stay as far away as possible. This is true of player created Snipers, who typically go full glass cannon, but not necessarily true of Jodie Bell who isn’t inherently more fragile than other Rangers, especially without Quirks like Sadomasochist, Deathwish or Poindexter. Med Darts with a high First Aid skill are very decent healing items and have OK range. A well positioned Jodie Bell should be able to both attack and heal party members without necessarily needing to constantly reposition.
N.2 - FIXING UP JODIE BELL
NO RESPEC ASSUMED
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 3
AWA: 6 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 2
SPD: 2
INT: 4 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 3 > raise to 7 (3rd)
Normally I wouldn’t raise COOR so high on a Sniper Rifle Ranger, but in Jodie Bell’s case, the extra AP is used each turn to launch deployables and med darts.
FIXED SKILLS:
Sniper Rifles (rank 9) - Default Jodie Bell skill.
Mechanics (rank 8) - Default Jodie Bell skill.
First Aid (rank 9) - Default Jodie Bell skill.
Animal Whisperer (rank 5) - Default Jodie Bell skill.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
As set up above Jodie Bell has room for exactly one more rank 8 skill.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Mark Target
Deep Pockets
Masterful Precision
Animal Training
Spirit Animal
Concentration
Chain Ambush
Handy
Overhealing
Quick Reflexes
Hypocritic Oath
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
With 11 AP, just ensure you aren’t spending more than 4 AP per turn healing Rangers/launching deployables. Save the 7 AP remaining to either attack, or enter ambush when you unlock the Chain Ambush perk.
UNIQUE BACKGROUND: Hobo (+10% Status Effect Resistance)
QUIRK: Way of the Squeezins
Scotchmo is as close as you get to a 5th player created Ranger.
His canon build is super awkward though. You get Scotchmo early enough that he is shapeable into a very good Companion, but also not early enough where the 4 ranks he has in Lockpicking isn't a total headache to plan around.
If you insist on using canon Scotchmo, there are two ways around this:
Personally? I just respec him. It’s just far more straightforward and less jarring. You can still make him as close to 95% canon Scotchmo without having to be shoehorned into working around delaying/abandoning a skill that is so critical throughout the entire game.
NO RESPEC ASSUMED
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 8 (4th)
LUCK: 5 > raise to 6 (3rd), raise to 10 (5th)
AWA: 6
STR: 4 > raise to 10 (6th)
SPD: 5 > raise to 6 (1st)
INT: 2
CHA: 1 > raise to 2 (2nd)
FIXED SKILLS:
Small Arms (rank 10) - Default Scotchmo skill.
Melee Combat (rank 9) - Default Scotchmo skill.
Sneaky Shit (rank 9) - Default Scotchmo skill.
Lockpicking (rank 4) - Default Scotchmo skill.
Brawling (rank 2) - We are here for the +0.1 combat speed.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
None, Scotchmo is full.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Lights Out
Bloodsport
Devastation
Stunning Blow
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Clear Cover
Second Chance
Shrug It Off
Weathered
Hardened
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Make sure you are drunk. Clear the hungover status for hard fights.
Use Shotguns for groups of enemies and Blunt weapons for single target damage. Find sources of stun for the Blunt weapon attacks.
Open encounters with Shotgun attacks that target as many enemies as possible. This is why we take the Second Chance perk for increased detection time. 1 second extra detection time to get the perfect positioning and make the best possible shot is actually valuable for once because Shotguns typically have short range.
O.3 - SCOTCHMO “THE OK BOOMER”
BUILD SUMMARY:
Scotchmo with Blunt Weapons, Shotguns and Explosives basically. Shotguns have two end game weapons that do explosive damage and Blunt Weapons have one. Since we are in Small Arms and have access to the Draw! perk, at any point Scotchmo can equip a Rocket Launcher from your backpack and fire it for 4 AP.
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 10
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
AWA: 1
STR: 4 > raise to 6 (1st), raise to 10 (3rd)
SPD: 2
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 1
FIXED SKILLS:
Small Arms (rank 9 or 10) - Rank 10 because it’s likely you will save the Small Arms skill book for another Ranger, and you will want to use the Neutralizer straight away.
Melee Combat (rank 9) - Make sure to get the Bloodsport Perk asap.
Explosives (rank 9) - Don’t dump points in here. Raise it slowly as you need it. Scotchmo is in no major rush for explosive damage until he starts acquiring gear about midway through the game.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Scotchmo with rank 10 Small Arms has exactly 13 skill points left and could take on any skill to rank 7. Toaster Repair, Mechanics, Hard Ass, Survival, Animal Whisperer or Weapon Modding are all good choices here. Preference would be a lower priority skill that can be delayed until you collect Scotchmo.
Alternatively, if he gets the Small Arms skill book as well as the Melee Combat skill book, he will have 19 skill points left, and could take on a rank 8 skill instead.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Bloodsport
Devastation
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Weathered
Stunning Blow
Clear Cover
High Impact
Draw!
Deep Pockets
Counter-Offensive
MANDATORY ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Tactical Shotgun
Underbarrel: Tactical Light
Magazine: Extended Mag
Choke: Open Cylinder Choke
MID GAME WEAPON 2:
Hydraulic Hammer
Handle: Grooved Grip
Weight: Symmetrical Weights
TEMP END GAME WEAPON 1:
Neutralizer
Underbarrel: Swat Light
Magazine: Max Capacity Mag
Choke: Open Cylinder Choke
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Grenade Launcher
Underbarrel: Computer Assisted Laser Sight
Magazine: Oversized Mag
Choke: Extended Choke
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Boom Mace
Handle: Overmolded Grip
Weight: Concussion Bell
ARMOR:
Verchitin Helmet [Molybdenum-Alloy Dome]
Verchitin Armor [Phase Temper Controller]
Verchitin Legs [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM:
Tactical Goggles
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Any Booze/Injury Kit
Med Hypo
MANDATORY PETS:
N/A
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
As always with Way of the Squeezins, make sure you are drunk, and clear the hungover debuff with Crystal Clear for harder fights.
For single targets, find a source of stun or blind and then whack those enemies with your Blunt weapon.
Four groups, hit 'em with your Shotgun.
Scotchmo is good at lobbing Grenades if he can’t quite reach any enemies. Cryo Grenades are a great choice in particular.
Again, take advantage of the Draw! perk. In a tight spot? Equip, reload, and launch a Rocket Launcher attack for 4 AP at any point in combat.
P.1 - FISHLIPS
UNIQUE BACKGROUND: Scrapper (+0.4 Crit Damage multiplier)
Fishlips' unique background is deceptively strong. It represents a 40% increase in damage provided you can consistently critically hit. To put that in perspective, the Way of the Squeezins quirk is a net 30% damage increase and the Lethal Weapon background is 10%. So provided you critically hit, Scrapper is like having both.
What’s probably not a coincidence then, is the Melee Combat skill has two unique ways to ensure you critically hit 100% of the time. The Bloodsport Perk is a guaranteed critical hit on all stunned and blind enemies and the Pursuit Perk is a 100% increased crit chance against slowed enemies (provided you also move more than 3 spaces). These status effects are not as rare as you might think.
Sources of stun are:
Sources of blind are:
Sources of slow are:
Basically, provided you are happy to work a bit for it, your Melee Combat Rangers should be consistently getting critical hits.
The net result is, like Scotchmo, Fishlips is almost the equivalent of a well crafted player created Ranger too.
His skill set is also easy to plan around. This makes Fishlips the 2nd best non-respecced companion you can get (Lucia being the 1st). You can get Fishlips around the same time Scotchmo is available and both Toaster Repair and Armor Modding are fairly low priority skill checks. Any Toaster Repair skill checks you do miss pre Fishlips can always be backtracked for later.
P.2 - FIXING UP FISHLIPS
NO RESPEC ASSUMED
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 5 (5th)
AWA: 3
STR: 8 > raise to 10 (2nd)
SPD: 8 > raise to 10 (4th)
INT: 4 > raise to 5 (3rd)
CHA: 2
Initially at 8 SPD, we have 2.3 combat speed, and ideally we want this at 3.0. To achieve this, take the Striking Distance perk (+0.5 combat speed) and modify any equipped leg armor with the Exoknee Armor mod (+0.2 combat speed) for 3.0 exactly.
Our end goal is 4.0 combat speed (for reasons explained below) when SPD is raised to 10. To achieve this we need:
10 SPD = 2.8 base
Striking Distance perk = +0.5
Brawling rank 6 = +0.3
Personnel Drive Leg Armor Mod = +0.4
Total: 4.0 combat speed even
FIXED SKILLS:
Melee Combat (rank 9) - Default Fishlips skill.
Armor Modding (rank 9) - Default Fishlips skill.
Toaster Repair (rank 9) - Default Fishlips skill.
Brawling (rank 6) - We are here for the +0.3 combat speed.
Animal Whisperer (rank 5) - You 100% want a pet Goat (Billy and Jean is ideal) for this build. Goats randomly stun enemies and increase crit damage multiplier by another +0.2 with the Spirit Animal perk.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
None. As set up above, Fishlips has spent all available skill points by level 25.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Striking Distance
Bloodsport
Pursuit
Animal Training
Spirit Animal
Hack ‘N’ Slash
Toasty
Quick Reflexes
Stunning Blow
Tender Loving Care
Hardened
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Stun, blind and slow enemies, then whack 'em over the head.
The reason we want to end with 4.0 Combat Speed is:
Q.1 - IRONCLAD CORDITE
UNIQUE BACKGROUND: Warlord (+4 Armor)
At first glance you would probably consider Ironclad Cordite as another average but serviceable companion. There is a semi-hidden synergy discussed below however that if leveraged, turns Ironclad Cordite from average, to above average or supreme when taken advantage of.
The +4 armor granted by Warlord isn’t insignificant, especially in the early game. It pushes Ironclad Cordite towards a sturdier Brawler build. At any point however, you can always convert excess armor into more damage or more FCEE resistance via various armor mods, so Ironclad Cordite is always going to be just that little bit tougher as a result.
He has two other unique properties as well. He can use Cyborg Implants straight away, and he has a special shotgun style attack that does explosive damage through his built in Arm Cannon. The Arm Cannon attack is fairly weak though, and rarely worth using.
Being allowed to use Cyborg Implants can be very unique however, and there are definitely some powerful Cyborg Implants worth looking at. The most notable ones are the Nociception Clamp that provides +50% Crit Resist and the Adrenal Enhancer that provides 1.0 Combat Speed.
If I ever considered taking Ironclad Cordite on my team, I would most certainly choose to side with Gary Wolfe and collect the special Combat Shooting skill book. Doing so with Ironclad Cordite in your Squad leverages his unique properties the most, as now your Squad gets access to both Cyborg Implants on Cordite and the Combat Shooting skill for someone else. When leveraged this way, an argument could be made that Ironclad Cordite is very close powerwise to a player created Brawler. In fact, if you go crazy and put Combat Shooting on Ironclad Cordite, a respeced Cordite is uniquely way more powerful than any Brawler a player could ever make. We are talking a 4.0 to 5.0 Combat Speed Ironclad Cordite who will have 100% crit chance against enemies after 1 or 2 punches.
The tricky part to non-respecced canon Ironclad Cordite is getting to him without disrupting your squad skill allocation plans. The simplest way to do that I have found is:
Q.2 - FIXING UP IRONCLAD CORDITE
NO RESPEC ASSUMED
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 8 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 1 > raise to 2 (2nd), raise to 4 (5th)
AWA: 2
STR: 6 > raise to 10 (4th)
SPD: 6
INT: 6 > raise to 10 (1st)
CHA: 2
OR
COOR: 8 > raise to 10 (5th)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 2
STR: 6 > raise to 7 (4th)
SPD: 6 > raise to 7 (1st)
INT: 6 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 2 > raise to 7 (2nd)
Attribute spread #2 needs all leg armor modded with a Personnel Drive armor mod (+0.4 combat speed). This puts you at 3.0 combat speed even, or 4.0 even with an Adrenal Enhancer Cyborg Utility Item.
FIXED SKILLS:
With attribute spread #1:
Brawling (rank 9) - Default Ironclad Cordite skill. Skill book this as soon as you get Cordite and get the Flurry of Blows Perk asap.
Leadership (rank 5) - Default Ironclad Cordite skill. With 2 CHA, Leadership Range will always be too poor to take proper advantage of the hit chance buff. We are here for the Rally and Demoralize Perks basically, which Ironclad has already.
Mechanics (rank 7) - Default Ironclad Cordite skill. Brawlers make good mechanics. They are both AP efficient, and charging to the frontlines on the first turn of combat isn’t always the wisest thing to do. Instead, park behind cover on the first turn and use any remaining AP to launch a few deployables. Once enemies are thinned out a little, then charge forward.
Melee Combat (rank 5) - We are here for the Striking Distance Perk. 6 SPD, rank 10 Brawling, and the Striking Distance Perk is 3.0 Combat Speed even.
Kiss Ass (rank 9) - The perfect skill to lean into after acquiring Ironclad Cordite a bit late.
Animal Whisperer (rank 5) - Get yourself a nice generic Cat for +6% crit chance.
Explosives (rank 5) - Default Ironclad Cordite skill. Might as well keep this and take the small damage boost on our Arm Cannon damage.
With attribute spread #2:
Brawling (rank 9) - Default Ironclad Cordite skill. Skill book this as soon as you get Cordite and get the Flurry of Blows Perk asap.
Leadership (rank 9) - Default Ironclad Cordite skill. With 7 CHA, our Leadership Range is decent now and this means Ironclad Cordite can be our Squads primary Leader.
Mechanics (rank 7) - Default Ironclad Cordite skill. Brawlers make good mechanics. They are both AP efficient, and charging to the frontlines on the first turn of combat isn’t always the wisest thing to do. Instead, park behind cover on the first turn and use any remaining AP to launch deployables. Once enemies are thinned out a little, then charge forward.
Armor Modding (rank 8) - A non-priority skill that can be delayed until we collect Ironclad Cordite.
Weird Science (rank 3) - Rank 3 allows us to equip the Exoskeleton Armor set, which provides a +50% melee damage bonus.
Explosives (rank 5) - Default Ironclad Cordite skill. Might as well keep this and take the small damage boost on our Arm Cannon damage.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
With attribute spread #1:
Flurry of Blows
Deadly Combo
Extreme Combo
Striking Distance
Rally
Demoralize
Animal Training
Spirit Animal
Handy
Quick Reflexes
Weathered
With attribute spread #2:
Flurry of Blows
Deadly Combo
Extreme Combo
Striking Distance
Healthy
Rally
Demoralize
Handy
Quick Reflexes
Tender Loving Care
Hardened
HOW THE BUILD(S) WORKS:
Launch deployables, Rally the Squad, Demoralize your enemies, and most importantly? Punch stuff.
Both attribute spreads are fairly straightforward builds.
R.1 - VICTORY BUCHANEN
UNIQUE BACKGROUND: Psychopath (+5% crit chance)
Vic is worth bringing around on an evil playthrough. He has a lot to contribute and comment story wise and the earlier you can collect him, the more he has to say.
Mechanically, he is probably the most boring companion you can take though. He isn't as mechanically strong as Scotchmo, Ironclad Cordite or Fishlips, and he isn't bringing anything unique to the table like Jodie Bell or Lucia Wesson. His canon build is awkward as well. There isn't a tonne of inherent synergy between Small Arms and Big Guns, except a narrow exception I'll take advantage of when fixing up Vic below. It is easy enough to slap Hard Ass on a standby companion however and have Vic replace whomever when he is available.
In the end, +5% crit chance is definitely something as well. With max INT it still represents an unconditional 10.5% average damage increase. Assuming you are respeccing companions, this makes Vic mechanically stronger than Marshal Kwon and Pizepi Joren, but still less mechanically unique then Jodie Bell and Lucia Wesson.
