Beginner Character Build Tips: Difference between revisions

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(Proofreading & second-opinion: nothing *wrong* with melee combat, IMO)
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If you are playing game for the first time you should create a character. Here are some advices on a universal character build. This guide may be usefull for beginners.
If you are playing game for the first time, you're probably looking to create a character. Here's some advice on decent beginner-character builds.
 
==Choosing stats==
==Choosing stats==
You may choose from these primary character characteristics: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Perception.  
You have four primary character characteristics: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence & Perception.  Bear in mind that these are impractical to raise once you're in-game, so for long-term characters, most of your development points should go here.


# Don't set very high intelligence: it affects only your comprehensive and social abilities. Setting intelligence to 7-8 is quite enough: it lets you understand most of mid-tier books (Under the Hood, The Big Book of First Aid, What's A Transistor).
# If you plan on fighting in melee, you should set a reasonable Strength (10 will do, but 11 helps avoid being unable to recover stuck weapons): it affects your melee combat damage-output, your maximum health, and your maximum safe carry-weight.


# At the same time you should set reasonable Strength (10 pts is quite enough): it affects your melee combat skills and weight which you may carry.
# Dexterity is a universal stat which affects both melee and ranged to-hit chance, increases your dodging chance and improves your trap detecting and avoiding skill.  8-10 pts should work.


# Dexterity is a universal stat which affects both melee and ranged to-hit chance, increases your dodging chance and improves your trap detecting and avoiding skill (set it to 8-10 pts).
# Intelligence affects your social abilities (currently negligible, given that NPCs are disabled by default). However, it also affects your ability to learn and is the base stat for nifty things like hacking computers and implanting bionics.  If you don't want to do those things now, consider that you might change your mind once you're in the game.  Setting intelligence to 10-12 will probably suffice; 14 is only needed for one or two rare, high-end skill books.


# Perception improves your ranged combat to-hit chance and helps your character to detect and disarm traps, it may be worth to set it to 8-9 pts.
# Perception improves your ranged combat to-hit chance and helps your character to detect and disarm traps.  10 points will enable you to see any trap in the game, provided that your eyes aren't encumbered.  If you're OK with not being able to reliably spot land mines, 8-9 will suffice.


==Choosing traits==
==Choosing traits==
There are positive and negative traits: positive traits substract points on selection and negative add  them.  
There are positive and negative traits: positive traits cost development points, whilst negative traits provide more points.  
===If you're beginner, choose these traits:===
===If you're a beginner, choose these traits:===
'''Positive:''' Packmule (THE BEST TRAIT EVER (at least at the beginning), helps you to carry more stuff); Fleet-Footed (Allows you to move faster. Sometimes retreat is better than combat); Light Step (usefull if you're playing on dynamic spawn); Parkour expert(you can move fast through windows, but zombies cannot do this. Is this awesome?)
'''Positive:''' Quick (Smaller bonus than Fleet-Footed, but applies to everything. Sometimes retreat is better than combat); Light Step (Noise attracts critters, so less of it is a Good Thing); Parkour Expert (Quickly navigate difficult terrain, then turn around and take a few swings at the clumsy zeds who need 2-3 times as long.); you might consider a protective or reparative trait like Poison Resistant or Fast Healing; Night Vision can greatly help after dark.
 
'''Negative:''' Ugly, Truth Teller (no one minds your appearance after the Apocalypse. Chances are nobody's around to notice!); Insomniac (It makes your character have difficulty getting to sleep, but the effect is fairly minor. A (makeshift) bed and being at least Tired will generally suffice.)
 
Martial Arts Training can greatly simplify your early-game inventory needs, and is always a useful backup (again, with the disabled NPCs, there's no other legitimate way to gain the skills.  Feel free to check [[Choosing Martial Arts Styles]] if you're curious.
 
===More advanced traits===
*Android: The bionics you get may or may not be useful, but if you wonder what the fuss is, here's one way to try them out.


'''Negative:''' Ugly, Truth Teller (no one mind your appearance or character on Apocalypse. Especially if you are plaing with disabled NPCs); Poor Hearing (Not so much affects a gameplay); Heavy sleeper (It makes your character hard to sleep. Not so much affects gameplay if your character sleeps in a (makeshift) bed, wearing a blanket)
*Robust Genetics: Don't mutate without it!


