User:Vayra/Vayra's Elaborate Scrub Guide

How do I make a character..?

Go to this page.

IF YOUR BUILD ISN'T MENTIONED THERE YOU SHOULD PROBABLY REROLL UNLESS YOU'RE 100% SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

SERIOUSLY PICKING THE WRONG STATS CAN REALLY FUCK YOU UP AND IT WILL SUCK A LOT MORE TO REROLL LATER ON.

I want to join a corp, which corp do I join?

Basically you just who and look for anyone who is a manager or board or CEO of pretty much any corp that isn't MAAS and page ('<name> <text goes here>) them and tell them you want to join. Running into cool folks during your first play-session is a good way to make friends and ask about what corp to join as well. To find players in your current room you can type tac, players show up in green text.

What do I now, how do I survive in a corp?

Well the first thing you should do is say hello. You can just type c hello! and maybe tell them something else about yourself like what you are trying to do with your life or hellmoo character. You talk to the corp by typing c <text goes here> if you haven't figured that out yet.

Ask your CEO or a board member/shopkeep if you have any questions about anything. Ask managers if your CEO/board/shopkeeps are all not around. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE EMPLOYEES because they are probably wrong and/or stupid. (Or maybe not.)

Whats this about an HQ?

If you joined a decent corp, your corp has a Jack Schitt HQ. That's in the JS building in corpclave. It is [JS] on your map. You can find out what suite is your HQ by typing corp and looking at the "controlled areas:" line near the bottom. Creative and more established corps might have opted for a custom HQ, ask your corpmates for directions to it.

IMPORTANT STUFF ABOUT HQ:

• Before you go in, look up and l d and make damn sure no one is standing around waiting to follow you in. You will be fired or at the very least yelled at a lot if you let anyone into the HQ. So don't do it.
• Likewise, before you leave, peek out and make sure no one is standing outside.
• Close the door IMMEDIATELY once you are through it. You can do this by typing close <suite number> if you are outside or close out if you are inside.
• Don't touch anything you have no idea about how to use or don't have the permission to use.
• No, you can't @quit in the HQ.
• Your corp probably has a way to organize their equipment into storage. Don't move stuff around without asking.

What weapons should I use?

If you don't know where to get something, ask in corpchat. You might have some in the HQ and if your corp doesn't, someone will either get you one or tell you how to get one. I suggest you take what you need from the HQ and nothing else.

Flails

Flails are rare and rarely used. That said:

• Use a sock-in-a-half-brick until you hit 4 raw.
• Nunchaku are pretty good (really really fast).
• Steyr something something longname flails are really good low-end weapons.
• Meteor hammers are okay.
• You can improvise flails for any raw, apparently

Whips

Whips are kind of fucked for early-game weapons. Low-end:

• Electrical cords are fast.
• I hear antenna whips are the best low RAW whips.
• Venemous lashes do acid damage.

High-end:

• Urumis (craftable) are good, fast, slash damage whips. They are probably better than blacklashes.
• Blacklashes (craftable) are good, fast, slash + elec damage whips.
• Flash whips (craftable) are good, fast, elec damage whips. They are probably better than blacklashes.

Blades

Blades own. Low-end:

• Katanas, wakizashis and nodachis are all decent and obtainable very easily.
• Fine wakizashis are really, really fast. I think this is the best 1-3 RAW blade.
• Fine katanas are really fast AND do good damage. You can get one from a journal pretty easily but you only get one, same with the nodachi.
• Wasteland kukris are like fine katanas but craftable.

High-end:

• Daikatanas are decent.
• Bruce springsteels are very, very slow but deal a ton of beat damage.
• Boss springsteels are slightly faster and weaker bruces. I think they're way less good, personally.
• Shiver swords deal incredible damage but are a bitch to craft and require power cells.
• Fine katanas are good enough to qualify as high-end.