R.2 - FIXING UP VICTORY BUCHANEN
NO RESPEC ASSUMED
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 6 > raise to 8 (1st)
LUCK: 2
AWA: 9 > raise to 10 (3rd)
STR: 4
SPD: 4
INT: 6 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 6 > raise to 7 (2nd)
MANDATORY SKILLS:
Small Arms (10) - Default Vic skill.
Big Guns (9) - Default Vic skill.
Hard Ass (7) - Default Vic skill.
FIXED SKILLS:
As set up above, Vic has room for exactly one more rank 9 skill or one more rank 8 skill and one more rank 5 skill.
The simplest path as always is to keep Marshal Kwon around until you can grab Vic. Raise Hard Ass and Kiss Ass on Kwon, then replace him with Vic and raise Kiss Ass on Vic instead.
Alternatively, keep Jodie Bell/Ironclad Cordite on your team until you can grab Vic, and raise both Mechanics and Hard Ass on either one. Then when you get Vic, raise Mechanics to rank 8 on Vic and later Animal Whisperer to rank 5 as well.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Steady Shot
Wide Spread
Draw!
Opportunist
Suppressing FIre
Draw!
Trick Shot
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Move Up! or Animal Training
Hardened or Spirit Animal
Weathered or Handy
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
We are taking advantage of a unique weapon conveniently found in Aspen, called the K-Cannon. It’s an end game viable handgun that does fire damage. The most important part is that it has a clip size of 4 and a reload cost of 2. If you modify the K-Cannon with an Advanced Materials Magazine, it's clip size will be reduced to 3 and the reload cost to 1. With 10 AP exact and the Draw! perk, you can attack with the K-Canon three times (1 AP remaining), then reload it (0 AP remaining). This will proc the Draw! perk and allow you to switch to a Heavy Machine Gun and attack for free. Not a bad outcome, and the best synergy I could find for a combined Big Guns and Small Arms Ranger.
S.1 - PIZEPI JOREN
UNIQUE BACKGROUND: Researcher (+25% fire, cold, and energy Resistance)
An almost objectively better optimized Submachine Gun companion than Marshal Kwon.
By that I mean, without respecs, if you slap Nerd Stuff on Kwon, and abandon Sneaky Shit for example, and then later replace Kwon with Pizepi Joren, who then takes over both the Nerd Stuff and Kiss Ass skills, she would be considered the better overall optimised Submachine Gun Squad member. Kwon is still better at being completely Kwon (leaning more into a squad support role and using Assault Rifles), but Pizepi Joren is the better min/maxed offensively oriented Automatic Weapon companion you can get. Without respecs of course. With respecs:
The Researcher background is nothing worth building around, but it is objectively more useful than Peacekeeper IMO.
If you give Pizepi Joren the end game Ripper Submachine Gun modified with energy damage, a shortened barrel weapon mod, and the Microwave Research Perk found in the Weird Science skill, she will tear enemies apart, especially inorganic ones.
S.2 - FIXING UP PIZEPI JOREN
NO RESPEC ASSUMED
STARTING to END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 8 (2nd)
LUCK: 2
AWA: 8 > raise to 10 (3rd)
STR: 4
SPD: 4
INT: 8 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 6 > raise to 7 (1st)
MANDATORY SKILLS:
Automatic Weapons (10) - Default Pizepi Joren skill.
Nerd Stuff (8) - Default Pizepi Joren skill.
Weird Science (8) - Default Pizepi Joren skill.
First Aid (3) - Default Pizepi Joren skill.
COMPLIMENTARY SKILLS:
As set up above, Pizepi Joren has room for exactly one more rank 9 skill. Anything fits, but if you want a smooth transition between Marshal Kwon and Pizepi Joren, I recommend Kiss Ass rank 9.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Stormer
Trigger Happy
Microwave Research
Overcharge
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Emergency Response
Reckless
Spray ‘N’ Pray
Hardened
Electric Leakage
Overclock
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Pew pew, pew pew. You mostly just shoot things and hack enemy Robots. Make sure to increase Pizepi Joren’s combat speed by +0.2 exactly, for 2.0 combat speed even. The easiest way to do this is through the Exoknee Armor mod in any leg armor or equip the Spectrum Assault leg armor which grants 0.3 Combat Speed instead (2.1 Combat Speed is fine too). 2.0 Combat Speed is important for the Stormer Perk, allowing us to move 6 spaces each turn for 3 AP exactly.
Your full sequence with 10 AP would be:
Move 6 spaces (7 AP left), attack for free, attack again (3 AP left) ensuring you kill one enemy for +3 AP from the Trigger Happy Perk (6 AP left), then attack again (2 AP left), and reload (0 AP left). Repeat.
ARCHETYPE PRINCIPLES, HOW TO BUILD MORE ADVANCED RANGERS:
My personal key goals and playstyle when building any effective Ranger follow two overlying rules:
RULE #1 - Don’t hog the glory. Unlike RPG’s where we create 1 main character, Wasteland 3 has us create 4. I want all 4 of my Rangers to feel effective, unique, and special. This means I tend to spread out the best items, perks, quirks, etc. etc.
RULE #2 - Be as effective in the early game as you are in the end. Notably, this means my builds do not chase end game items, armor, or weapons in order to work. I also tend not to use any combination of Quirks and Backgrounds that say raise fire damage by X%, but those bonuses only matter when I finally modify an endgame weapon to do fire damage. The Quirk and Background need to pull some amount of weight from start to finish.
In general, each of the Ranger Archetypes tend to operate in a fixed set of parameters that matter more or less to each of them.
This is discussed in more detail per Archetype below.
A.1 - ASSAULT RIFLES
B.1 - SUBMACHINE GUNS
C.1 - FLAMETHROWERS
D.1 - HEAVY MACHINE GUNS
E.1 - BRAWLING WEAPONS
F.1 - BLADED WEAPONS
BACK TO INDEX
G.1 - BLUNT WEAPONS
H.1 - SHOTGUNS
I.1 - HANDGUNS
J.1 - SNIPER RIFLES
Don’t ever raise skills to 10. All skills have skill books that raise them 1 rank and most skills have Utility Items that then raise them to 10. If you want to be efficient, skills with books and utility items should only be raised to 8.
If any example build says to raise a skill to 7, it means there are three ways to increase this skill by 1. The Skill Book, usually a Helmet, and a Utility Item.
If any example build says to raise a skill to 9, it means no utility item for that skill exists.
Taking perks in priority means:
Every time you are offered a perk, take the first one available in the list, if you cannot, keep going down the list until you can take one, then repeat from the beginning.
A.1 - ASSAULT RIFLE BUILDS:
A.2 - THE FINISHER (OPEN)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A flexible, high accuracy build that focuses on punishing low CON enemies entrenched in cover. Supports the team with deployables.
BACKGROUND: Raider Hater
QUIRK: Serial Killer
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 10
LUCK: 1
AWA: 4 > raise to 10 (2nd)
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (4th)
SPD: 1 > raise to 2 (1st), raise to 3 (5th)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (6th)
CHA: 2 > raise to 7 (3rd)
At 2 SPD, you will need to modify any leg armor with Personnel Drive armor mods for an additional +0.4 combat speed and 2.0 combat speed even.
Once you receive your first pair of Spectrum Assault leg armor (+0.3 combat speed), raise SPD to 3 to maintain 2.0 combat speed, but use evasion leg armor mods instead.
FIXED SKILLS:
Automatic Weapons (rank 9) - Take all the perks except the Submachine Gun specific ones.
Mechanics (rank 7) - See Mechanics for skill book, utility item and skill helmet locations.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 26: 88
Spent: 35
Remaining: 53
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Variation 3 | 3 | 2 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Explosives
Kiss Ass
Lockpicking
Sneaky Shit
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Toaster Repair (if you want the Toasty perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Animal Whisperer
Armor Modding (if you don’t want the perk)
Barter
First Aid
Leadership
Survival
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
Hard Ass
Leadership
Nerd Stuff
Toaster Repair
Weapon Modding
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Double Tap
Trigger Happy
Gopher Hunter
Puncturing Shot
Handy
Deep Pockets
Structural Weakness
Available perk points: 5
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
This build starts with 10 AP, which combined with the Serial Killer Quirk allows for the following sequence:
Attack one enemy (6 AP left), Puncturing Shot (1 AP left), hopefully kill one enemy to trigger Serial Killer (+3 AP, 4 AP left), attack again (0 AP left).
Once you unlock Double Tap and Trigger Happy, your main goal is to attack one enemy twice (2 AP left), hopefully killing them to trigger both Serial Killer and Trigger Happy (+6 AP, 8 AP left), then attack another enemy twice again (0 AP remaining).
If you want to continue weaving Puncturing Shot into the above mid to end game sequence, eat food for 11 AP total.
Support the team at any time by launching deployables around the battlefield, especially if there are no low CON targets worth picking off.
A.3 - THE SPRINGSTEEN (LEADER) (SEMI)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A variant of THE FINISHER build that allows for an effective support style Leadership build instead. The build is less flexible as a result, so it warranted its own entry.
It also focuses on high accuracy attacks to finish off low CON enemies entrenched in cover. It accrues multikill leadership buffs by prioritising and killing at least two low CON enemies per turn.
BACKGROUND: The Boss
QUIRK: Serial Killer
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 8 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 1 > raise to 10 (2nd)
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (4th)
SPD: 1 > raise to 2 (1st), raise to 3 (5th)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (6th)
CHA: 7
At 2 SPD, you will need to modify any leg armor with Personnel Drive armor mods for an additional +0.4 combat speed and 2.0 combat speed even.
Once you receive your first pair of Spectrum Assault leg armor (+0.3 combat speed), raise SPD to 3 to maintain 2.0 combat speed, but use evasion leg armor mods instead.
FIXED SKILLS:
Automatic Weapons (rank 9) - You want everything but the Submachine Gun exclusive Perks asap.
Lockpicking (rank 9) - This skill is nice to leverage our decently high starting CHA. If you absolutely want it on someone else, it can be Kiss Ass rank 9 instead.
Leadership (rank 8) - You will want rank 5 asap, and make sure to grab the Rally and Demoralize Perks quickly as well. Use the Leadership utility item to keep this at rank 10.
Hard Ass (rank 6) - Once you reach rank 6, you are done with this skill. Use the skill book for rank 7, the Savage Helmet for rank 8, the Hard Ass utility item for rank 9, then The Boss background will raise it to rank 10.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 26: 88
Spent: 71
Remaining: 17
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 | 0 |
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Animal Whisperer
Armor Modding (without the Tender Loving Care perk)
Barter
First Aid
Survival
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Rally
Demoralize
Double Tap
Trigger Happy
Gopher Hunter
Puncturing Shot
Available perk points: 6
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Make sure to use the Rally and Demoralize perks as needed to support your team.
This build starts with 9 AP, which combined with the Serial Killer Quirk allows for the following sequence:
Attack one enemy (5 AP left), attack again (1 AP left), hopefully kill one enemy to trigger Serial Killer (+3 AP, 4 AP left), attack again (0 AP left). It cannot sequence in a Puncturing Shot without food or until COOR is maxed.
Once you max COOR and unlock both the Double Tap and Trigger Happy perks, your main goal is to attack one enemy twice (2 AP left), hopefully killing them to trigger both Serial Killer and Trigger Happy (+6 AP, 8 AP left), then attack another enemy twice again (0 AP remaining). You want to kill the second enemy too, in order to trigger Leadership buffs. Always focus on and finish off low CON targets first. Use your team to soften/attack high CON enemies instead.
If you want to continue weaving Puncturing Shot into the above mid to end game sequence, eat food for 11 AP total.
B.1 - SUBMACHINE GUN BUILDS:
B.2 - THE AVENGER (MEDIC) (OPEN)
BUILD SUMMARY:
An extremely tough SMG Medic build that has lots of Action Points and Combat Speed to quickly fix up downed Allies.
BACKGROUND: Vicious Avenger
QUIRK: Varangian Blood
Alternative: Serial Killer
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 1 > raise to 10 (1st)
AWA: 5
STR: 4 > raise to 6 (4th)
SPD: 4 > raise to 10 (3rd)
INT: 1
CHA: 2
FIXED SKILLS:
Automatic Weapons (rank 9) - Start with an Assault Rifle instead of a SMG. Until you get the Stormer Perk, a SMG is less efficient.
First Aid (rank 9) - There is a utility item for this, but the hassle of holding it over something else isn’t necessarily worth the points saved since we have them available.
Brawling (rank 4) - We are here for the 0.2 Combat Speed needed to raise 10 SPD to 3.0 Combat Speed even.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 25: 76
Spent: 49
Remaining: 27
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
Variation 2 | 2 | 1 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Kiss Ass
Lockpicking
Weird Science
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
Hard Ass
Mechanics
Nerd Stuff
Toaster Repair
Weapon Modding
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Stormer
Trigger Happy
Emergency Response
Reckless
Hippocratic Oath
Physical Therapy
Overhealing
Available perk points: 4
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
We are building around the idea that reviving and healing Allies has opportunity costs to our Ranger. You need to move next to the downed Ranger, you need to revive them, you might then remove their injuries and/or heal them. All of these actions cost AP, and AP not spent shooting things is just less fun.
The interaction between Varangian Blood, the Stormer Perk, Emergency Response, and max LCK are the cornerstone of making this all happen.
The Stormer Perk means when we move more than 5 spaces, your next Submachine Gun attack costs no AP (once per turn). Our Submachine Gun Ranger therefore wants to move a minimum of 6 spaces every turn. Initially at 2.0 Combat Speed, this costs us 3 AP, but grants us a free attack worth 4 AP. Moving each turn is therefore a net gain of 1 AP per turn. Conveniently, Trigger Happy returns this 3 AP right back to us when we make a kill, so the net result is, despite only sitting on 8 AP for a good portion of the game, we actually get to attack 3 times per turn. Not bad. Once COOR and SPD is maxed, moving 6 spaces only costs us 2 AP and this changes the equation significantly:
The end game SMG Ripper can only attack 3 times per turn before needing to reload. So if you are using a Ripper, at 11 AP you move 6 spaces (9 AP left) into the open (no cover!) to proc the Reckless Perk, attack for free, attack again (5 AP left), kill 1 enemy for +3 AP (Trigger Happy Perk, 8 AP left), attack again (4 AP left), reload (2 AP left), then move into the safety of cover (0 AP left).
Alternatively, the new craftable end game Crossfire SMG has a higher clip size at 24 and can shoot 4 times before needing to reload. The sequence would then be:
Move 6 spaces into cover (9 AP left), attack for free, attack again (5 AP left), kill 1 enemy for +3 AP (Trigger Happy Perk, 8 AP left), attack again twice (0 AP left). Next turn, you do not move, but you reload instead (9 AP left), attack again (5 AP left), kill 1 enemy for +3 AP (Trigger Happy Perk, 8 AP left), and attack twice again (0 AP left). Combat should be close to over by this point hopefully, so I am not going to map out any more future sequences.
When a Ranger goes down, Emergency Response, Varangian Blood and Hypocritic Oath all kick in together. We now have 4.0 Combat Speed and 3 AP extra from Varangian Blood to cross the map and pick up our downed Ally. We also have 100% crit chance, and 50% more damage buff for any attacks we have remaining, meaning we are outputting close to the same damage we would have done had our Ally not got mangled by the enemies in the first place.
All of these are actions and each action can trigger Lucky Action Chance, refunding their cost.
The Physical Therapy perk at 10 First Aid has a 60% chance of replacing Ally injuries with buffs on revival, which can save us patching them up mid-combat with Injury Kits. More action efficiency basically.
