What is everyone’s preferred general weapon loadout before getting the high end tech stuff ( i.e. Laser Weaponary, Bionic weapon, etc…)
Summarised I enjoy using:
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Melee – Loaded Stick ( bludgeon weapon and works nicely with specific weapon martial art) – Kukri ( Cut weapon, nice with a good martial art and decent accuary for “knife” weapon)
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Depending on ammo availability I take 1 secondary and 1 primary
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Secondaries – Glock 19 ( modability, gun and ammo availability) – FN Five-Seven ( good penetration) – Sig P226 (personal preference)
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Primaries – M4A1 (ammo and gun availability, good mod profile) – M14 EBR ( Decent all-purpose Marksman Rifle)
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Throwables – Throwing Knives : 3 to 12 ( depends on loadout, silent, reusable and can cause bleeding) – 2 Molotovs ( Emergency crowd control, building demo) – 1 Grenade ( homemade or military grade, emergency use)
I do use other weapons and switch it up when situation demands, but for general purpose exploration and loot runs I can rely on the above loadout to handle most situations to my personal preferences.
I just get a bike, skateboard, or small vehicle such as a modified golf cart, a pike or knife spear (if it takes too long I get a normal fire hardened stick), a light armor such as riot armor and kevlar vest, and optionally sojutsu (by asking for it to the guard as reward for 100 cigs). It’s quite funny seeing how you can ride a bike while twisting your torso 180° to attack with a 2 meter long stick. You’ll hardly ever be hit, but it’s quite stamina draining, so taking breaks is mandatory, and bat zombies, fart zombies, and flesh raptors can kinda screw the strat but by the time they become annoying you should have enough combat skills and tools to deal with them easily.
I think rollerskates/rollerblades can also used as well although you are restricted to the road otherwise you are stuck out of luck. Skateboard I am always worried of face planting at the worst times and avoid using it.
I cannot imagine dueling with a vehicle because it bothers me if the parts are not up in good condition ( OCD tendency as I will travel and only source perfect conditioned scrap) and even drive cars with a few good pieces back to base to dismantle and reforge if necessary.
I do see the appeal of kiting the enemies with your range advantage though and as you said runs the risk of having to adjust if you run into early game higher level mobs.
I can imagine creating a small 1 tile vehicle for jousting could also be something that can shore up the stamina draining, but be sure to install a seat belt so your character doesn’t get dragged off the vehicle by an enemy with displacement - maybe a motorized shopping cart?
As long as you are strategic about it, you should be fine, just get off-road wheels, raid during day, and drop the heaviest bag you carry.
Some advantages I neglected to mention are that there is almost always a way to escape as long as you have a somewhat decent acceleration and you can see around 20 tiles, with 3 tiles per turn you can fairly easily outpace z predators and maybe garghouls (just take into account their jump, stay out of range), it’s very cheap resource-wise, and terrain almost doesn’t affect you, you can drive by acid, cobweb (not tested yet but it’d bet yes), or sticky surfaces from pupaz.
Many annoying enemies like dermatiks, mi-gos, z horses, hulks and husks are totally foiled with this strat as long as you learn your acceleration and the enemy’s speed and do not have available boardable tiles on your vehicle. You can also do this with another NPC on a 2-seat vehicle, preferrably using 3 tile reach, it’ll take more managing but will be far easier nonetheless.
Also, I usually make a foldable 2-tile bike with a small electric motor and storage battery for a fallback (all my vehicles are electric) and in case I need to take it across forests, if I find a skateboard I use it for tunnels, such as those with lab entrances or those pesky caves with lava in the way, and use the rest for the somehow non-craftable skateboard deck, which counts as frame, seat and muscle motor at the same time (though not as efficient as pedals)
I personally like to raid during the day as well when I explore a new place to know where the danger is, at night time there is most chances for things to go wrong but great if one has scouted a path for a point of interest - one can avoid a lot of combat and make use of silent weapons better if one something like night vision or nv goggles.
I think webs are most easily dealt with a light if one is able, early hulks and pupa are annoying, yeah.
Yeah, properly managed NPCs can be a very useful I agree, best use of pikes is with them in a passenger seat - less chance for them to impale your character.
Also agree on some form of mechanical transport, makes those surprises so much more manageable yes
Electric is the best for all the benefits, but found a small combustion engine is “good enough” until one gets the there though and the added benefit is one can put a small alternator and only worry about carrying some gas.
I am not brave enough to play near lava - I always try to come prepared for those caves and lab entrances I really like to prep, have had some horror story visits, most probably because I spend all my time crafting.
But that is good information for long stretches one finds in subway tunnels once it is cleared
“webs are most easily dealt with a light”? As in light them up with a lighter or what?
Mines are a waste of time, most of my visits are for some minerals rather than for artifacts, those enemies during portal storms are a better source of artifacts, plus the NRE recorder is great for getting some quick bucks (you can get 105 hub coins for weathering an entire portal storm, which translates to 5000 credits with the hub or around 3500 with other traders)
As far as my experience goes, bring some pipe bombs and turrets won’t be that much of a problem. With labs the problem are those annoying electric plants that respawn infinitely, and maybe a bad combo of zombies such as smokers plus necromancer. Also grenade hacks, if you see those dispatch drones chuck a pipe bomb and don’t look back.