Clubs

Clubs own. Low-end:

• Sagebrushes are a fucking amazing weapon. They're free, they do acid damage, and they're extremely fast. Remember to mod them. (Inertial damper and force enhancer.)
• Lightweight pickaxes are parry class 2 and free to find in the mine.
• Fire Axes are slow and inaccurate, but hurt and are free and easily obtainable. Can't mod them. Two-handed, parry class 1.

High-end:

• Shock Batons are throwaway weapons buyable from Ammu-Nation. They're expensive though since you need to mod them out, like any other club. Not as good as the other "high-end" clubs. Damage is split pretty evenly between elec and beat, which can be either annoying or good. One-handed, parry class 1.
• Shiver Axes are free but difficult to obtain. They're slow but can be useful sometimes because they deal very high amounts of slash damage. One-handed, parry class 1.
• Crime sticks do amazing damage and are one-handed and parry class 1. Bonus: they're free (though annoying to get).
• Piston hammers do a lot of beat damage plus some elec and are parry class 2. They're crafted.
• Combustor hammers do a lot of beat damage plus quite a bit of burn and are parry class 2. I think they're better than pistons. They're crafted too.

Spears

Spears own. Low-end:

• Military forks are decent damage, decent speed, and parry class 2. You can buy them for cheap at Ammu-Nation.
• Slaver spears have a HUGE accuracy bonus. (Supposedly drops from acid freaks.)
• Wooden stakes are fast and one-handed. (Drops from vampire hunters.)

High-end:

• Assegais are fast and do decent damage.
• Luftspeers are like assegais but split between two damage types. Slightly worse.
• Abossegais are just premodded assegais.
• Garden weasels are very strong, balanced slashing two-handed parry class 2 spears.
• Zap brannigans are very VERY strong powered weapons, like shiver swords. They are a bitch to craft and require power but do a ton of electric and stab damage.
• Chainsaw lances are slash + bleed damage weapons that are incredibly scary. Fortunately they're also very slow.

Rifles

Rifles are pretty good, since the recent buff. Low-end:

• American-180s are fantastic. Ask a crafter to make you some handloaded ammo. They're super fast and have huge clips.
• M100s do slightly more damage than non-handloaded Am-180s but the clips are infinitely smaller.
• AK-7s are amazingly common and do a lot of damage with handloads, but are slow as shit.

High-end:

• Bullpups are equivalent damage to the AK but faster. Sadly you'll have to craft them.
• SCAR-Ls are moderately damaging and very fast. They are probably the best standard (i.e. bullet-firing) rifle.
• Plasma rifles do huge amounts of burn damage and are no longer really slow. This makes them very viable though expensive weapons. Also note that someone wearing leech-hide gear will probably soak 100% of your damage.

Ammunition:

• A lot of ammunition is crafted, including hand-loaded clips (you want these, they do more damage).
• The Liddy Arms in Corpclave has an ammunition vending machine in the basement.
• Ammu-nation in south-east Freedom City has an ammunition vending machine outside and inside.
• 77Jack's Gun Room in Corpclave sells ammunition.
• BlastArms in the crater rim (redneck camp) sells ammunition and weapons.
• Zombie Hunters Inc. sells shotgun stuff as well.

Pistols

Pistols own. Low-end:

• Airsoft pistols do the least damage out of pretty much any weapon, used to grind from 0 to 1.
• Defender 6mm pistols are not too slow and you can buy them easily, though ammo is only available at 77Jack's Gun Room.
• .22 revolvers are not too slow and the ammo is cheap.
• .38 or .357 revolvers are decent damage and speed. Probably the best disposable pistol, the .357 can take both .38 and .357 speedloads.