Spending odd amounts of leftover AP launching Med Darts at Allies will raise their total con by 25%. Fairly significant for Rangers sitting between 4 to 10 Strength.
B.3 - THE DEMOLITION CHIEF (LEADER) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A powerful leadership build that aims to accumulate multi-kill and boss kill leadership bonuses ASAP. Can also Rally and Demoralize enemies at the start of each combat encounter. Focuses heavily on explosive damage bonuses.
BACKGROUND: Explodomaniac
QUIRK: Pyromaniac
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 27 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 3 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (2nd)
SPD: 4 > raise to 10 (4th)
INT: 1 > raise to 5 (5th)
CHA: 6
FIXED SKILLS:
Automatic Weapons (rank 9) - You want the Stormer Perk ASAP.
Explosives (rank 9) - Needs to be raised fairly aggressively if you want to meet all the checks. Don’t stress too much if you miss some however. You can always shoot explosives you can’t disarm.
Sneaky Shit (rank 9) - This skill can be parked at rank 4 for a decent time, allowing you to raise both Leadership and Animal Whisperer to rank 5 and 4 respectively first.
Leadership (raise to rank 5 early, then rank 7 after everything else) - Rank 5 is a decent early hit chance boost for the entire Squad and unless you luck into a powerful Rocket Launcher early, you won’t be accumulating Leadership bonuses yet.
Animal Whisperer (raise to rank 4, then rank 5 last) - Take the Animal Training and Spirit Animal perks asap.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Demoralize
Animal Training
Spirit Animal
Rally
Stormer
Quick Reflexes
Healthy
Trigger Happy
Lights Out
High Impact
Blast Radius
Reckless
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Enforcer
Barrel: Columbian Barrel
Scope: 32mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: HE Fuse Linkage
Magazine: Leave empty
MID GAME WEAPON 2:
Any Rocket Launcher
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Spec-Ops Laser Sight
END GAME WEAPON 1:
PDW-01
Barrel: Shortened Barrel
Scope: 38mm magnifying scope
Underbarrel: Wide Spectrum Light
Magazine: Leave empty or Quickfire Mag (if available)
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Javelin
Scope: DeadEye Experimental Scope
Underbarrel: Computer Assisted Laser Sight
ALT END GAME WEAPON 2:
Nooka Zuka
Scope: Red Dot Scope
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
ARMOR:
Bardic Hat [Threat Intelligence]
Bardic Jacket [Trauma Plate Insert]
Bardic Tights [Viscoelastic Plates]
UTILITY ITEM:
Leader’s Banner
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo/Smoke Grenade
Injury Kit
REQUIRED PETS:
A pet Dog for 0.2 Combat Speed with the Spirit Animal Perk.
Polly the Parrot for 10% more Evasion with the Spirit Animal Perk.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Conveniently, the end game SMG PDW-01 does explosive damage and we stack all the Explosive damage modifiers we can get. Explosive damage also bypasses Armor, so we don’t need PEN like many SMG builds do. This is also why we modify the mid game SMG Enforcer with the early free HE Fuselage Linkage, which will hold us over until we can get the PDW-01. Without PEN and our additional Explosive damage modifiers, this Ranger would be quite weak until the PDW-01 is collected and equippable.
Once you achieve 10 AP and 2.0 Combat Speed, along with the Demoralize and Rally Perks, you can start opening encounters with a 6 AP Rocket Launcher attack (4 AP remaining), then Rally your team (0 AP left). If a Rocket Launcher attack isn’t needed, simply open with a SMG attack (6 AP left), Rally (2 AP left) and Demoralize (0 AP left).
Once you have 11 AP, 3.0 Combat Speed, the Trigger Happy, Rally, Demoralize and Stormer Perks, you can achieve this sequence:
Open with Rocket Launcher attack (5 AP left), move 6 spaces (3 AP left), attack for free and kill one enemy for +3 AP (Trigger Happy Perk, 6 AP left), Rally (2 AP left) and Demoralize any remaining enemies left who are still standing (0 AP left).
Next turn you can move 6 spaces (9 AP left), attack for free, attack (5 AP left), attack again (1 AP left) and kill one enemy for +3 AP (4 AP left), and attack again (0 AP left).
The key to this build is ensuring you use your free attack to kill a low HP enemy. If a Rocket Launcher opening doesn’t do it, weaken enemies further with other Rangers and then go for the kill shot after.
B.4 - THE NOBEL LAUREATE (MEDIC) (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
Scientist, Physician, Peacekeeper and classic overachiever.
This build uses Mannerite and Poindexter to pay for 7 ranks in Small Arms for the Draw! perk and 2 ranks in Brawling for +0.2 combat speed. Both are critical to the build's overall function and max potential, which is:
5 Ripper attacks per turn, uninterrupted by reloads.
It does have options for those who don’t want to burn through 50 ammo per turn though, by making use of the Elite Hazard Shield Generator from the Steeltown DLC.
BACKGROUND: Mannerite
QUIRK: Poindexter
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 4 > raise to 5 (1st)
STR: 6 > raise to 8 (5th)
SPD: 4 > raise to 10 (3rd)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 1
FIXED SKILLS:
Automatic Weapons (rank 9) - You want the Stormer and Trigger Happy perks ASAP.
Kiss Ass (rank 8) - Wouldn’t be much of an advocate for peace without this.
First Aid (rank 9) - All the perks here are fairly high priority. You can raise this pretty aggressively if this character isn’t your main Weird Scientist.
Weird Science (rank 9) - To get this to rank 10, you either need to murder the Breathers for the skill book located in the safe behind the Doctor, or temporarily raise the Surival skill to rank 9, then use its skill book for rank 10, then respec out of it back into Weird Science. Messy, but until inXile gives us a diplomatic way to get the Weird Science book, I say fair game. Alternatively, leave it at rank 9, 3% less damage won’t hurt you.
Small Arms (rank 7) - We are here for the Draw! perk. It enables us to weave in Ripper attacks in a seamless fashion and allows us to equip under-utilised Weird Science weapons from our backpack if/when required.
Brawling (rank 4) - We are here for the +0.2 combat speed.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Stormer
Trigger Happy
Quick Reflexes
Emergency Response
Physical Therapy
Overhealing
Draw!
Reckless
Microwave Research
Spray 'N' Pray
Hippocratic Oath
Healthy
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Enforcer
Barrel: Columbian Barrel
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Plasma Linkage
Magazine: Leave empty
MID & END GAME WEAPON 2:
Elite Hazard Shield Generator
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
Magazine: Max Capacity Mag
Choke: Extra Turkey Choke
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Ripper
Barrel: Shortened Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Plasma Linkage
Magazine: Leave empty or Quickfire Mag (if available)
ARMOR:
Elite Energy Exo Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Chemtek Chest [Phase Temper Controller]
Elite Energy Exo Leg Armor [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM:
Sonic Emitter
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Pack
Med Dart
REQUIRED PETS:
N/A
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Prior to the Stormer perk, equip an Assault Rifle. They have a higher starting PEN stat and just function better than most early Submachine Guns.
Once you acquire the Stormer perk and 11 AP, and around 2.0 to 2.5 combat speed, you should be free to spend 3 AP moving into cover, triggering Stormer, and then attacking exactly 3 times per turn with a Submachine Gun.
Once we acquire the Chemtek Chest, the Trigger Happy and Draw! perk, and the Elite Hazard Shield Generator, the attack sequence looks like this:
13 AP available, move 6 spaces for 2 AP (11 AP left). Attack for free, attack twice more (3 AP left) ensuring you kill one enemy to fulfill Trigger Happy (6 AP left), reload (4 AP left), attack for free again, then attack again (0 AP left). Total: 5 attacks.
The sequence above consumes 50 ammo per turn however, and that can sometimes feel a bit...unnecessary. Subsequently, using the last free attack and the remaining 4 AP for two Elite Hazard Shield Generator attacks, or one Elite Hazard Shield Generator attack plus shielding one Ally can be a healthy compromise.
This build chooses to do energy damage because the Ripper is the second best weapon to make work with the Microwave Research perk in Weird Science. Microwave Research will add 10-20 damage per bullet to our Ripper (shoots 10 bullets), making it a powerful combination.
B.5 - THE FIRE RIPPER (ST DLC) (SEMI)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A glass cannon SMG Ranger focusing on fire damage. The combination of 16 AP, stacked fire damage modifiers and an end game Ripper SMG modified with a Short Barrel is absolutely crushing.
BACKGROUND: Disciple of Metal
QUIRK: Serial Killer
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 8 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 7 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 2
SPD: 1 > raise to 5 (2nd), raise to 10 (4th)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (5th)
CHA: 1
FIXED SKILLS:
Automatic Weapons (rank 9) - Start with an Assault Rifle instead of a SMG. Until you get the Stormer Perk, a SMG is less efficient.
Weird Science (rank 10) - We are all about the fire damage and this is one of those lucrative modifiers.
Toaster Repair (rank 7) - Heating Element perk is our goal for even more fire damage.
Brawling (rank 4) - We are here for the 0.2 combat speed.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 25: 85
Spent: 68
Remaining: 17
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 |
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Animal Whisperer
Armor Modding (if you don’t want the perk)
Weapon Modding
First Aid
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Stormer
Trigger Happy
Heating Element
Reckless
Available perk points: 7
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Enforcer
Barrel: Columbian Barrel
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Incendiary Linkage
Magazine: Leave empty
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Ripper
Barrel: Shortened Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Incendiary Linkage
Magazine: Leave empty or Quickfire Mag (if available)
ARMOR:
Elite Pyro Exo Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Elite Pyro Exo Suit [Phase Temper Controller]
Elite Pyro Exo Leg Armor [Personnel Drive]
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Prior to unlocking the Stormer perk, you have 9 AP exactly, which is enough to attack 2 enemies with an Assault Rifle (1 AP left) and hopefully kill one for the Serial Killer quirk (+3 AP, 4 AP left), allowing you to attack again (0 AP left).
Once Stormer is unlocked and you have any combat speed above 2.0, you can then move 6 spaces (6 AP left), attack for free, attack again (2 AP left), hopefully kill one for Serial Killer (+3 AP, 5 AP left), allowing you to attack again (1 AP left), then defend for +5% evasion (0 AP left).
At peak, you have a potential 16 AP total and a Ripper can fire 3 times before reloading. With 3.0+ combat speed, your sequence is as follows:
Move 6 spaces (8 AP left), attack for free, attack twice more (0 AP left) ensuring you kill one target to activate both Serial Killer and Trigger Happy (+6 AP, 6 AP left), reload (4 AP left) and attack again (0 AP left). Repeat next turn.
C.1 - FLAMETHROWER BUILDS:
C.2 - THE FIRE MARSHAL (LEADER) (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A Leadership build that focuses on debuffing enemies, supporting the team and cleaning up weakened enemies with wide sweeping AOE attacks for leadership kills.
BACKGROUND: Disciple of Metal
QUIRK: Pyromaniac
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 6 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 4
SPD: 1 > raise to 4 (3rd)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 6
FIXED SKILLS:
Big Guns (rank 9) - We are using a Flamethrower from early to late game, but mid game we are picking up an Elite Tar-Thrower (DLC required) for single target attacks (use any Heavy Machine Gun prior). Late game, we can modify a Minigun/Hoser with Fire damage as an upgrade, or use the Flamesaw Cannon.
Leadership (rank 9) - Big Gun Rangers tend to sit in the front/middle of the battle, safe behind high or low cover after the Steady Shot Perk. With 10 CHA our Leadership Skill should cover our entire Squad easily.
Weird Science (rank 9) - +30% fire damage is just what the doctor ordered.
Toaster Repair (rank 7) - We are here for the Heating Element Perk for a further 25% fire damage bonus.
Animal Whisperer (rank 5) - Take a Fox early to pad your Leadership range.
Brawling (rank 2) - We are here for the +0.1 combat speed.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Spirit Animal
Animal Training
Terrorizer
Suppressing Fire
Rally
Demoralize
Steady Shot
Heating Element
Quick Reflexes
Structural Weakness
Wide Spread
Healthy
Available perk points: 0
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Flamethrower strike attacks can actually be pretty powerful, and conveniently, the Elite Pyro Armor set boosts fire damage.
With Pyromaniac, Disciple of Metal, the Elite Pyro Armor set and the Toaster Repair Perk, and Weird Science, we boost Fire Damage by 120%.
The reason for Leadership is simple, Leaders want to clean up multiple weakened enemies or bosses in order to trigger party wide leadership buffs. This character is perfectly positioned to follow up a Allied Rangers Sneaky Shit empowered Rocket Launcher attack with a wide sweeping Flamethrower/Suppressing Fire attack that debuffs enemy accuracy so hard, you don’t care if a few survive after being burned. The enemies accuracy can be reduced by as much as 55% with a full salvo of the Terrorizer Perk, Suppressing Fire and Demoralize, which is possible on the opening turn with 12 AP (use food). When less extreme measures are needed, 11 AP allows you to move into position/Demoralize a small group of enemies for 2 AP, Suppressing Fire/Terrorize for 5 AP, and then Rally your Allies for 4 AP.
D.1 - HEAVY MACHINE GUN BUILDS:
D.2 - THE SENTRY (OPEN)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A sturdy Heavy Machine Gun Ranger that is comfortable sitting in the front or middle of the battlefield preferably using low cover with the Steady Shot perk.
BACKGROUND: Mopey Poet
QUIRK: Bop Bag
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 6 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 4 > raise to 6 (3rd)
SPD: 5
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 2
FIXED SKILLS:
Big Guns (rank 9) - Steady Shot makes life a lot easier for this build and is worth pushing for at a reasonable rate.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 25: 85
Spent: 22
Remaining: 63
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 3 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||
Variation 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||
Variation 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Explosives
Kiss Ass
Lockpicking
Mechanics (highly recommended)
Sneaky Shit
Weird Science
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Animal Whisperer
Armor Modding (if you don’t want the perk)
Barter
Survival
Weird Science
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
Hard Ass
Mechanics (highly recommended)
Nerd Stuff
Toaster Repair
Weapon Modding
Complementary skill splashes at rank 5 are:
Animal Whisperer (Animal Training & Spirit Animal)
Toaster Repair (Heating Element)
Weird Science (+15% FCE damage, Overcharge)
Complementary skill splashes ok at rank 3 are:
Mechanics (Structural Weakness)
Weird Science (+9% FCE damage, Overcharge)
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Steady Shot
Move Up!
Suppressing Fire
Terrorizer (if you choose to equip a Flamethrower as well)
Wide Spread
Available perk points: 6
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Suppressing Fire is our opening attack choice every encounter. Ideally you want to spend 1 AP charging into low cover, have your Leader Demoralize a bunch of enemies, and then Suppress Fire as many enemies as possible. This leaves you 5 AP exactly to follow up with a Flamethrower attack which will further debuff enemy accuracy as well. Make sure to end your turn with your Heavy Machine Gun equipped! If you don’t, the Steady Shot perk won’t activate.
Once entrenched in low cover, subsequent turns are spent either attacking with Flamethrowers (that cost 4 AP) to debuff enemies with the Terrorizer Perk, then attacking with your Heavy Machine Gun (7 AP). If using a Flamethrower in the mid to late game, they take 5 AP to attack with so you will need to eat food or use a utility item that increases AP by 1 to continue using them this way.
The craftable end-game Hozer weapon attacks for 4 AP, which further emphasizes finding a way to consistently stay at 12 AP.
Once you reach the tipping point end-game, where your offense outstrips the need for more defense, modify your helmet with the newly craftable armor mod that increases ranged and melee damage by 25% at the expense of armor. You have successfully converted the early armor advantage provided by Bop Bag into a late-game offensive advantage.