I am thinking of spider webs, and I usually just light with a lighter or an electric lighter eventually and run, webbed status as in being webbed, I hope and pray I got enough distance to not be swarmed or that my armour holds out
Mines can have some weird stuff, can find low level artifacts, nothing special and there is that “special” mine but yeah, most are only good for getting resources by mining - I agree
The hub01 hoody onesie( can’t remember the name but the one you can wear around your waist), last time I played, is I believe insulated, that or grind for a faraday suit - the electro-plant bugs are so much easier with it.
Smokers are annoying yeah, I always make sure to wear gas mask to not be stuck without stamina in the middle of combat - died too many times to that. I hate the necromancer masters the most - can make some bs situations.
I really lean heavy into melee and the bio-operators and hulks I focus with guns - pipe bombs are really strong though, I am just too cheap to use them unless it is something really dangerous and I got nothing else - also I enjoy doing autopsies (leans in with using melee). I am mad enough to rush drones to with a quick weapon to stop them using their abilities so I can break them down for parts. I only get nervous when I see Shogoths, I seldom carry stuff heavy enough to deal with them quickly and just avoid them
Unless you’re caught off-guard, spiders aren’t much of a problem (in fact, they can be a nice food source, and spider mutations are very good). Just fish them out one by one, since they’re very aggressive, they will spread out in some time (especially in swamps), and fire can be very annoying to deal with, I only use fire early game and when dealing with the electric plants, they die almost instantly by it and are afraid of it, deterring them from attacking. Or just chuck a molotov, as long as the mini-nuclear reactors aren’t damaged it should be fine.
You don’t seem troubled by grenade hacks, do you simply deal with them that way? It’s a russian roulette, they’re very fast and if you fail to break them, their detonation can deal 120 ish damage to all body parts even with a decent armor, plus bleeding, and if you have hollow bones you’ll be toast.
The elec dicapacitance, protective lenses, and filtration system bions are quite good, the former now should actually be direclty better than a gas mask as it gives the same environmental protection for no encumberance, and does not consume bion power or mask cartridges, only some bion slots. It’s also nice not having to equip, reload, and activate it each time you find some gas.
And yes, shogs are a no-no.
Spiders can be annoying if one doesn’t have antivenom or bionics to help clear out the venom, although the samples are a positive to try work around their nests.
I hate those tunnel spiders that hide under ground and catalysm forbid if you land up in one of their nests.
I enjoy using fire, great way to scare off a frog mother if they are chasing you, but usually I don’t mind burning a forest down to get rid of their nests if it is in my way also is my go to way to control fungus and reach the towers.
Oh and to use as a means to quickly make a dent in city zombie population in new cities by using a disposable burner home after I looted it to flush them out if I need to.
Swamps I am always careful with as there might be sinkholes and it are usually swarming with amalgams as there is a lot of combat that happens in there.
I had a horrible first experience with the plant bugs ( it always damages the torso when they attack) so finding any form of insulation is good first step for me as I saw the difference and I just shoot them now, they aren’t that well armoured against bullets if I recall- a solid m4a1 rifle should handle them and as you said using a molotov if it gets too much is also a solid plan.
It seems the hacks have to arm the grenade before dropping it, so I focus on killing them before it has a chance to complete, they are nimble but are fragile, I have had the blade ones give me bit more of a challenge by comparision but by the time I do labs and military raiding my melee skills are usually decently skilled (like minimum 6) to hit consistently. I do not think I have had a drone drop a grenade on me before though, so it is probably just my personal bias. My melee style is more on one hand, quick weapons ( with sufficient skill I try to aim for sub 90 action costs, but usually sub 100 is acceptable for me) and have a martial arts related weapon. I do panic a bit if I see the mininuke hacks, but I try to kill the drones before it gets to that as well.
If one wants to get fancy, there is the emp bionic and it shuts down any threat from robotic foes.
Yeah, the bionics provide a ton of freedom in builds when I can get it, I usually bite and the bullet and endure it until I can get the bionics though, but indeed, that selection of bionics with maybe the hearing dampener as well and a lot of things are not nearly as deadly as it help prevent those nasty status effect
Indeed, shogs are built differently, they require a specialist loadout to overcome that 50hp per turn regen, and it is tricky overcoming that consistently without using something like a .50 machine gun or a rocket launcher( which is a chore to level up).
Grenades and bombs are risky (although maybe a radio controlled bomb truck could work) as it can just eat it and melee is a question of whether the timestop bioinic can hold out long enough for you too burst down 400hp in time but the thing has 10 melee skill or if one has a melee build that can push past the 50 damage dpt (damage per turn, which I average at 100 action cost per turn) and not miss and avoid being crippled.
I read good things about a laser rifle but have yet to have used one so I cannot provide confirmation on that.