High-end:

• .71 Desert hawk revolvers are stupidly slow. Don't use them.
• 12mm Hammerheads are the standard of pistols. Easy to speed-cap (12 brawn) and huge damage.
• 12mm Flughammers are pre-modded hammerheads. They're extremely uncommon these days.
• 12mm Vipers are slower, more accurate Hammerheads. Preferred by some players but largely unused in favor of standard Hammers.
• Samaritans are very slow but deal stupendous and partly unsoakable damage. Good for aiming at people.
• Super Shorties require 21 brawn to speedcap but are very fast when capped and do a mind-blowing amount of damage. Very good.

Ammunition:

• A lot of ammunition is crafted, including hand-loaded clips (you want these, they do more damage).
• The Liddy Arms in Corpclave has an ammunition vending machine in the basement.
• Ammu-Nation in south-east Freedom City has an ammunition vending machine outside.
• 77Jack's Gun Room in Corpclave sells ammunition.
• BlastArms in the crater rim (redneck camp) sells ammunition and weapons.

Fists

Fists own. Low-end:

• Don't use your actual fists if you can help it when you've gained some skill.
• Ripper claws are great at the low-end though they quickly become much less good and Ripper is kind of a shitty mutation to have.
• Knuckle busters are really really good. You can buy them at Ammu-Nation. Mod them with balanced grips and force enhancers.

High-end:

• Jawbreakers are the weapon of choice. They're decent speed and decent damage but 0 parry. Buy them in botany bay. Don't mod them.
• Tesla gauntlets were recently buffed. They're still sort of slow but not too bad. They do beat and elec damage and are parry class 1.
• Edison gauntlets were recently buffed. They're still sort of slow, but their electric damage scales much better than tesla gauntlets. Edisons are also parry class 1.
• Abomination claws and teeth are very powerful, though generally considered less so than jawbreakers and other high end weapons. Abomination is a very serious choice to make regarding how you play the game, though.
• Pata gauntlets (crafted) are slower than the usual dual jawbreakers, but they do major slash and stab damage (basically they're very large punch knives). Pata are also one of two parry class 2 fist weapons.

What armor should I use?

Whatever you can afford and find. Look at the List of Armor for a general idea of what is good. The goal is to get high soaks and low dodge minus.

Stuff to wear that isn't really armor..

Stuff to wear that isn't really armor owns:

• Gas masks are important. Wear one 100% of the time. You have to wear it under everything else.
• Miner helmets are free light. They do turn themselves off but that's not really THAT big of an issue (though it is annoying). You have to wear it on top of everything else.
• There are a lot of items, mostly wearable, that boost a utility skill by +1.
• Bling can increase your cool stat by up to +4 if you have enough of it! This is never a bad thing, but especially important for blades, pistols, and rifles users. Put on some expensive rings.

Armor

Armor owns. Low-end:

• Chudskin is pretty much the best it gets for most things. It's craftable and we should therefore have a ton.
• Lotus <stupid japanese word here> is good beat-damage soaking armor. You can find it on Kakuri Island if you beat a certain samurai.
• Rusted pots stacked on top of eachother are pretty much the best cheap head armor out there. Buyable at Pr.
• Hockey masks are perfect for covering your face. (over your gas mask)

High-end:

• Leech-hide is amazing slash, stab and burn soak. This makes you effectively invulnerable to blades, especially if you put on two layers. It's craftable.
• Caballero gear is amazing for soaking bullet damage, and you can wear two layers. It's buyable in corpclave but costs an exorbitant sum.
• Deathsuits and deathsheads have very good soaks. They are so thin that you can wear them under other armor. However, they infect you with a disease that will buff your stats and eventually knock you out and kill you unless you have Hyperimmune. These both come from quests.
• Exosuits and exohelmets are modifiable amazing heavy armor. They provide probably the best soaks in the game. You can stick other shit on them to modify the soaks somewhat. They're craftable.
• Gator boots deserve special mention for being the best boots. Craftable.
• MK I Tactical helmets deserve special mention for giving you night vision, having a gas mask built in, and being good soaks. Craftable.
• Georgian mickeys are gas masks and decent soaks. Craftable.

Ok.. What do I do now?