D.3 - THE LASER TURRET (OPEN BUILD)
(DLC REQUIRED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A glass cannon Heavy Machine Gun build that focuses on Energy Damage and the power of the Microwave Research Perk (Weird Science rank 6) in conjunction with the end game HMG Minigun.
BACKGROUND: Raider Hater
QUIRK: Sadomasochist
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 1 > raise to 5 (6th)
AWA: 10
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (2nd)
SPD: 2 > raise to 5 (3rd)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 1
FIXED SKILLS:
Big Guns (rank 9) - Steady Shot makes life a lot easier for this build and is worth pushing for at a reasonable rate.
Weird Science (rank 9) - You need to murder the Breathers in Aspen to aquire this skill book. If you aren’t comfortable doing so, leaving it at 9 is OK too.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 26: 88
Spent: 35
Remaining: 53
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 2 | 0 | ||||
Variation 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Kiss Ass
Lockpicking
Mechanics
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Animal Whisperer
Armor Modding (if you don’t want the perk)
Barter
Survival
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Move Up!
Suppressing Fire
Steady Shot
Overcharge
Microwave Research
Wide Spread
RECOMMENDED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Light Squad Weapon
Barrel: Columbium Barrel
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Underbarrel Light
Magazine: Leave empty
MID GAME WEAPON 2:
Brainwave Destabilizer
Barrel: Leave empty
Scope: 38mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: SWAT Light
Magazine: Leave empty
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Minigun
Barrel: Shortened Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Plasma Linkage
Magazine: Leave empty or Quickfire Mag (if available)
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Graviton Shredder
Barrel: Shortened Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
Magazine: Leave empty
ALT2 END GAME WEAPON 2:
Elite Hazard Shield Generator
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
Magazine: Max Capacity Mag
Choke: Extra Turkey Choke
ALT3 END GAME WEAPON 2:
Fusion Launcher
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
ALT4 END GAME WEAPON 2
Tesla Arc Projector
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
Magazine: Leave empty
Choke: Extended Choke
ARMOR:
Elite Energy Exo Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Chemtek Chest [Phase Temper Controller]
Elite Cryo Exo Leg Armor [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM:
Sonic Emitter
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo/Plasma Grenade
Injury Kit
MANDATORY PETS:
N/A
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Point at things and watch them die. Pew pew. Pew pew. This build can 2 shot Scorpitrons.
The synergy here is, flat damage modifiers like the Shortened Barrel and Microwave Research add their damage per bullet. The Minigun shoots 18 bullets! Attacking an enemy with 40 Armor equals +20 damage per bullet. AKA +360 damage. The Shortened Barrel also raises damage by +20 per bullet. Against high Armor targets, we are adding a whopping 720 damage to our Minigun with these two synergies alone.
With 11 AP on the first turn of combat, advance into low cover within 2.5 to 5 squares (9 AP left), activate the Combat Stim, using the Chemtek Chest (7 AP left). Attack (0 AP remaining).
Next turn you will have 13 AP, and can Overcharge (12 AP remaining), attack (5 AP remaining), then switch to the Graviton Shredder and attack again (0 AP remaining).
If you do manage to get a Quickfire Mag onto the Minigun, eat food and enjoy devastation. With 14 AP you can Overcharge and attack twice per turn.
D.4 - THE GADGETEER (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A Heavy Machine Gun build that starts off as a Small Arms and Weird Science + Mechanics support Ranger. Most early AP is spent using Weird Science weapons and utility items, along with deployables from the Mechanics skill. Eventually transitions into a Heavy Machine Gun Ranger that takes advantage of the Draw! perk with a few key Weird Science weapons.
BACKGROUND: Goat Killer
QUIRK: Poindexter
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 10
LUCK: 1 > raise to 5 (4th)
AWA: 2 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 4
SPD: 1 > raise to 5 (2nd)
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 1
FIXED SKILLS:
Small Arms (rank 7) - We are mostly here for the Draw! perk, but in the early game a Handgun will be our primary firearm.
Weird Science (rank 9) - This needs to be raised to rank 6 by the time you reach the Bizarre for a few key items.
Mechanics (rank 9) - This skill along with Weird Science items are our early game workhorses. You want to be aggressively dropping deployables each combat.
Lockpicking (rank 9) - Helps us achieve level 26 and also on theme.
Big Guns (rank 9) - Our Draw! perk outlet, the goal is to generate free attacks via Weird Science weapons and then attack for free with a Minigun.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Draw!
Handy
Reinforced Plating
Deep Pockets
Quick Reflexes
Move Up!
Suppressing Fire
Steady Shot
Microwave Research
Overcharge
Fortify
Structural Weakness
RECOMMENDED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Light Squad Weapon
Barrel: Columbium Barrel
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Underbarrel Light
Magazine: Leave empty
MID GAME WEAPON 2:
Brainwave Destabilizer
Barrel: Leave empty
Scope: 38mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: SWAT Light
Magazine: Leave empty
ALT MID GAME WEAPON 2:
Frozen Ferret Launcher
Scope: 32mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: Spec-Ops Laser Sight
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Minigun
Barrel: Shortened Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Plasma Linkage
Magazine: Leave empty or Quickfire Mag (if available)
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Graviton Shredder
Barrel: Shortened Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
Magazine: Leave empty
ALT2 END GAME WEAPON 2:
Elite Hazard Shield Generator
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
Magazine: Max Capacity Mag
Choke: Extra Turkey Choke
ALT3 END GAME WEAPON 2:
Fusion Launcher
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
ALT4 END GAME WEAPON 2
Tesla Arc Projector
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
Magazine: Leave empty
Choke: Extended Choke
ARMOR:
Elite Energy Exo Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Chemtek Chest [Phase Temper Controller]
Elite Cryo Exo Leg Armor [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM:
Sonic Emitter
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Decoy
Ice Spikes
First Aid Station
Machine Turret/Laser Turret/Slicer Dicer-Assembler
REQUIRED PETS:
N/A
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
In the early game, you have 11 AP for launching deployables. Your Weird Science weapons of choice will mainly be the Brainwave Destabilizer to convert enemies into attacking their allies or the Frozen Ferret Launcher to freeze high threat targets. Currently the Brainwave Destabilizer unloads its entire clip in order to attack, and this is where the early Draw! perk comes in. Essentially you can either attack with the Brainwave Destabilizer, reload it, and then attack with it again for free, or switch to your Handgun/HMG and attack for free with it instead. Ditto with the Frozen Ferret Launcher.
Mid game, once the Chemtek Chest is acquired you will have 13 AP and a small collection of Weird Science weapons all typically collecting dust in your bag. Cycle through them at any point during combat! The Draw! perk makes this relatively painless. Switching into different weapons based on different situations is a large part of what makes this build click. Weird Science weapons typically reload for a small amount of AP, so once reloaded, use the free attack for a Heavy Machine Gun attack and then any remaining AP to fire the Weird Science weapon.
BUILD SUMMARY:
A Heavy Machine Gun build that focuses on explosive damage.
BACKGROUND: Explodomaniac
QUIRK: Pyromaniac or Two-Pump Chump
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 10
STR: 4
SPD: 1 > raise to 3 (4th)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 2 > raise to 7 (2nd)
FIXED SKILLS:
Big Guns (rank 9) - Ignore the Flamethrower specific perks.
Explosives (rank 9) - Raise it as needed to make your skill checks and equip the latest and greatest Rocket Launcher.
Sneaky Shit (rank 9) - Keeping this skill low to just meet skill checks is one option, but the Lights Out perk is also worth rushing.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 26: 88
Spent: 66
Remaining: 22
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 | 0 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Kiss Ass
Leadership
Lockpicking
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Lights Out
Steady Shot
High Impact
Move Up!
Suppressing Fire
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Blast Radius
Available perk points: 4
RECOMMENDED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Light Squad Weapon
Barrel: Columbium Barrel
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: HE Fuse Linkage
Magazine: Leave empty
MID GAME WEAPON 2:
Any Rocket Launcher
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Spec-Ops Laser Sight
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Minigun
Barrel: Shortened Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: HE Fuse Linkage
Magazine: Leave empty or Quickfire Mag (if available)
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Javelin
Scope: DeadEye Experimental Scope
Underbarrel: Computer Assisted Laser Sight
ALT END GAME WEAPON 2:
Nooka Zuka
Scope: Red Dot Scope
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
ARMOR:
Spectrum Assault Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Spectrum Assault Armor [Phase Temper Controller]
Spectrum Assault Legs [Viscoelastic Plates]
UTILITY ITEM:
Anabolic Injector
Defusal Kit (can allow points for a pet)
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo
Injury Kit
Cryo Grenade
REQUIRED PETS:
If you choose to take a pet, a generic Cat is a good choice.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
If you take Pyromaniac and have 11 AP, you want a Leader who is free to use the Rally ability on the first turn of combat. This gives you 13 AP and means you can open with a Rocket Launcher attack followed up by a Heavy Machine Gun attack. The Two-Pump Chump version is slightly more independent and more suitable if you decide to take the Leadership skill.
See Brawling for how the combo system works.
E.2 - THE HOLLYWOOD ACTION HERO (LEADERSHIP BUILD)
BUILD SUMMARY:
The main lead in a Hollywood Action flick. Attacks a lot per turn in a flashy way and seemingly always has a comical cast of zany animal friends and bumbling allies.
BACKGROUND: Lethal Weapon
QUIRK: Death Wish
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 1 > raise to 10 (3rd)
AWA: 1
STR: 5
SPD: 1
INT: 3 > raise to 10 (1st)
CHA: 8
Yes, an odd number at STR, which is unconventional. Mild OCD means Lethal Weapon + 5 STR = +25% Melee Damage Bonus even.
FIXED SKILLS:
Brawling (raise to 9) - Rush this skill to level 9 asap then use the Brawling skill book to immediately raise it to 10. This is doable by level 6. Unlock the Flurry of Blows perk ASAP (massive power spike).
Leadership (rank 9) - With 10 CHA we have a far reaching Leadership range and AP to spare for Rally and Demoralize when needed.
Animal Whisperer (rank 5) - We want Billy and Jean followed by Polly the Parrot. Tame Billy and Jean first, then acquire Polly the Parrot! If you did not side with the Hoons, take a Razorback instead of Billy and Jean.
Melee Combat (rank 5) - Try to eventually raise this to rank 5 for the Striking Distance perk.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 26: 88
Spent: 58
Remaining: 30
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Armor Modding
Barter
First Aid
Survival
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
Hard Ass
Mechanics
Nerd Stuff
Toaster Repair
Weapon Modding
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Flurry of Blows
Animal Training
Spirit Animal
Rally
Healthy
Deadly Combo
Demoralize
Quick Reflexes
Striking Distance
Extreme Combo
Available perk points: 2
REQUIRED PETS:
Billy and Jean will eventually increase our crit damage by x0.2 after the Spirit Bond perk.
Polly the Parrot helps increase our evasion by 10% with the Spirit Animal perk. Since we cannot wear armor with Death Wish, we lose out on evasion increasing armor mods.
Major Tom increases our strike rate by 4%, which with 8 CHA is a strike rate of 26% even, or a strike attack every 4 attacks.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
By end game, this Ranger will have 14 AP (15 AP with food) per turn, which with Flurry of Blows translates into 14 attacks per turn. That doesn’t include lucky action chance procs. The odds of 1 or 2 lucky action procs per sequence of attacks is pretty high. With food, I would anticipate 16 to 17 attacks per turn.
That’s a lot of AOE Strike Attacks per turn (remember to spread your stuns out, enemies cannot be chained stunned).
The critical thing to note is, if you haven’t stunned all the enemies on the field, make sure you have enough AP leftover to find full cover. This Ranger can feel a bit fragile on the frontlines without cover or multiple stunned enemies.
The magic of this build is the interaction between the abundant Brawling attacks, Luck and Intelligence.
Brawling weapons lower enemy Armor per attack by 1. Therefore each attack we make against the enemy increases the value of our PEN stat. Attacking 14 times per turn by mid game is also a lot of lucky action, crit and mega crit rolls.
The combo system means we don’t need to heavily invest in crit chance. Each time we attack a target, our crit chance and crit damage increases. Lucky crit chance and lucky mega crit chance also exclusively scale off increased crit damage.
We can keep SPD at 1 because Brawling provides exactly 0.5 Combat Speed when maxed. Our total Combat Speed settles on 2.0, which with our massive AP pool should be more than enough. The Striking Distance perk increases this to 2.5.
E.3 - THE INCREDIBLE HULK (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
The strongest Avenger, and probably the strongest Brawler build you will ever make.
Uses Poindexter to increase available skill points which actually translates into some incredible combat advantages.
BACKGROUND: Vicious Avenger
QUIRK: Poindexter
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (4th)
AWA: 1
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (1st), raise to 10 (3rd)
SPD: 2
INT: 10
CHA: 2
FIXED SKILLS:
Nerd Stuff (rank 5, then rank 9 after Brawling is maxed) - Rank 5 allows you to meet most early game skill checks while Brawling is being maxed.
Weapon Modding (rank 7) - A skill we can delay until after Brawling reaches 9. You want rank 5 straight after, to make a critical skill check in Denver for the Armor Modding Skill Book as well as the Powder Packer perk.
Brawling (rank 9) - After Nerd Stuff rank 5 and Weapon Modding rank 5, crank Brawling until rank 9 then use the early skill book for rank 10.
Hard Ass (rank 7) - Another fairly non-critical skill that can be delayed until Brawling rank 9.
Melee Combat (raise to 5) - Raise to rank 5 for and take the Striking Distance perk sometime mid-game.
Weird Science (raise to 3) - We are going to equip the Exoskeleton Armor set for a whopping +50% melee damage bonus.
Combat Shooting (rank 9) - The pay off. Explained further below.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Powder Packer
Flurry of Blows
Deadly Combo
Extreme Combo
Shaolin Strike
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Striking Distance
Expert Disassembler
Scroungers Touch
Weathered
Hardened
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Nailbox
Handle: Rubber Grip
Weight: Symmetrical Weights
MID & END GAME WEAPON 2:
Foam Finger
Handle: Leave empty
Weight: Leave Empty
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Power Gauntlet
Handle: Fiberglass Grip
Weight: Counterforce Weights
ARMOR:
Exoskeleton Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Exoskeleton Chest Armor [Phase Temper Controller]
Exoskeleton Legs [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM:
Star of Bravery
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Injury Kit
Med Hypo
REQUIRED PETS:
N/A
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Hulk smash!
With Combat Shooting rank 8, 10 INT, a Fiberglass Grip, and the Star of Bravery utility item, we have 12 AP and a crit chance of 72%!
After we punch an enemy once, our crit chance is immediately raised to 100% against that target, and every punch will also count toward raising our crit multiplier too. If you have a strike attack close to being charged, and approach multiple enemies, punch each one individually first for 100% chance to crit against each of them. Then unleash your AOE strike attack for maximum damage.
Between Vicious Avenger, 10 LCK, and the Counterforce Weight we have boosted PEN by 11. Each strike made against the opponent also lowers their armor by 1. We absolutely demolish high armor targets, which is normally a big weakness for Brawling builds. Elemental damage? Who needs it?
The Exosuit Skeleton modified with a Threat Intelligence armor mod and 10 STR is a 105% melee damage increase on top of all of the above.
Absolutely, downright, vicious.
E.4 - THE SERIAL KILLER (OPEN)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A straightforward open Brawler build that takes advantage of its namesake quirk for maximum AP.