It may be worth to choose Martial Arts training, but don't rely too much on melee combat.
*Trigger Happy, Schizophrenic: Trigger Happy makes military rifles less-controllable, ut if you're not planning on using them that's not a problem. While hallucinating from schizophrenia all terrain is displayed in an odd manner, and certain critters show up purely in your head.
===If you want some !!FUN!! look at these traits===
*Android (it is recommended to set rather high intellingence stat and invest some points in first aid and electronics skills to be able to install new Bionics. Not for beginner, generally)


*Robust Genetics, Venom Mob Protoge (If you wish to taste some mutagen and develop your initial mutations. PURIFY THE UNCLEAN, but many players find this fun)
*Self-Defense Classes/Shaolin Adept/Venom Mob Protege: These are stopgaps for the buggy NPC martial-art trainers.  Don't over-rely on them, but if you want a nifty advanced style, they're the way to go right now.


*Trigger Happy, Schizophrenic (the world has gone insane but your character has done this even before the world generation. While hallucinating from schizophrenia you don't even know where to move (all terrain is displayed in an odd manner))


*Hardcore (nothing to say here)
==Professions==
These provide a little different starting inventory, and sometimes character traits (such as the nicotine addiction from Chain Smoker).  You can probably get along well enough without them, but feel free to experiment.


*Martial Arts Training, Self-Defence Classes (makes gameplay more interesting but don't rely too much on melee combat)
==Skills==
Spending a development point here translates into two levels of skill.  Since much of the game involves building skills, spending irreplaceable dev points on them may seem wasteful--and in many cases it is--but a small investment at the start may make the difference between survival and early-game death.  Useful skills to start with may include Archery, Survival, Dodge, and Mechanics.


[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Guides]]

Revision as of 14:24, 13 July 2013

If you are playing game for the first time, you're probably looking to create a character. Here's some advice on decent beginner-character builds.

Choosing stats

You have four primary character characteristics: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence & Perception. Bear in mind that these are impractical to raise once you're in-game, so for long-term characters, most of your development points should go here.

  1. If you plan on fighting in melee, you should set a reasonable Strength (10 will do, but 11 helps avoid being unable to recover stuck weapons): it affects your melee combat damage-output, your maximum health, and your maximum safe carry-weight.
  1. Dexterity is a universal stat which affects both melee and ranged to-hit chance, increases your dodging chance and improves your trap detecting and avoiding skill. 8-10 pts should work.
  1. Intelligence affects your social abilities (currently negligible, given that NPCs are disabled by default). However, it also affects your ability to learn and is the base stat for nifty things like hacking computers and implanting bionics. If you don't want to do those things now, consider that you might change your mind once you're in the game. Setting intelligence to 10-12 will probably suffice; 14 is only needed for one or two rare, high-end skill books.
  1. Perception improves your ranged combat to-hit chance and helps your character to detect and disarm traps. 10 points will enable you to see any trap in the game, provided that your eyes aren't encumbered. If you're OK with not being able to reliably spot land mines, 8-9 will suffice.

Choosing traits

There are positive and negative traits: positive traits cost development points, whilst negative traits provide more points.

If you're a beginner, choose these traits:

Positive: Quick (Smaller bonus than Fleet-Footed, but applies to everything. Sometimes retreat is better than combat); Light Step (Noise attracts critters, so less of it is a Good Thing); Parkour Expert (Quickly navigate difficult terrain, then turn around and take a few swings at the clumsy zeds who need 2-3 times as long.); you might consider a protective or reparative trait like Poison Resistant or Fast Healing; Night Vision can greatly help after dark.

Negative: Ugly, Truth Teller (no one minds your appearance after the Apocalypse. Chances are nobody's around to notice!); Insomniac (It makes your character have difficulty getting to sleep, but the effect is fairly minor. A (makeshift) bed and being at least Tired will generally suffice.)

Martial Arts Training can greatly simplify your early-game inventory needs, and is always a useful backup (again, with the disabled NPCs, there's no other legitimate way to gain the skills. Feel free to check Choosing Martial Arts Styles if you're curious.

More advanced traits

  • Android: The bionics you get may or may not be useful, but if you wonder what the fuss is, here's one way to try them out.
  • Robust Genetics: Don't mutate without it!
  • Trigger Happy, Schizophrenic: Trigger Happy makes military rifles less-controllable, ut if you're not planning on using them that's not a problem. While hallucinating from schizophrenia all terrain is displayed in an odd manner, and certain critters show up purely in your head.
  • Self-Defense Classes/Shaolin Adept/Venom Mob Protege: These are stopgaps for the buggy NPC martial-art trainers. Don't over-rely on them, but if you want a nifty advanced style, they're the way to go right now.


Professions

These provide a little different starting inventory, and sometimes character traits (such as the nicotine addiction from Chain Smoker). You can probably get along well enough without them, but feel free to experiment.

Skills

Spending a development point here translates into two levels of skill. Since much of the game involves building skills, spending irreplaceable dev points on them may seem wasteful--and in many cases it is--but a small investment at the start may make the difference between survival and early-game death. Useful skills to start with may include Archery, Survival, Dodge, and Mechanics.

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