Well pretty much you want to spend your time becoming tuff, and then exploring! So to become tuff you will do jobs and quests and kill stuff (or craft stuff) to get XP and money, and gym to raise your stats, and spend your XP on learning skills. Once you've spent a lot of time becoming tuff in any given day, go stash your gear somewhere safe (your apartment) and walk around and explore a little!

How do I fight?

Fighting is pretty easy. Here, I'll give you a checklist:

• Is your hit over 34 or so? If so, fight berserk. Otherwise, fight aggressive. You might want to fight aggressive anyway once your hit is that high, but by the time you get there you can probably figure out which you prefer on your own.
• Are your brains high? If so, start fights by feinting unless you know your target isn't feintable. Otherwise, start fights by powerattacking. (Pow works too.)
• Is your weapon one-handed? Do you have high brawn? If both of these are true, grab your opponent immediately after your first powerattack or feint stuns them.
• Do you have the Hooligan mutation? Are you brawny as fuck? Do you have a raw or two in Wrestle? If all of these are true, try to hb your opponent, probably either immediately before or after your initial stun. It might knock them out!
• If your opponent is stunned and powerattack is off cooldown, then powerattack. No, it won't stun them again, but it stands a damn good chance of killing them.
• This applies to any outlaw that attacks you: In general, if your opponent is knocked out, take their shit AS FAST AS YOU FUCKING CAN. Guess who has a lot harder of a time killing you? It's someone without any of their weapons. Guess who loses all their shit? Someone who passed out and had their cocoon stolen. Bonus point: being passed out makes them a lot easier to kill. The best way to do this is usually to get all weapon from <target> and get all cocoon from <target>.

Those are the basics of how to kill stuff.

How do I make xp?

Do jobs mostly!

• Corpsegrinder, whore, delivery boy, and gambler give out somewhat low XP but can all be done easily in and near FC by any newbie.
• Medic and repairman are also easy to do provided you have medic and repair tagged and at least a modicum of brains.
• While requiring a little combat ability, prisoner and chud hunter (racist hunter too if you enjoy frustration) can both be done near FC, but give decent XP rewards.

Do all the easy quests

• Quests that are easy go here.
• Orphanage cave complex secret!!!
• Edith's dolly.
• BrundleCHUD in the sewers.
• Ask your corpmates for suggestions, etc.

Kill stuff once you've got a ton of xp already from jobs and quests!

• DO NOT waste your shitty time trying to grind xp on stuff that is really really low-value. Do jobs and quests instead.
• Serial killers (until around 8k eff. xp) -- Recommend at least 18 hit and decent speed

Walk around gangland with 'hunt shadowy' on. Remember to powerattack or feint or hb or whatever.

• Rock leeches (until around 18k eff. xp) -- Recommend at least 21 hit and decent speed as well as slash/stab armor and ~17 total climb.

Go to adamant canyon and run around. Watch out for apparitions. Remember to cut off the leech hides if you have anything close to decent scavenge, and bring them back to HQ and/or your crafter and/or your apartment since they are a high-end armor component.

• Grindroids, Drilliacs, Jigsurgeons (until around 18k eff. xp) -- Recommend at least 21 hit and decent speed

Go to the subway tunnels and just kill shit. Bring a mortilex or towel or get Hyperimmune or something to deal with the bile from killing zombies. Some of the droid components are also good for crafting purposes.

• Treemen (once you can kill them) -- Recommend at least 28 hit, and 3.3 speed or better. You need to powerattack immediately, wear good slash/stab gear, and have a healer.
• Ants (once you can kill them) -- harder than treemen.
• Basilisks (once you can kill them) -- harder than ants.

How do I make cash!?

Well there are some ways to make money by killing shit that don't pay shitty.