BACKGROUND: Goat Killer or Lethal Weapon
QUIRK: Serial Killer
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 1 > raise to 5 (5th)
AWA: 1
STR: 6 > raise to 10 (4th)
SPD: 1 > raise to 2 (2nd)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (1st)
CHA: 7
FIXED SKILLS:
Brawling (rank 9) - Crank Brawling until rank 9 then use the early skill book for rank 10 asap and unlock the Flurry of Blows perk.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 26: 88
Spent: 22
Remaining: 66
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 3 | 0 | ||||
Variation 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Explosives
First Aid
Kiss Ass
Leadership
Lockpicking
Sneaky Shit
Weird Science
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Animal Whisperer
Armor Modding (if you don’t want the perk)
Barter
Leadership
Survival
Weird Science
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
First Aid
Hard Ass
Leadership
Mechanics
Nerd Stuff
Toaster Repair
Weapon Modding
Complementary skill splashes at rank 5 are:
Animal Whisperer (Animal Training & Spirit Animal)
Toaster Repair (Heating Element)
Melee Combat (Striking Distance)
Weird Science (+15% FCE damage, Overcharge)
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Extreme Combo
Deadly Combo
Flurry of Blows
Shaolin Strike
Available perk points: 8
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Punch and kill things. This is a well balanced open build that is fairly simple to use. You charge up your strike meter relatively fast (20% strike rate), you have a bit of PEN and lucky crit/mega/action chance, and with its namesake quirk, Serial Killer, you have plenty of AP to navigate around and punch/stun your enemies.
E.5 - THE CAUTERIZER (MEDIC) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A durable but blazing fast Medic build focused on doing fire damage. Combines great defense with equally balanced offense.
Brawlers make great Medics because they are fairly AP efficient, have lots of natural ways to increase combat speed, and can frequently stun enemies to mitigate a lot of incoming damage.
BACKGROUND: Mopey Poet
QUIRK: Circus Freak
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 8 (4th)
LUCK: 2
AWA: 1
STR: 10
SPD: 2 > raise to 3 (3rd), raise to 7 (5th)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (1st)
CHA: 1 > raise to 7 (2nd)
At 7 SPD our end game combat speed settles on 2.1. Our total end goal is 4.0 with:
Circus Freak quirk: +0.4
Brawling rank 10: +0.5
Striking Distance perk: +0.5
Glass Knuckles: +0.5
FIXED SKILLS:
First Aid - (rank 9) - Start this at rank 4 on character creation, then park it until Brawling rank 9 is unlocked.
Toaster Repair (rank 7) - Start this at rank 3 on character creation, then park it until Brawling rank 9 is unlocked.
Brawling (rank 9) - Crank Brawling until rank 9 then use the early skill book for rank 10 asap and unlock the Flurry of Blows perk.
Hard Ass (rank 8) - A non critical skill that can be mostly ignored early until Brawling is raised to rank 9. None of the early Hard Ass skill checks are critical to make.
Melee Combat (rank 5) - We are here for the Striking Distance perk.
Weird Science (rank 5) - We are here for the +15% fire damage and the ability to equip the Exoskeleton Armor set.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Flurry of Blows
Emergency Response
Quick Reflexes
Deadly Combo
Extreme Combo
Quick Reflexes
Striking Distance
Overhealing
Physical Therapy
Weathered
Heating Element
Hypocritic Oath
Healthy
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Nailbox
Handle: Rubber Grip
Weight: Symmetrical Weights
MID & END GAME WEAPON 2:
Glass Knuckles
Handle: Leave empty
Weight: Cryo Capsule
ALT MID & END GAME WEAPON 2:
Foam Finger
Handle: Leave empty
Weight: Leave empty
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Power Gauntlet
Handle: Fiberglass Grip
Weight: Incendiary Capsule
ARMOR:
Exoskeleton Helmet [Molybdenum-Alloy Dome]
Exoskeleton Chest Armor [Phase Temper Controller]
Exoskeleton Legs [Personnel Drive] > [Ceramo-Silk Patches]
UTILITY ITEM:
Star of Bravery
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Pack
Med Darts
REQUIRED PETS:
N/A
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Early game your focus is primarily to be the team's sturdy Medic. Since Brawling can take awhile to get online, your early game AP is best spent picking up downed allies, patching them up, and using that 10 STR attribute to absorb some hits. Despite being pretty sturdy at the start, try not to end your turn out of cover. Since Circus Freak lowers our starting evasion by -10%, standing behind cover still gives a decent evasion boost, but our net evasion will still be overall lower than our allies, which should keep you an attractive target to the enemies without being overly frail standing out in the open.
Once Flurry of Blows unlocks and COOR starts getting raised, our offensive output starts coming online, and it only gets better once CHA is raised as well. Focus primarily though on stunning as many enemies as possible, and continue to pick up and patch up downed allies as required.
F.1 - BLADED BUILDS:
F.2 - THE KNIFE JUGGLER (OPEN)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A former Payaso whose grisly acts of violence were too much even for his fellow gang members. So they kicked him out... He felt his particular sense of humour was just misunderstood.
BACKGROUND: Mopey Poet
QUIRK: Circus Freak
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
AWA: 1
STR: 10
SPD: 2
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 1
At 2 SPD with Circus Freak we are at 2.0 combat speed even. Our end goal is 3.0 combat speed. To achieve this we then need:
Striking Distance perk (+0.5)
Brawling rank 2 (+0.1)
Personnel Drive leg armor mod (+0.4)
Total: 3.0 combat speed
FIXED SKILLS:
Melee Combat (rank 9) - We want Hack ‘N’ Slash and the Pursuit Perks asap.
Brawling (rank 2) - We are here for the +0.1 Combat Speed.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 25: 85
Spent: 24
Remaining: 61
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |||
Variation 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Mechanics
Kiss Ass
Lockpicking
Weird Science
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Animal Whisperer
Armor Modding (if you don’t want the perk)
Barter
First Aid
Survival
Weird Science
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
Hard Ass
Mechanics
Nerd Stuff
Toaster Repair
Weapon Modding
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Striking Distance
Hack ‘N’ Slash
Pursuit
Bleeding Strike
Available perk points: 7
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Run around and smack things. There isn’t a lot of finesse to be had here.
F.3 - THE F9 (MEDIC) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
This build started as a bit of a meme about the Medical Marvel Quirk, but ended up turning into something reasonably decent and worth considering.
The F9 is what happens when your dedicated tanky Medic build goes down in combat. At that point you:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
BACKGROUND: Mopey Poet
QUIRK: Medical Marvel
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (4th)
AWA: 1
STR: 10
SPD: 1 > raise to 6 (1st), raise to 10 (3rd)
INT: 1
CHA: 2
FIXED SKILLS:
Melee Combat (rank 9) - The only Perks we are picking up here are the Hack ‘N’ Slash and Pursuit Perks.
First Aid (rank 9) - Finally we have a build that can really afford to crank First Aid up fast. Take every Perk here as aggressively as possible.
Weird Science (rank 9) - Weird Science weapons are a great use of this Rangers AP and stat spread. See notes below.
Brawling (rank 6) - We are here for the +0.3 Combat Speed. Try to raise it when SPD is closing in on 10.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Hack ‘N’ Slash
Pursuit
Emergency Response
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Weathered
Overhealing
Physical Therapy
Hypocritic Oath
Spirit Animal
Animal Training
Overcharge / Hardened
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Curse the game and reload a lot. /s
No, but seriously, this build is about as tanky as you can get. Follow good EACON principles, stick to cover when things feel dicey, and in theory, outside of the most unlucky situations, this Ranger should survive. If he survives, he should be able to pick up the rest of your team who don’t. If he doesn’t… Well you know what to do...
This Ranger is never going to be a damage machine, but he will be a great support. Equipping him with all the under utilised Weird Science weapons is a fantastic use of this builds AP. I highly recommend either the Shrink Ray or the Brainwave Destabilizer, but the Fusion Launcher or the Orb Cannon are good choices too if you want more firepower instead. Hint: Shoot yourself with the Shrink Ray for even more evasion!
Notably, Weird Science also gives us access to the Sonic Emitter utility item, which stuns enemies in a fairly large shotgun style AOE. It also lets us use the Exoskeleton Armor set as a stepping stone towards the more robust Verchitin Armor set. Feel free to keep using the Exoskeleton Armor set though if you are feeling tanky enough already.
F.4 - THE RED PRIEST (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
Companion build to THE STAG KING, but also completely functional without it.
Based around Thoros of Myr, a Red Priest in the Game of Thrones novels who would set his sword ablaze as a way of intimidating his enemies.
He was tasked with turning King Robert Baratheon (known as the Stag King) away from the Seven and converting him to the Lord of Light.
This build is both extremely functional and flavourful.
BACKGROUND: Disciple of Metal
QUIRK: Way of the Squeezins or Pyromaniac
As this build is based around Thoros of Myr, a famous drinking and whoring companion of King Robert, Way of the Squeezins is both more powerful and maybe more on theme then Pyromaniac. Some people absolutely hate messing around with Way of the Squeezins though, so Pyromaniac is an ok substitute.
You can also take Pyromaniac if you pair this build with THE STAG KING and want to avoid duplicates.
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 6 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 1
STR: 4 > raise to 10 (3rd)
SPD: 1 > raise to 5 (4th)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (5th)
CHA: 7 > raise to 8 (1st)
At 5 SPD we are at 1.9 combat speed even. Our end goal is 3.0 combat speed. To achieve this we then need:
Striking Distance perk (+0.5)
Brawling rank 4 (+0.2)
Personnel Drive leg armor mod (+0.4)
Total: 3.0 combat speed
FIXED SKILLS:
Melee Combat (rank 9) - We want Hack ‘N’ Slash and the Pursuit perks asap.
Animal Whisperer (rank 5) - We want the 4% strike rate from Major Tom asap, so raise this to rank 4 as soon as possible, then use the Animal Whisperer utility item to raise it to rank 5 for the Spirit Animal perk. You need Animal Whisperer rank 6 to tame a pet Stag, so be ready to raise it to rank 5 when you come across your first Stag (Denver).
Mechanics (rank 7) - Since we only do fire damage, this skill is great for boosting damage vs inorganics. We can also launch deployables to support our team. Hard Ass rank 7 is another option.
Toaster Repair (rank 7) - We are here for the Heating Element and Toasty perks.
Brawling (rank 4) - We are here for the +0.2 combat speed.
Weird Science (rank 10) - We are going hog wild on damage modifiers for this build, and this one provides another chunk.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Spirit Animal
Animal Training
Striking Distance
Hack ‘N’ Slash
Pursuit
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Heating Element
Toasty
Bleeding Strike
Handy
Structural Weakness
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Elite Ignition Spear
Handle: Tape Grip
Weight: Symmetrical Weights
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Elite Ignition Spear (if recipe collected at level 20+)
Handle: Fiberglass Grip
Weight: Concussion bell
ALT END GAME WEAPON 1:
Chainsaw Sword
Handle: Fiberglass Grip
Weight: Incendiary Capsule
ARMOR:
Exoskeleton Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Exoskeleton Chest Armor [Phase Temper Controller]
Exoskeleton Legs [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM (choose one):
Sonic Emitter
Tactical Goggles
Adrenal Enhancer
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo
Injury Kit
REQUIRED PETS:
Major Tom is vital to this build, it allows us to reach a strike rate of 26%, which is a strike attack every four attacks.
A pet Stag is recommended for the extra +20% melee damage bonus. Yay! We successfully converted a Stag to a follower of the Lord of Light.
If you are pairing this build with THE STAG KING, use a pet Goat instead. Billy and Jean is preferable.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
This build stacks damage modifiers like crazy:
Way of the Squeezins: 30% melee damage
Drunk: 25% melee damage
Strength: 35% melee damage
Exoskeleton Armor set: 50% melee damage
Pet Stag: 20% melee damage
Threat Intelligence: 25% melee damage
Total bonus melee damage: 180%
Disciple of Metal: 15% fire damage
Heating Element perk: 25% fire damage
Weird Science: 30% fire damage
Total bonus fire damage: 70%
Early game, you will attack enemies 4 times before getting a strike attack (26% strike rate with Major Tom and the Spirit Animal Perk).
When your strike meter is full, your sequences will look like this:
Move 4 to 6 spaces for 2 AP to proc the Pursuit Perk (9 AP left), strike attack (6 AP left), attack (3 AP left), attack the same target again (0 AP left) which procs Hack ‘N’ Slash for another free attack. Your hope is this kills a target and procs the Toasty Perk, and it will also fill your strike meter to 100% again. Next turn, move towards a target and proc the Pursuit Perk, attack, (which should burn the enemy), and then use the Bleeding Strike ability on the burned enemy.
G.1 - BLUNT BUILDS:
G.2 - THE CHUNKY MONKEY (OPEN)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A hard hitting Blunt Weapon build that focuses on big single target automatic critical hits.
BACKGROUND: Lethal Weapon
QUIRK: Blunderer
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
AWA: 1
STR: 10
SPD: 1
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 2
FIXED SKILLS:
Melee Combat (rank 9) - The only mandatory skill in this build. If you are using the Blunderer Quirk, avoid any Bladed weapon Perks, as Bladed weapons just don’t work well with a -50% crit chance.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 25: 85
Spent: 22
Remaining: 63
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 2 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
Variation 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||
Variation 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Explosives
Kiss Ass
Lockpicking
Sneaky Shit (if you take Explosives)
Weird Science
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Animal Whisperer
Armor Modding (if you don’t want the perk)
Barter
Explosives
First Aid
Survival
Weird Science
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
Hard Ass
Mechanics
Nerd Stuff
Toaster Repair
Weapon Modding
Complementary skill splashes at rank 5 are:
Animal Whisperer (Animal Training & Spirit Animal)
Toaster Repair (Heating Element)
Weird Science (+15% FCE damage, Overcharge)
Complementary skill splashes at rank 2 are:
Brawling (+0.1 combat speed)
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Bloodsport
Striking Distance
Stunning Blow
Available perk points: 8
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
I’ll be mostly discussing this build in relation to Blunderer. This build is as close to the perfect use case you can get for it.
Blunderer lowers critical hit chance by -50%, but critical hits granted from the Bloodsport Perk against stunned and blind enemies are still automatic critical hits and bypass this downside completely. On top of that, Lucky Crit Chance and Lucky Mega Crit Chance are also unaffected by Blunderer. So for this build specifically, Blunderer is basically +15% Melee Damage with no downside. You are never going to raise critical chances on this character past the 20% INT provides, and INT will be the last attribute you raise. By the time you do raise INT, you should have consistent ways to stun and blind your enemies anyway, and are then only raising it for the increased crit damage multiplier (which is still extremely valuable to this build). Prior to this, you will be relying on Lucky Crits and Lucky Mega Crits. The chance of one of those proccing per attack is 18%.
Sources of stun are:
Sources of blind are:
I highly recommend pairing this build with a Brawler build that has at minimum 7 CHA.
G.3 - THE STAG KING (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
Companion build to THE RED PRIEST, but also completely functional without it (just find another consistent source of stuns and blind).
This build represents Robert Baratheon, from Game of Thrones, known as the Stag King. All Robert liked to do was fight, hunt, whore and drink. This build is about emphasizing those aspects of Roberts character.
This build is both extremely functional and flavourful.
BACKGROUND: Lethal Weapon
QUIRK: Way of the Squeezins
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
AWA: 1
STR: 10
SPD: 1
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 2
At 1 SPD, our base combat speed is 1.5. We are aiming for 2.5 combat speed. To achieve this we need:
Striking Distance perk: +0.5
Personnel Drive leg armor mod: +0.4
Brawling: +0.1
Total: 2.5 combat speed
FIXED SKILLS:
Melee Combat (rank 9) - Take the Bloodsport perk asap.
Armor Modding (rank 9) - We are here for the Tender Loving Care Perk, which is both functional for this build, but also represents Robert's love for Lyanna Stark.
Animal Whisperer (rank 9) - We couldn’t be the Stag Lord without taking a pet Stag. We want the Animal Training and Spirit Animal perks asap.