• Sign eugenic cleansing 2 contract -> Kill serial killers -> Loot serial killers -> Sell the shit at [Th], [Am], and [Pr] in that order.
• Sign ghostbusting contract -> Drop ghost trap -> Use ghostbait -> Kill ghosts -> Sell full ghost traps at CSICOP where you bought them from at first. Not the biggest profit margin unless you're capturing Great Old Ones (GOOs)
• Sign chomo killer contract -> Sign tankboy tracker contract -> Track tankboys -> Kill tankboys. Nerfed, might not be a stellar idea anymore.
• Sign chomo killer contract -> Sign chomoninja tracker contract -> Track chomoninjas -> Kill chomoninjas. Nerfed, might not be a stellar idea anymore.
• Sign Western Hunter Contract -> Kill treeman -> Cut bark from treeman -> Sell bark to old man in botany.
• Sign Western Hunter Contract -> Kill ant -> Cut carapace from ant -> Sell carapace to J'lar.
• Kill basilisk -> Cut hide from basilisk -> Sell hide to J'lar.
• Sign mine rescue contract if you have stench and can climb down to the grotto -> Go to grotto -> Do not get eaten by grue -> Find geologist -> Bring geologist to Clara's in lurleen if it's open or WS in slagtown if it's not.
• Sign broken arrow contract -> Find target. Will be in mountainside (north-east of the redneck camp), Maas-Neotek or Wasteland (south of the juicer camp, then when in the wasteland itself go very far south all the way to the New Clearwater climb, then west). If going to the Wasteland, make sure to take a rad-q first. If going to the mountainside, make sure you have relatively high climb or bring a grappling hook / good throw. Don't bother taking this if you don't have enough medic to use a first aid kit, as the targets you need to escort have broken legs and they move PAINSTAKINGLY SLOW unless you heal it, although they never die from it. -> Escort target to City Hall. (North FC, near the corpclave gate and police precinct.)
• Kill or rob other players who have gone outlaw -> Take their things -> Put them in the corpstore or sell them back to them personally. (The best meanest way.)

What do I do if I run into an Outlaw?!

• OK HERE IS THE NUMBER ONE THING: WHEN YOU SEE A GUY THIS SHOULD HAPPEN INSTANTLY IN YOUR HEAD
• Can this person kill me?
  • If yes or you don't know, RUN.
  • If no, can I kill this person? (i.e. are they not in your corp, not an N-tag?)
    • If yes, do they have things I want?
      • If yes, kill them and try to take their things.
      • If no, kill them anyway for fun. (Or just chill I guess.)
    • If no, kill them anyway for fun. (Or just chill I guess.)

• Avoid appearing like you have shit that other people would like to own.
• Do not talk shit to people, act like a badass, or brag.
• Try to not post every dumb thing that passes through your head to *ideas, *gr, or *comedy.
• The more people see your name, the bigger a target you become. Try to not have diarrhea of the mouth all over chatnet, zotnet, and tradenet.
• When you do inevitably get killed, don't cry about it. Especially do not get mad where other people can see you, like chatnet or pages to the person that killed you. Ignore them, politely request to purchase your stuff back, and keep playing.

SPECIAL SECTION BECAUSE EVERYONE WHINES ABOUT HEADBUTT

Do you want to know the secrets (there are lots) to not getting hb'd? Here I will tell you. It's your lucky day!!!!

• Number one: Get more brawn.
• Number two: Wear a fucking helmet, what do you mean attacks hurt more when you're not wearing armor?!
• Number three: Feint your opponent.
• Number four: If you still get hb'd alot maybe you should get lithodermis.
• Number five: Don't be a douche and maybe people will headbutt you less!~

What about skills?

Grinding

Yes, people will grind. You can grind any skill to 6.00 raw (except ride) -- if you REALLY want to. I wouldn't recommend it because it's boring and tedious, but it does mean you end up with more xp overall.

Here's a list of skills and how to grind them:

Skill	Grinding
Appraise	Don't buy or grind appraise.
Blades	You can grind weapons to 6.00 raw by using them. Remember to make sure you're using a weapon of the appropriate grind range.
Bombs	Buy firecrackers from Thugg Lyfe and stand somewhere out of FC and grenade an empty room with them. Keep a trauma kit or ten handy unless you already have 10 or 11 total skill.
Chemistry	If you're a crafter you might want to grind or buy a raw or two in which case: get alcohol and tshirts, put them in a chemistry set, and make molotovs.
Climb	You can grind climb by climbing stuff. Try long, difficult climbs over water so if you fall you aren't fucked. The bridge in the chem plant is a good place.
Clubs	You can grind weapons to 6.00 raw by using them. Remember to make sure you're using a weapon of the appropriate grind range.
Craft	You can grind craft by making stuff.
Dodge	Don't grind dodge. DON'T GRIND DODGE. Seriously this is the single most painful skill to grind, it can take RL days to get from 2 to 3 raw. Just don't.
Fish	Fish, or fight stuff by using a fishing pole.
Fists	You can grind weapons to 6.00 raw by using them. Remember to make sure you're using a weapon of the appropriate grind range.
Focus	Spew, Screech, and make sure to save your clone as it is tedious to redo.
Fuck	Don't grind or buy fuck. Not because it's difficult to grind or expensive to buy, but simply because newbies with higher-than-average fuck are looked down on
Hack	Gangland cams grind hack.
Linguist	Don't grind or buy linguist. It's about 95% useless.
Locksmith	Get 100000 shitty lockpicks -> pick locks. Most people use the slagtown graveyard, gangland crackhouse, or prison cells.
Medic	Medic job in the hospital gives you medic IP and guess what grinds medic -- using medical supplies! Trauma kit everything always. You can also grab orphans to cure their black lung. Massaging players (with the Nimble Fingers mutation or a massage table grinds this as well.
Persuade	Persuade can be grinding by scamming folks.
Pilot	Boats grind pilot.
Pistols	You can grind weapons to 6.00 raw by using them. Remember to make sure you're using a weapon of the appropriate grind range.
Quickdraw	Roll joints 24/7 (or just stow and wield weapons repeatedly) to grind quickdraw.
Repair	Break things and fix them to grind repair.
Ride	You can grind this to 1 by skateboarding. Good luck ever getting another IP once you hit 1 though
Rifles	You can grind weapons to 6.00 raw by using them. Remember to make sure you're using a weapon of the appropriate grind range.
Scavenge	Searching grinds scavenge, as does butchering corpses. For maximum grinding efficiency cut one part off a corpse at a time
Science	Proton packs. Shooting them at ghosts grinds science. Can be extremely hazardous if you don't have a decent total, however.
Sneak	Can be grinded by doing any action flagged as "illegal" - attacking things, killing things - in front of an FCPD camera. Even some actions that don't give stars - attacking a chud in sight of a cam, for instance - can still give sneak IP
Spears	You can grind weapons to 6.00 raw by using them. Remember to make sure you're using a weapon of the appropriate grind range.
Swim	Swimming grinds swim.
Teach	You can't grind teach. You have to buy it.
Throw	You can grind weapons to 6.00 raw by using them. Remember to make sure you're using a weapon of the appropriate grind range.
Torture	You can torture people with lighters and cigarettes if I remember correctly.
Track	Tracking grinds track.
Wrestle	Headbutting and stripping grinds wrestle.
Whips	You can grind weapons to 6.00 raw by using them. Remember to make sure you're using a weapon of the appropriate grind range.

What do i spend my xp on?

Spend your hard-earned xp in this order:

• Primary skill (your weapon, or craft/scavenge, or hack/locksmith).
• Weapon skill if you're not a combat character.
• Dodge.
• Focus if you want focus, craft/science if you want to be a crafter.
• Secondary weapons/scavenge/whatever.

If you wanna learn a few raw of climb or track or whatever that's not really a big deal, learn it whenever you have the xp.

How do I spend my gym ip?