Survival (rank 8) - Robert Baratheon loved to hunt, so this is just too on theme to skip.
Brawling (rank 2) - We are here for the +0.1 combat speed.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Striking Distance
Bloodsport
Healthy
Hardened
Quick Reflexes
Stunning Blow
Animal Training
Spirit Animal
Weathered
Tender Loving Care
Big Game Hunter
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Hydraulic Hammer
Handle: Grooved Grip
Weight: Symmetrical Weights
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Patriarch’s Prototype Hammer
Handle: Overmolded Grip
Weight: Counterforce Weights
ARMOR:
Exoskeleton Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Exoskeleton Chest Armor [Phase Temper Controller]
Exoskeleton Legs [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM (choose one):
Tactical Goggles
Adrenal Enhancer
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo
Injury Kit
REQUIRED PETS:
A pet Stag is recommended for the extra +20% melee damage bonus.
Young Man Vinters will give us a nice amount of FCEE damage resistance.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
When paired with THE RED PRIEST you have a consistent and reliable source of stuns every turn. This build should focus on attacking stunned enemies for auto critical hits.
In true fashion to Robert Baratheon, it’s otherwise a fairly straightforward build. Drink, fuck, fight, and watch out for boars.
G.4 - THE NINJA MIME (SEMI)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A Ninja Cadet that failed their throwing star entry exam for Ninja school. Completely disillusioned, they went to Mime school instead.
Basically the best use case I could find for the Mime quirk.
This Ranger build will max out detection time and use it to stealth its way through enemies and disable generators before combat starts.
When ready, they should be able to sneak right up to their enemy of choice and bash them over the head with a blunt weapon.
BACKGROUND: Lethal Weapon
QUIRK: Mime
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 10
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
AWA: 1
STR: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
SPD: 1
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 2
FIXED SKILLS:
Melee Combat (rank 9) - Take the Bloodsport perk asap.
Sneaky Shit (rank 9) - The Lights Out perk and the detection time stat are important here. I recommend raising this aggressively.
Mechanics (rank 8) - You want to keep this as high as the enemy generators you are encountering.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 25: 85
Spent: 61
Remaining: 24
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
Variation 2 | 1 | 2 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Explosives
Kiss Ass
Lockpicking
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Animal Whisperer
Armor Modding (if you don’t want the perk)
Barter
First Aid
Survival
Complementary skill splashes at rank 5 are:
Animal Whisperer (Animal Training & Spirit Animal)
Toaster Repair (Heating Element)
Weird Science (+15% FCE damage, Overcharge)
Complementary skill splashes at rank 2 are:
Brawling (+0.1 combat speed)
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Lights Out
Bloodsport
Strike Distance
Second Chance
Shrug It Off
Handy
Stunning Blow
Structural Weakness
Available perk points: 3
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
The Mime quirk is never going to be amazing, but this is genuinely (IMO) the best use case I can find for it.
An opening Blunt Weapon attack backed by the Sneaky Shit skill is going to hurt. Melee Combat characters want to start close to their enemies, so sneaking up super close saves them a bunch of AP on the first turn of combat.
Otherwise, the build isn’t complicated. Sneak around, explore, disable enemy turrets. When ready, bash things with your Blunt weapon of choice.
H.1 - SHOTGUN BUILDS:
H.2 - THE MAJOR BOOMS (LEADER) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A Leadership build that focuses early game on softening up enemies with area of effect attacks and destroying enemy cover, It also supports allies with the Rally and Demoralize Perks found in the Leadership skill.
By mid to late game, can initiate combat and wipe out multiple enemies by itself, which will immediately grant his allies powerful multikill Leadership buffs for all of their follow up attacks.
BACKGROUND: Explodomaniac
QUIRK: Two-Pump Chump
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 8 > raise to 10 (6th)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 1 > raise to 10 (3rd)
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (2nd)
SPD: 1 > raise to 2 (1st), raise to 3 (5th)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 7
At 2 SPD, you will need to modify any leg armor with Personnel Drive armor mods for an additional 0.4 combat speed and 2.0 combat speed even.
Once you receive your first pair of Spectrum Assault leg armor (+0.3 combat speed), raise SPD to 3 to maintain 2.0 combat speed, but use evasion leg armor mods instead.
FIXED SKILLS:
Small Arms (rank 9) - We want the Clear Cover and Devastation Perks asap.
Sneaky Shit (rank 9) - You can’t really afford to rush Lights Out as aggressively as I would like, so just raise it as needed.
Explosives (rank 9) - The High Impact Perk is very important to this build, and this skill should be raised regularly.
Leadership (rank 9) - You want rank 5 asap for Rally and Demoralize.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Rally
Demoralize
Opportunist
Clear Cover
Devastation
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Draw!
Lights Out
High Impact
Blast Radius
Weathered
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Tactical Shotgun
Underbarrel: HE Fuse Linkage
Magazine: Extended Mag
Choke: Cylinder Choke
MID GAME WEAPON 2:
Any Rocket Launcher
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Spec-Ops Laser Sight
END GAME WEAPON 1:
The Neutralizer
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
Magazine: Max Capacity Mag
Choke: Open Cylinder Choke
ALT END GAME WEAPON 1:
Grenade Launcher
Underbarrel: Computer Assisted Laser Sight
Magazine: Oversized Mag
Choke: Extended Choke
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Javelin
Scope: DeadEye Experimental Scope
Underbarrel: Computer Assisted Laser Sight
ALT END GAME WEAPON 2:
Nooka Zuka
Scope: Red Dot Scope
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
ARMOR:
Spectrum Assault Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Spectrum Assault Armor [Trauma Plate Insert]
Spectrum Assault Legs [Viscoelastic Plates]
UTILITY ITEM:
Anabolic Injector
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo/Smoke Grenade
Injury Kit
REQUIRED PETS:
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Early game, at 8 COOR, we have a total of 12 AP with Two-Pump Chump.
Your goal in the early game is to either open with a Rocket Launcher attack (6 AP left), Rally (2 AP left), and then Demoralize a group of enemies (0 AP left). Alternatively, open with two Shotgun attacks instead, followed by the same sequence.
Once you get the Tactical Shotgun online with explosive damage, you should be able to start consistently getting the multikill Leadership buffs in the first or second turn of combat.
By end-game, this build can destroy encounters by themselves. You have access to the Draw! perk, which allows for two Rocket Launcher attacks on the first turn of combat, and then you have a Grenade Launcher which with the High Impact perk, automatically critical hits for devastating amounts of damage.
I.1 - HANDGUN BUILDS:
I.2 - THE WILD BILL (OPEN)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A gunslinging Sheriff who started out on the wrong side of the law. Attacks frequently for numerous strike attacks per turn.
This is a combined arms build that uses Shotguns as well.
BACKGROUND: Raider Hater
QUIRK: Serial Killer
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 5 (3rd), raise to 10 (5th)
AWA: 3 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 4
SPD: 2 > raise to 3 (4th)
INT: 1
CHA: 7
At 2 SPD, you will need to modify any leg armor with Personnel Drive armor mods for an additional 0.4 combat speed and 2.0 combat speed even.
Once you receive your first pair of Spectrum Assault leg armor (+0.3 combat speed), raise SPD to 3 to maintain 2.0 combat speed, but use evasion leg armor mods instead.
FIXED SKILLS:
Small Arms (rank 9) - We want the Opportunist Perk asap, and Trick Shot is important by midgame.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 26: 79
Spent: 22
Remaining: 57
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
Variation 2 | 3 | 5 | ||
Variation 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Kiss Ass
Leadership
Lockpicking
Sneaky Shit
Weird Science
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Animal Whisperer
Armor Modding (if you don’t want the perk)
Barter
Leadership
Survival
Weird Science
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
Hard Ass
Leadership
Mechanics
Nerd Stuff
Toaster Repair
Weapon Modding
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Opportunist
Devastation
Clear Cover
Trick Shot
Draw!
Available perk points: 7
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
At 10 COOR, with Serial Killer, we have 10 AP exact, and your sequence should be:
Strike attack (7 AP left), Trick Shot (3 AP left) which grants +3 AP on a successful hit (6 AP left), if it also kills an enemy, it will grant another +3 AP from Serial Killer (9 AP left), strike attack (6 AP left), attack twice again (0 AP left). You are 1 Handgun attack away from another strike attack again. Depending on the Handgun, you may have to reload at some point in the second turn. The Draw! perk should make this seamless.
At any point the opportunity rises, switch to your Shotgun for a quality AOE attack or strike attack. 3+ targets is best for the Devastation perk.
I.3 - THE BARD (LEADER) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A Leadership build that focuses its early game on being the party face/buffer, and slowly transforms into a pretty competent fighter as well. It raises LCK as early as possible to maximise lucky scrap and lucky money chance.
Despite being a Handgun build, this build is a combined arms approach that uses Handguns and Shotguns together.
There are two variations to consider, modified slightly by what background and quirk you take:
BACKGROUND: Sex Machine (variation 1) or Money Bags (variation 2)
QUIRK: Way of the Squeezins (variation 1) or Prospector (variation 2)
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 1 > raise to 6 (3rd)
LUCK: 5 > raise to 10 (1st)
AWA: 1 > raise to 10 (2nd)
STR: 2
SPD: 1 > raise to 2 (4th)
INT: 1 > raise to 5 (5th)
CHA: 10
At 2 SPD, we have 1.6 combat speed. Sex Machine will raise this to 1.8, and 4 ranks in Brawling (+0.2 combat speed) will raise it to 2.0.
If you take Money Bags instead of Sex Machine, you will mod your Bardic Tights with a Personnel Drive armor mod (+0.4 combat speed) for the same result.
FIXED SKILLS:
Leadership (rank 5, then rank 8) - For this build, it’s almost mandatory you rush the Rally and Demoralize perks.
Small Arms (rank 9) - Take all of the perks in this skill (Handgun and Shotgun perks), except Counter-Offensive. We are too fragile for that.
Kiss Ass (rank 9) - Simply one of our party face skills.
Hard Ass (rank 8) or Barter (rank 8) - If you take the Sex Machine background, take the Hard Ass skill and end it at rank 8. If you take Money Bags background, you take Barter rank 8 instead.
> Note! If you are the type of player that mules your Barter skill, you can take the Mannerite background and then drop Kiss Ass to rank 8. This will allow you to take Lockpicking rank 9 instead of Barter rank 8. Lockpicking is also an outstanding choice for variation 2 of this build.
Brawling (rank 4) or Animal Whisperer (rank 4) - Same schtick as other skills above. If you take Sex Machine, take 4 ranks in Brawling. If you take Money Bags, take 4 ranks in Animal Whisperer.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Rally
Demoralize
Healthy (variation 1) / Penny Pincher (variation 2)
Clear Cover
Opportunist
Devastation
Quick Reflexes
Trick Shot
Shredder Shot (variation 1) / Antiques Appraiser (variation 2)
Weathered (variation 1) / Animal Training (variation 2)
Draw! (variation 1) / Deep Pockets (variation 2)
Hardened (variation 1) / Healthy (variation 2)
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Guardian
Barrel: Sound Suppressor
Scope: 32mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: Tactical Light
Magazine: Max Capacity Mag
MID GAME WEAPON 2:
Tactical Shotgun
Underbarrel: Tactical Light
Magazine: Max Capacity Mag
Choke: Extra Full Choke
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Man Cannon
Barrel: Lightweight Barrel
Scope: 38mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: SWAT Light
Magazine: Advanced Materials Mag
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Jackhammer
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
Magazine: Advanced Materials Mag
Choke: Extra Turkey Choke
ARMOR:
Bardic Hat [Threat Intelligence]
Bardic Jacket [Trauma Plate Insert]
Bardic Tights [Viscoelastic Plates] or [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM:
Star of Bravery (variation 1)
Anabolic Injector (variation 2)
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Food/Injury Kit
Med Hypo/Smoke Grenade
REQUIRED PETS:
Variation 2 gets a pet, and the best one for our purpose is a Razorback which grants +2 PEN with the Spirit Animal perk.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Both for mechanical and flavour reasons, this build starts out as a bit of a combat dud.
Your first priority is rank 5 Leadership asap for the Rally and Demoralize perks. We start with 6 AP only, which is conveniently all we need to launch Rally + Demoralize on the first turn of every combat encounter. On the second turn, just fire off some Handgun attacks and pretend to be useful. Once you acquire the Clear Cover perk however, the better use of your 6 AP will be to blow up enemy cover with your Shotgun.
For variation 1 (Sex Machine + Way of the Squeezins), this approach is convenient, because until you acquire a good stash of alcohol and Crystal Clear to remove the hungover debuff, you won’t be activating Way of the Squeezins much anyway. This is OK, your purpose isn’t damage early, it’s support. For variation 2 (Money Bags + Prospector) , you shouldn’t care either. Your job is to make your team rich by selling gold nuggets and outfitting them with the best gear you can find.
Once AWA is maxed and COOR is being raised, our combat prowess starts coming online. Eventually you will settle on 10 AP via food, the Star of Bravery, or the Anabolic Injector. This allows a sequence of:
Trick Shot (6 AP left), +3 AP if it hits (9 AP left), a strike attack (6 AP left), followed by 2 attacks (0 AP left) or Rally + Demoralize (0 AP left).
With 10 CHA and the Bardic Jacket, our total CHA is actually 11, and this conveniently puts us at a 30% strike rate, or 35% when using Handguns and the Opportunist perk. This allows you to perfectly sequence a Shotgun strike attack (strike meter filled to 30%) into two Handgun attacks (strike meter filled by 35% x2, total 100%) for a seamless Shotgun strike attack every turn if desired. In relation to Leadership kill bonuses, this means Trick Shot attacking a boss affected by the Mark Target perk is a great boss killer/finisher, and Shotgun strike attacks are the perfect Leadership multi-kill enabler.
Eventually, in the end game you will upgrade to a Jackhammer Shotgun. This Shotgun takes 5 AP to shoot. I highly recommend eating food at this stage for 11 AP. If you do, you can initiate this sequence:
1st turn :
Trick Shot (6 AP left), +3 AP if it hits (9 AP left), a Jackhammer strike attack (4 AP left), Rally (1 AP left), defend/save the AP for movement (0 AP left).
2nd turn:
Handgun attack (8 AP left), handgun attack (5 AP left), Jackhammer strike attack (0 AP left).
J.1 - SNIPER RIFLE BUILDS:
J.1 - THE CLASSIC
BUILD SUMMARY:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Just your straight up classic Goat Killer + Sadomasochist, Chain Ambush build. It doesn’t do anything fancy except exist as the minimum benchmark for all other Sniper Rifle builds to compare themselves too.
BACKGROUND: Goat Killer
QUIRK: Sadomasochist
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 2
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
AWA: 10
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (4th)
SPD: 1
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
CHA: 2 > raise to 7 (1st)
FIXED SKILLS:
Sniper Rifles (rank 9) - Prioritise this to unlock the Chain Ambush Perk asap.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 25: 85
Spent: 22
Remaining: 63
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | ||
Variation 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 | ||
Variation 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Explosives
Kiss Ass
Leadership
Lockpicking
Sneaky Shit
Weird Science
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Armor Modding (if you don’t want the perk)
Barter
Leadership
Survival
Weird Science
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
Hard Ass
Leadership
Mechanics
Toaster Repair
Weapon Modding
Complementary skill splashes at rank 5 are:
Animal Whisperer (Animal Training & Spirit Animal)
Toaster Repair (Heating Element)
Weird Science (+15% FCE damage, Overcharge)
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Chain Ambush
Mark Target
Masterful Precision
Concentration
Available perk points: 7
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
Sit still and shoot. Your focus is on attack quality, not quantity. Quantity comes with the Chain Ambush perk. I wouldn’t even raise COOR enough for 9 AP to Mark Target. If you do have a precision strike charged and want to Mark Target prior to using it, have your Leader use the Rally perk for 2 AP.