See Gym.

What do i gym?

• Brains
  • Crafting -- Brains to 18, senses to 18, reflexes as high as you can get it.
  • Picking -- Brains to 18, reflexes to 18, whatever other stat your weapon relies on as high as you can get it.
• Combat
  • Flails -- reflexes to 18, brawn to 18, endurance as high as you can get it.
  • Whips -- reflexes to 18, senses to 18, whatever else you want as high as you can get it.
  • Blades -- reflexes to 18, cool to 18, whatever else you want as high as you can get it.
  • Clubs -- reflexes to 18, brawn to 18, whatever else you want as high as you can get it.
  • Spears -- reflexes to 18, brawn to 18, endurance as high as you can get it.
  • Rifles -- reflexes to 18, brawn to 18 TOTAL AFTER GETTING ALL THE BRAWN MUTATIONS/IMPLANTS YOU WANT, cool to 18, whatever else you want as high as you can get it.
  • Pistols -- reflexes to 18, brawn to 13 TOTAL AFTER GETTING ALL THE BRAWN MUTATIONS/IMPLANTS YOU WANT, cool to 18, whatever else you want as high as you can get it. If you want to use super shorties, your target total brawn is 21 instead of 13.
  • Fists -- reflexes to 18, brawn to 18, endurance as high as you can get it.

What mutations do i get?

All-around stuff!

• Salamander -- +4 swim and climb. Good for pretty much everyone, regardless of focus.
• Bloodhound -- +4 track, +2 senses, no downside. Never a bad thing.
• Nimble Fingers -- +1 locksmith and craft, +2 reflexes, -2 endurance, -beat soak. Has two mutations worth of downsides, but still. Reflexes are so fucking important.
• High density -- beat soak, no downsides, beat is a common damage type, and you probably want nimble fingers.
• Twitchy nerves -- +2 reflexes, -2 focus, -1 senses. Reflexes are so good that I'm pretty sure every build should have this.
• Either brute strength or swollen brains -- I will pretty much always recommend you get one of these two. One or the other is key to nearly every build.

Branes

Crafting

Must-haves:

• Swollen brains -- +3 branes +1 senses, what more do you want.
• Bloodhound -- +senses, which doesn't help with crafting itself, but does help with scavenging components to use
• Junkrat -- +senses, makes it way easier to find the three chrome hubcaps you need.
• Nimble fingers -- +1 craft +2 reflexes, but hefty downsides. Definitely worth it though.

Optional cool stuff:

• High density -- good to offset the beat resist penalty from nimble fingers.
• Empath -- great stat boosts but makes it irritating or even debilitating to kill almost anything.
• Brainslug -- great stat boosts but really hurts your brawn and reflexes and you NEED access to a corp bank account or you will send all your cash to the slugmind.

Avoid:

• Anything not mentioned above that lowers your brains.
• Stuff that relies on high stats you don't have (i.e. hooligan).

Picking

Must-haves:

• Swollen brains -- +3 branes, what more do you want.
• Nimble fingers -- +1 locksmith +2 reflexes, but hefty downsides. Definitely worth it though.
• Twitchy nerves -- +2 reflexes, minor downsides.

Optional cool stuff:

• Rubberskin -- +3-6 elec resist, good for dealing with electric floors and shockmasters
• High density -- good to offset the beat resist penalty from nimble fingers.
• Empath -- great stat boosts but makes it irritating or even debilitating to kill almost anything.
• Brainslug -- great stat boosts but really hurts your brawn and reflexes and you NEED access to a corp bank account or you will send all your cash to the slugmind.
• Billygoat -- allows you to eat all the things you just stole, preferably in front of the person you stole them from

Avoid:

• Anything not mentioned above that lowers your brains or reflexes or whatever other stat your weapon skill is based on
• Stuff that relies on high stats you don't have (i.e. hooligan)
• Hideous freak -- you don't want the cops chasing you until you actually start picking

Combat!