When you unlock Chain Ambush, pre-position, enter ambush, sit still and shoot.
J.3 - THE SHOTCALLER (LEADER) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A Sniper Rifle build that aims to alpha strike encounters with Sneaky Shit empowered Rocket Launchers. If multiple enemies are killed, you start combat with a multi-kill leadership buff.
BACKGROUND: Goat Killer
QUIRK: Two-Pump Chump
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 10
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (4th)
SPD: 1 > raise to 3 (5th)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 2 > raise to 7 (2nd)
FIXED SKILLS:
Sniper Rifles (rank 9) - This can stop at 7 until Sneaky Shit and Explosives are maxed.
Sneaky Shit (rank 9) - Rush towards the Lights Out perk. Maxed Sneaky Shit + Lights Out perk is a 300% damage increase on opening attacks.
Explosives (rank 9) - Required to use critical chance with Rocket Launchers. Raise gradually to meet skill checks and Rocket Launcher requirements.
Leadership (rank 9) - Raise this to 5 early, then park it until Sneaky Shit and Explosives are maxed.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Lights Out
Rally
Mark Target
Demoralize
Masterful Precision
Healthy
Quick Reflexes
Concentration
Chain Ambush
Blast Radius
Duck and Cover
Hardened
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Red Dragon
Barrel: Blast Muffler
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Laser Sight
Magazine: Long Mag
MID GAME WEAPON 2:
Any Rocket Launcher
Scope: Leave empty
Underbarrel: Leave empty
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Eliminator
Barrel: Titanium-Cobalt Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: HE Fuse Linkage
Magazine: Oversized Mag
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Javelin
Scope: Dead Eye Experimental Scope
Underbarrel: Computer Assisted Laser Sight
ALT END GAME WEAPON 2:
Nooka Zuka
Scope: Red Dot Scope
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
ARMOR:
Spectrum Assault Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Spectrum Assault Armor [Phase Temper Controller]
Spectrum Assault Legs [Viscoelastic Plates]
UTILITY ITEM:
Anabolic Injector
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo
Injury Kit
REQUIRED PETS:
N/A
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
With a starting COOR of 4 and Two-Pump Chump we have 10 AP exact. This is enough to start combat with either a Rocket Launcher attack or Sniper Rifle attack (4 AP left), then Rally (0 AP left) exact.
After you max COOR, but before Chain Ambush, you have 13 AP and can:
Rocket Launcher opening attack (7 AP left), Rally (4 AP left), Demoralize (1 AP left), defend (0 AP left, +5% evasion).
OR
Sniper Rifle opening attack (6 AP left), Rally (2 AP left), and Demoralize (0 AP left).
On your second turn, you will again have 13 AP. Simply Mark Target (11 AP left), and attack (4 AP left), then defend (0 AP left, +20% evasion).
At any point, you can eat food however and start combat with 14 AP, which allows you to open with a Rocket Launcher attack (8 AP left), Rally (4 AP left), Demoralize (2 AP left), and Mark Target (0 AP left).
After Chain Ambush is unlocked, you probably still want to stick to 14 AP with food (once you acquire the Anabolic Injector, food is no longer necessary).
You can then open with a Sniper Rifle attack (7 AP left), then immediately enter Ambush (0 AP left) or open with a Rocket Launcher attack (8 AP left) and enter ambush or Rally, Demoralize and Mark Target (0 AP left).
The next turn you either attack twice, or use whatever abilities weren’t used the first turn.
If combat lasts past 2 turns, simply ambush each turn with whatever AP you have and use it to off-set the hit penalty of Two-Pump Chump.
J.4 - THE HOT HEAD (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A complete glass cannon fire based Sniper Rifle build that aims to rush the Chain Ambush Perk ASAP and maximise damage per attack in order to clean up multiple weakened enemies.
This build deliberately avoids stacking crit chance and works around the Varangian Blood Quirk.
BACKGROUND: Disciple of Metal
QUIRK: Varangian Blood
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
AWA: 10
STR: 2
SPD: 1
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (2nd)
CHA: 1
FIXED SKILLS:
Sniper Rifles (9) - Prioritise this to unlock the Chain Ambush Perk asap.
Mechanics (9) - This skill can sit at rank 7 for the entire game and should be raised to rank 9 last. Fire damage comes with a -30% damage modifier against inorganics, and Mechanics helps erase that malus and ensure we are doing maximum damage per shot.
Weird Science (10) - Boosts fire damage by 30%. We also want the Overcharge perk.
Toaster Repair (7) - We are here for the Heating Element perk.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Chain Ambush
Mark Target
Handy
Reinforced Plating
Structural Weakness
Concentration
Overcharge
Heating Element
Masterful Precision
Fortify
Deep Pockets
Quick Reflexes
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID & END GAME WEAPON 1:
Elite Hot-Rivet Rifle (if recipe collected at level 20+)
Barrel: Titanium-Cobalt Barrel
Scope: 38mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: Computer Assisted Laser Sight
Magazine: Oversized Mag
MID & END GAME WEAPON 2:
Elite Hazard Shield Generator
Underbarrel: Leave empty
Magazine: Max Capacity Mag
Choke: Extended Choke
ALT END GAME WEAPON 1:
Freeze Ray
Barrel: Titanium-Cobalt Barrel
Scope: 38mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: Incendiary Linkage
Magazine: Oversized Mag
ALT END GAME WEAPON 2:
Eliminator
Barrel: Titanium-Cobalt Barrel
Scope: 38mm Magnifying Scope
Underbarrel: Incendiary Linkage
Magazine: Oversized Mag
ARMOR:
Elite Pyro Exo Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Elite Pyro Exo Suit [Phase Temper Controller]
Elite Pyro Exo Leg Armor [Viscoelastic Plates]
UTILITY ITEM:
Tactical Goggles
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Decoy
Laser Turret/Slicer Dicer Self-Assembler
First Aid Station
REQUIRED PETS:
N/A
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
When Allies aren’t dying, you have 11 AP exactly. This is enough to:
Then enter Chain Ambush (0 AP left).
There is a really nice synergy here between the Elite Hot-Rivet Rifle, Chain Ambush and the Elite Hazard Shield Generator. The Elite Hot-Rivet Rifle does AOE damage in a small narrow cone, and it friendly fires. Normally this is quite dangerous to use with ambush because we have no control over who we target, so friendly fire can be quite common. For this build, hitting your own Allies can be advantageous. If they die to friendly fire, we get to enjoy 100% crit chance and 14 AP next turn. That’s enough to attack and enter an ambush, or attack twice. Alternatively, if you want to avoid friendly fire, use the Elite Hazard Shield Generator ability on any Ally you think might be caught in the crossfire and protect them instead.
An Eliminator Sniper Rifle (modified with fire damage) is an alternative choice to the Elite Hot-Rivet Rifle, because it is completely ambush safe.
J.5 - THE FIRE STORM (ST DLC) (SEMI)
BUILD SUMMARY:
The Fire Storm build emphasizes immediate and powerful upfront damage at all cost.
BACKGROUND: Goat Killer
QUIRK: Sadomasochist
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (2nd)
LUCK: 1 > raise to 10 (3rd)
AWA: 10
STR: 2
SPD: 1
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (1st)
CHA: 1
FIXED SKILLS:
Sniper Rifles (rank 9) - Prioritise this to unlock the Chain Ambush Perk asap.
Weird Science (rank 10) - Boosts cold damage by 30%. We also want the Overcharge perk.
Toaster Repair (rank 7) - We are here for the Heating Element perk.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 25: 85
Spent: 63
Remaining: 22
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 | 0 |
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Mechanics
Kiss Ass
Lockpicking
Sneaky Shit
Weapon Modding (if you value all recipes)
Armor Modding (if you value all recipes and want the perk)
Or any other skill if you value their additional benefits per rank.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Chain Ambush
Mark Target
Masterful Precision
Concentration
Overcharge
Heating Element
Available perk points: 5
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Red Dragon
Barrel: Blast Muffler
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Laser Sight
Magazine: Long Mag
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Eliminator
Barrel: Titanium-Cobalt Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Incendiary Linkage
Magazine: Quickfire Mag
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Elite Hazard Shield Generator
Underbarrel: Leave empty
Magazine: Max Capacity Mag
Choke: Extended Choke
ARMOR:
Elite Pyro Exo Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Elite Pyro Exo Suit [Phase Temper Controller]
Elite Pyro Exo Leg Armor [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM:
Rabbit’s Paw or Anabolic Injector
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo
Injury Kit
REQUIRED PETS:
Major Tom can be tamed without any Animal Whisper ranks by using cigarettes. Use him early to increase strike rate to 10%. Once you craft the Elite Pyro Exo Helmet, he can be passed on to someone else.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
You have 11 AP to Mark Target (9 AP left), Overcharge (8 AP left) and finally enter ambush (0 AP left).
At any point if you eat food for 12 AP, you can have your Leader Rally for 14 AP and fire off two attacks. Alternatively, fire off one attack (5 AP left), Mark Target (3 AP left), and then save 2 AP for the next turn. On the second turn you will have 14 AP to fire off two attacks as well.
Once you acquire the Quickfire Mag, you can eat food or use the Anabolic Injector for 12 AP and can then fire off a precision strike attack when available, while still having enough AP to enter an ambush as well.
J.6 - THE HAIL STORM (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
A derivative of THE FIRE STORM build.
The Hail Storm build favours long term patience for a stronger payoff.
For this build to work however, you must acquire the Combat Shooting skill from Gary Wolfe. Poindexter and Mannerite are paying for it.
BACKGROUND: Mannerite
QUIRK: Poindexter
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 10
STR: 4 > raise to 6 (4th)
SPD: 1 > raise to 2 (5th)
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 1 > raise to 6 (2nd)
FIXED SKILLS:
Sniper Rifles (rank 9) - Prioritise this to unlock the Chain Ambush Perk asap.
Kiss Ass (rank 8) - At rank 8, you use the skill book for rank 9 and then Mannerite keeps us at rank 10.
Weird Science (rank 10) - Boosts cold damage by 30%. We also want the Overcharge perk.
Combat Shooting (rank 8) - Fill as skill points become available.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 26: 101
Spent: 88
Remaining: 13
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skill: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 |
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
Hard Ass
Leadership
Mechanics
Weapon Modding
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Chain Ambush
Mark Target
Masterful Precision
Concentration
Overcharge
Available perk points: 7
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Red Dragon
Barrel: Blast Muffler
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Laser Sight
Magazine: Long Mag
MID GAME WEAPON 2:
Frozen Ferret Launcher
Scope: 21mm magnifying scope
Underbarrel: Leave empty
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Eliminator
Barrel: Titanium-Cobalt Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Cryocell Linkage
Magazine: Quickfire Mag
ARMOR:
Elite Cryo Exo Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Elite Cryo Exo Suit [Phase Temper Controller]
Elite Cryo Exo Leg Armor [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM:
Rabbit’s Paw or Anabolic Injector
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo
Injury Kit
REQUIRED PETS:
Major Tom can be tamed without any Animal Whisper ranks by using cigarettes. Use him early to increase strike rate to 10 or 20 percent even. Once you craft the Elite Cryo Exo Helmet, he can be passed on to someone else.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
You have 11 AP to Mark Target (9 AP left), Overcharge (8 AP left) and finally enter ambush (0 AP left, +5% hit chance).
At any point if you eat food for 12 AP, you can have your Leader Rally for 14 AP and fire off two attacks. Alternatively, fire off one attack (5 AP left), Mark Target (3 AP left), and then save 2 AP for the next turn. On the second turn you will have 14 AP to fire off two attacks as well.
Once you acquire the Quickfire Mag, you can eat food or use the Anabolic Injector for 12 AP and can then fire off a precision strike attack when available, while still having enough AP to enter an ambush as well.
J.7 - THE WHITE DEATH (ST DLC) (CLOSED)
BUILD SUMMARY:
Based on a real life Finnish Sniper, Simo Häyhä:
Simo Häyhä was the deadliest individual rifleman [Sniper Rifles] in military history [Combat Shooting]. The Russian forces were absolutely terrified of Häyhä [Raider Hater], nicknaming him the White Death.
He was born in 1905, and prior to the Winter [Cold damage] War of Finland, was an ordinary farmer [Animal Whisperer] who had served one compulsory year in the Finnish army.
Using his extensive knowledge of the surrounding forest as well as a knack for camouflage (he dressed in all white and even kept snow in his mouth [Sadomasochist] so as to mask his breathing and avoid giving away his position) [Sneaky Shit], he racked up at least 500 kills-estimate. While his Russian counterparts would spend a few days at a time in the field, he just stayed out there, taking food, ammo, and whatever else he needed from the bodies of Russians he killed [Weapon Modding, aka Powder Packer, Scrounger’s Touch, Expert Disassembler].
The Russians attempted numerous times to kill him, from sending teams of counter snipers after him (none came back alive) to artillery bombing any place they thought he was hiding. Each of these attempts was met with failure, and Simo continued to stomp any enemy who came within his sights. Eventually, the Russians had a stroke of luck when one sniper, after Simo had killed 40 other soldiers, managed to shoot him through the jaw with an explosive round, blowing half of his cheek away. Incredibly, Simo survived.
BACKGROUND: Raider Hater
QUIRK: Sadomasochist
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 1 > raise to 2 (6th)
AWA: 10
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (3rd), raise to 6 (5th)
SPD: 1 > raise to 5 (4th)
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
CHA: 1
Alternatively, keep STR and SPD at 2 and 1 respectively, and raise LCK to 10 instead (last). I interpret Simo Häyhä’s story as a tough and resilient individual, others might interpret him as lucky.
FIXED SKILLS:
Sniper Rifles (rank 9) - All of the perks are pretty valuable here and worth taking as they come up.
Sneaky Shit (rank 9) - You want the Lights out perk as aggressively as possible.
Weapon Modding (rank 7) - On flavour and we have the perk points to spare to take perks like Powder Packer nice and early.
Combat Shooting (rank 9) - Fill as skill points become available.
Animal Whisperer (rank 5) - If you hate playing with pets, you can drop this for another rank in Combat Shooting. You will be left with 1 skill point spare though and 1% less crit chance.
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Lights Out
Powder Packer
Mark Target
Quick Reflexes
Chain Ambush
Masterful Precision
Concentration
Scrounger's Touch
Expert Disassembler
Spirit Animal
Animal Training
Healthy
REQUIRED ITEMS:
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Red Dragon
Barrel: Blast Muffler
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Laser Sight
Magazine: Long Mag
END GAME WEAPON 1:
Eliminator
Barrel: Titanium-Cobalt Barrel
Scope: Holographic Scope
Underbarrel: Cryocell Linkage
Magazine: Quickfire Mag
ARMOR:
Elite Cryo Exo Helmet [Threat Intelligence]
Elite Cryo Exo Suit [Phase Temper Controller]
Elite Cryo Exo Leg Armor [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM:
Anabolic Injector
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Hypo
Injury Kit
REQUIRED PETS:
Major Tom can be tamed without any Animal Whisper ranks by using cigarettes. Use him early to increase strike rate to 10 percent even. Once you craft the Elite Cryo Exo Helmet, he can be passed on to someone else.
A generic Cat will give us +6% crit chance.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
This build eventually settles on a critical hit chance of 75%. There are a few reasons for this:
This build also works really well with a Leader that can afford to consistently Rally at the start of combat. If you eat food or have the Anabolic Injector for 12 AP, you can open combat with a Sneaky Shit empowered attack (aka delete the enemy of your choice), and you will be left with 5 AP. Have your Leader Rally for 7 AP, allowing you to attack again or enter an ambush (preferably with the Chain Ambush perk).
Alternatively, if you don’t have a Leader who can Rally at the start of combat, with 12 AP, you can open with an attack (5 AP left), Mark Target (3 AP left), then save your remaining AP for next turn (2 AP saved max), which will give you 14 AP to attack with twice or attack once and enter ambush on the second turn of combat.
Once you have your Eliminator modded with a Quickfire Mag, you won’t need support and you can fire off 2 consistent attacks per turn (6 AP each).
J.8 - THE LASER SNIPER (credit to /u jim_sorenson)
K.1 - UNIQUE BUILDS:
K.2 - THE PACIFIST (MEDIC) (SEMI)
Special thanks to /u/jim_sorenson for the build.
The core concept behind the Pacifist is to specialize in stacking bonus EXP along with high yield exp skills (e.g. Lockpicking etc.) to launch ahead in levels compared to the rest of your squad. Without a weapon skill to focus on and accelerated level gain, you can concentrate on pushing non-combat skills aggressively higher than usual, which should allow the rest of your team to specialize in their combat skills more aggressively as well.
The Pacifist's main use in combat is in a support role. It is primarily the squad's Medic, but will also be the main Ranger using the Rally and Demoralize perks as well. It is best paired with a primary Leader who takes the Leadership skill to a higher rank who instead focuses on leadership kill bonuses.
BACKGROUND: Bookworm
QUIRK: Poindexter
STARTING > END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 27 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 1
STR: 4
SPD: 1 > raise to 10 (3rd)
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
CHA: 10
At 10 SPD we settle on 2.8 combat speed. By end game we will reach 4.0 combat speed with:
Base 1.4
SPD 1.4
Pet 0.2
Brawling 0.2
Glass Knuckles 0.5
Spectrum Assault Legs 0.3
Total: 4.0
FIXED SKILLS:
Lockpicking (rank 9) - A core component of this build. The exp granted by Lockpicking combined with stacked bonus exp is too large to ignore.
First Aid (rank 9) - This can sit comfortably at rank 4 for a long time while you raise all other requirements.
Animal Whisper (rank 5) - Up until about level 25 ish, you want a pet chicken for +6% more exp with the Spirit Animal perk. Afterwards take a pet Dog for the +0.2 combat speed.
Leadership (rank 3) - You want rank 3 pretty aggressively for the Rally perk, which will be a key part of your combat contribution to the squad. Use the Bardic Tights and Leader’s Banner to temporarily unlock rank 5 for the Demoralize perk.
Sniper Rifles (rank 2) - We are here for the Mark Target perk.
Brawling (rank 4) - We are here for the 0.2 combat speed and the ability to tap enemies and charge our strike meter with the Foam Finger/Glass Knuckles Brawling weapon.
FLEXIBLE SKILLS:
Total skill points by level 27: 104
Spent: 65
Remaining: 39
Additional room for:
Additional room for: | Rank 9 skills: | Rank 8 skills: | Rank 7 skills: | Rank 5 skills: | Rank 4 skills: | Skill points leftover: |
Variation 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |||
Variation 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
For variation 2, I’d simply put the last 4 skill points into two more ranks of Leadership for rank 5. A 2% extra hit chance to your primary leader is probably the best use of those points.
Specifically for this build, you want high exp yield skills.
/u/jim_sorenson notes that the following skills typically give the most EXP:
Lockpicking (already taken)
Explosives
Nerd Stuff
Mechanics
Sneaky Shit (with Steeltown)
You probably want to take some combination of the above skills to really leverage the stacked EXP bonuses.
Complementary skills that are more comfortable or completed at rank 9 are:
Kiss Ass
Mechanics
Nerd Stuff
Sneaky Shit
Weird Science
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 8 are:
Nerd Stuff
Mechanics
Weird Science
Complementary skills that can be completed at rank 7 are:
Hard Ass
Mechanics
Nerd Stuff
Toaster Repair
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Rally
Spirit Animal
Mark Target
Demoralize
Emergency Response
Overhealing
Physical Therapy
Available perk points: 5
RECOMMENDED ITEMS:
MID & END GAME WEAPON 1:
Foam Finger
Handle: Overmolded Grip
Weight: Cryo Capsule
MID & END GAME WEAPON 2:
Glass Knuckles
Handle: Overmolded Grip
Weight: Incendiary Capsule
If you have the scrap to spare, slapping a Cryo/Incendiary Capsule onto the Foam Finger/Glass Knuckles allows you to freeze/burn enemies for 2 AP love taps. Can be useful to set up certain Melee Combat synergies and/or further debuff enemies.
Further weapon suggestions are limited to your skill choices. Weird Science weapons work really well if you decide to take Weird Science.
ARMOR:
Spectrum Assault Helmet [Head Gear Platform]
Spectrum Assault Armor [Phase Temper Controller]
Spectrum Assault Legs [Combat Belt]
UTILITY ITEM (suggestions only):
Polished Badge (if you have the pre order pack)
Adrenal Enhancer
Nociception Clamp
Spiked Collar
Noah’s Teddy
Sonic Emitter (if you take Weird Science)
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Dart
Injury Kit
Medic Pack
REQUIRED PETS:
A pet chicken for +6% exp early is required to leverage exp bonuses sufficiently. At some point, diminishing returns on exp kicks in and you can swap the pet out for something else. A Dog for more combat speed is ideal.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
How the build works depends on what skills you take. It’s core early game focus is on Rally and Demoralize on the first turn of combat. If you take Mechanics, launch deployables, if you take Weird Science, do Weird Science things. Nerd Stuff? Hack stuff etc. etc.
With the Foam Finger, 11 AP and a strike rate of 28%, you can attack any enemy 4 times to charge up a strike attack. Strike attacking enemies with the Foam Finger is a quick way to stun a small group of enemies in a pinch.
With a power leveled Pacifist you can take advantage of the Manage Squad screen in a way that may or may not be considered an exploit. Essentially, when you temporarily dismiss and re-recruit squad members onto your team, they level up to your remaining squad members' average level. If your “Pacifist” is 5, 6 or 7 levels ahead of your squad, you can dismiss each one until you only have 2 remaining (min required is always 2) and then add them back in and they will earn a bunch of extra EXP. Keep repeating until the gap closes/a large gap happens again.
K.3 - THE NUT-SO PACIFIST (LEADER) (CLOSED)
Collaborative build between /u/jim_sorenson and I.
The core concept behind the Nut-So Pacifist is again to specialize in stacking bonus EXP along with high yield exp skills (e.g. Lockpicking etc.) to launch ahead in levels compared to the rest of your squad. Without a weapon skill to completely focus on and accelerated level gain, you can concentrate on pushing non-combat skills aggressively higher than usual, which should allow the rest of your team to specialize in their combat skills more aggressively as well.
The difference between the Pacifist and the Nut-So Pacifist is simple:
The Nut-So Pacifist is the squad's dedicated Leader and opener. It raises Leadership to rank 7 to focus both on the Rally and Demoralize perks, as well as leadership kill bonuses via Sneaky Shit empowered Rocket Launcher attacks.
BACKGROUND: Explodomaniac
QUIRK: Pyromaniac
STARTING > END GAME ATTRIBUTES:
(level 27 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 8 (1st)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 1 > raise to 10 (2nd)
STR: 4 > raise to 6 (3rd)
SPD: 1
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 10
FIXED SKILLS:
Leadership (rank 7) - You want rank 5 pretty aggressively for Rally and Demoralize, two skills which will be a key part of your combat contribution to the team.
Lockpicking (rank 9) - A core component of this build. The exp granted by Lockpicking combined with stacked bonus exp is too large to ignore.
Explosives (rank 8) - Another core component. It’s the second best skill for exp gathering and we of course need it for Rocket Launchers.
Sneaky Shit (rank 9) - This skill doesn’t need to be raised for skill checks aggressively, but the Lights Out perk is worth getting it up there sooner rather than later.
First Aid (rank 6) - We are the Squad’s backup Medic. Use the Stethoscope to temporarily raise this to rank 7 and take the Physical Therapy perk.
Animal Whisper (rank 5) - Up until about level 25 ish, you want a pet chicken for +6% more exp with the Spirit Animal perk. Afterwards you want a Waste Wolf which will boost sneak attack damage by 10% and debuff enemy AP by
PERKS IN PRIORITY ORDER:
Rally
Demoralize
Spirit Animal
Animal Training
Quick Reflexes
Deep Pockets
Emergency Response
Overhealing
Physical Therapy
High Impact
Blast Radius
Healthy
RECOMMENDED ITEMS:
MID & END GAME WEAPON 1:
Foam Finger
Handle: Overmolded Grip
Weight: Incendiary Capsule
MID GAME WEAPON 1:
Any Rocket Launcher
Scope: Reflex Scope
Underbarrel: Spec-Ops Laser Sight
END GAME WEAPON 2:
Javelin
Scope: DeadEye Experimental Scope
Underbarrel: Computer Assisted Laser Sight
ALT END GAME WEAPON 2:
Nooka Zuka
Scope: Red Dot Scope
Underbarrel: Ultraviolet Laser Sight
ARMOR:
Bardic Hat [Threat Intelligence]
Bardic Jacket [Trauma Plate Insert]
Bardic Tights [Personnel Drive]
UTILITY ITEM:
Defusal Kit
QUICK SLOT ITEMS:
Med Dart
Injury Kit
Medic Pack
Cryo Grenades
REQUIRED PETS:
A pet chicken for +6% exp early is required to leverage exp bonuses sufficiently. At some point, diminishing returns on exp kicks in and you can swap the pet out for something else. A Waste Wolf will debuff enemy AP in a large AOE and also increase sneak attack damage by 10%.
HOW THE BUILD WORKS:
With 10 AP you can start combat with sneak attack empowered Rocket Launcher attack immediately followed by Rally. Second turn you can Demoralize, throw grenades/med darts, or pick up downed Rangers. You could also reload and shoot another Rocket.
Like the Pacifist, you can also love tap people with your Foam Finger to charge your strike meter up in a pinch, allowing you to occasionally AOE stun enemies if needed, or launch a strike attack with your Rocket Launcher. Four attacks will fill up your strike meter. If the Foam Finger is equipped with an Incendiary Capsule, you will set the enemies on fire as well.
With a power leveled Nut-So Pacifist you can take advantage of the Manage Squad screen in a way that may or may not be considered an exploit. Essentially, when you temporarily dismiss and re-recruit squad members onto your team, they level up to your remaining squad members' average level. If your “Pacifist” is 5, 6 or 7 levels ahead of your squad, you can dismiss each one until you only have 2 remaining (min required is always 2) and then add them back in and they will earn a bunch of extra EXP. Keep repeating until the gap closes/a large gap happens again.
ADVANCED RANGER TEAMS:
Any Advanced Ranger Teams featured here will guarantee to see you through Supreme Jerk, with a power distribution equal from the start of the game until the finish.
All skills will be covered adequately. No skill mules required. The one rare exception might be the Survival skill, which may get abandoned on some teams. It’s main use is to avoid combat encounters, and nothing much else. My assumption is, if you are min/maxing a team so aggressively, you are probably OK not skipping combat encounters, because fighting hard and fighting often is typically a large part of the reward for fielding a strong and cohesive team in the first place.
A.1 - TEAM ELEMENTS (REWORKING)
TEAM SUMMARY:
A min/max team geared mostly towards pure offense instead of defence. No duplicate Backgrounds/Quirks, but uses what is available all in optimal ways.
This team is built tight. Every single skill point is spent, right up until the last level. There are some duplicate skills. These duplicates are for their damage bonuses only and not a priority! Raise them last.
It’s called Team Elements, because 4 out of the 6 Rangers each specialise in Fire, Cold, Energy, Explosive damage. The 5th and 6th members focus on Normal > Cold damage and Normal > Explosive damage, mostly for a lack of other options that wouldn’t be considered a gimmick.
TEAM MEMBER #1: THE DEMOLITION CHIEF
TEAM ROLE: Leader
ELEMENT: Explosive
SKILLS:
Automatic Weapons: Rank 9
Explosives: Rank 9
Sneaky Shit: Rank 9
Leadership: Rank 7
Animal Whisperer: Rank 5
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 27 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 3 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (2nd)
SPD: 4 > raise to 10 (4th)
INT: 1 > raise to 5 (5th)
CHA: 6
PETS:
Polly the Parrot and a Dog are the choices here. Take the Dog first before taking Polly the Parrot.
TEAM MEMBER #2: THE HAIL STORM
TEAM ROLE: Mechanic
ELEMENT: Cold
SKILLS:
Sniper Rifles: Rank 9
Kiss Ass: Rank 8
Mechanics: Rank 7
Weird Science: Rank 10
Combat Shooting: Rank 9
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 10 (1st)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 10
STR: 4 > raise to 6 (4th)
SPD: 1 > raise to 2 (5th)
INT: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
CHA: 1 > raise to 6 (2nd)
PETS:
Major Tom early. Pass it to the Laser Turret when you craft your Elite Cry Exo Helmet.
TEAM MEMBER #3: THE LASER TURRET
TEAM ROLE: Lockpicker
ELEMENT: Energy
SKILLS:
Big Guns: Rank 9
Lockpicking: Rank 9
Armor Modding: Rank 8
Weird Science: Rank 9
Animal Whisperer: Rank 4
Mechanics: Rank 3
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 27 assumed)
COOR: 2 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 1
AWA: 4 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (2nd)
SPD: 1
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 10
PETS:
Cat
Major Tom when you craft your Elite Energy Exo Helmet.
TEAM MEMBER #4: THE DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE
TEAM ROLE: Medic
ELEMENT: Normal > Cold
SKILLS:
Brawling: Rank 9
First Aid: Rank 9
Nerd Stuff: Rank 8
Hard Ass: Rank 7
Melee Combat: Rank 5
Weird Science: Rank 5
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 4 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 2 > raise to 5 (6th)
AWA: 1
STR: 1 > raise to 4 (2nd), raise to 10 (4th)
SPD: 1 > raise to 2 (5th)
INT: 5 > raise to 10 (1st)
CHA: 7
PETS:
N/A
COMPANION #1: LUCIA “FIREARMS” WESSON
TEAM ROLE: Scout
ELEMENT: Fire
SKILLS:
Small Arms: Rank 9
Weapon Modding: Rank 9
Barter: Rank 8
Toaster Repair: Rank 7
Sniper Rifles: Rank 5
Weird Science: Rank 5
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 26 assumed)
COOR: 6 > raise to 10 (3rd)
LUCK: 2
AWA: 7 > raise to 10 (1st)
STR: 2 > raise to 4 (2nd)
SPD: 2 > raise to 5 (4th)
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (6th)
CHA: 2 > raise to 4 (5th)
PETS:
N/A
COMPANION BUILD #2: SCOTCHMO “THE OK BOOMER” (SLIGHTLY MODIFIED)
TEAM ROLE: Bruiser
ELEMENT: Normal > Explosive
Slightly modified because
SKILLS:
Small Arms: Rank 10
Melee Combat: Rank 9
Animal Whisperer: Rank 9
Explosives: Rank 7
STARTING > ENDING ATTRIBUTES:
(level 25 assumed)
COOR: 10
LUCK: 2 > raise to 10 (2nd)
AWA: 1
STR: 4 > raise to 6 (1st), raise to 10 (3rd)
SPD: 2
INT: 1 > raise to 10 (4th)
CHA: 1
PETS:
Goat (Billy and Jean preferable)
Bison
Young Man Vinters
Theoretically you should be able to take a Goat, plus the Bison and Young Man Vinters all together, but this got messed up on my last attempt, so I don’t want to mislead anyone either if it doesn’t work. If it doesn’t, move the Goat to the Laser Turret instead of a Cat and just take the Bison and Young Man Vinters instead.