Flails

Must-haves:

• Brute strength -- +3 brawn, -1 end
• Twitchy nerves -- +2 reflexes, no downsides
• Iron liver -- you'll have enough brawn to carry around the liquor, so this is basically an amazing source of healing (and revival sickness removal)

Optional cool stuff:

• Nimble fingers -- +2 reflexes, -2 endurance, -beat soak.
• Bleeder -- +4 brawn that you can turn on whenever you need it, plus constant destress. mutually exclusive with ultraclot. not good with hideous freak.
• Ultraclot -- +2 endurance passively, and immunity to bleeding. mutually exclusive with bleeder.
• High density -- good to offset the beat resist penalty from nimble fingers. still good even if you don't take nimble fingers.
• Hooligan -- hb is a very powerful thing with high brawn and wrestle.
• Hyperimmune -- +2 endurance passively, and immunity to pretty much all sickness. Mutually exclusive with hampire.
• Vampire -- +4 endurance +4 brawn, awesome for pretty much everything, but penalizes brains heavily and requires a lot more micromanagement than other characters (can only go outside half the time, can't be hungry or you get mental illnesses, etc). mutually exclusive with hyperimmune and hideous freak.
• Hideous freak -- +1 endurance, +4 senses, dramatic change to the way the game plays. I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're going abomination. mutually exclusive with vampire. not good with bleeder.
• Abomination -- +1 endurance, +1 brawn, gives you irad damage on your claws and makes them way better, even more dramatic change to the way the game plays. This requires hideous freak, fuck machine, and ripper. I recommend you do some serious thinking about if you really want to be an abomination. Also, get it LATE in your build or you will die to cops and hawthorne over and over again.

Avoid:

• Anything not mentioned above that lowers your reflexes or brawn or endurance

Whips

Must-haves:

• Twitchy nerves -- +2 reflexes, -1 senses.
• Bloodhound -- +2 senses, no downsides.
• Nimble fingers -- +2 reflexes, hefty downsides, still worth it.
• Swollen brains -- +1 senses and the brains bonus doesn't hurt. As a whips user you'll end up with decent brains anyway so might as well make the best of it.

Optional cool stuff:

• High density -- good to offset the beat resist penalty from nimble fingers.
• Junkrat -- +1 senses, useful for scavenging.
• Hideous freak -- +4 senses, awesome for whips users/crafters, but changes your playstyle dramatically (can't do a ton of jobs or buy almost anything from stores) Not good with bleeder.
• Vampire -- +4 senses, awesome for pretty much everything, but penalizes brains heavily and requires a lot more micromanagement than other characters (can only go outside half the time, can't be hungry or you get mental illnesses, FUCKING TYRONE HUNTING YOU, etc).
• Bleeder -- +4 senses that you can turn on whenever you need it at the expense of bleeding a little. Also, constant destress. Debuffs craft and other brainy things while you have it active though. No downsides when not active. Not good with hideous freak.

Avoid:

• Anything not mentioned above that lowers your reflexes or senses.
• Stuff that relies on high stats you don't have (i.e. hooligan).

Blades

Must-haves:

• Fuck machine -- +1 cool, ability to control your horniness with ~20 total focus is good too if you get focus, no downsides.
• Twitchy nerves -- +2 reflexes, minor downsides.
• Nimble fingers -- +2 reflexes, hefty downsides, still worth it.

Optional cool stuff:

• High density -- good to offset the beat resist penalty from nimble fingers.
• Enigma -- +2 cool, but inability to be diagnosed can suck (mostly if you're a vampire) I would take this unless you are taking vampire.
• Vampire -- +4 cool +4 brawn, awesome for pretty much everything, but penalizes brains heavily and requires a lot more micromanagement than other characters (can only go outside half the time, can't be hungry or you get mental illnesses, etc).
• Bleeder -- +4 brawn when you need it, less good for blades than most other but the constant destress from being covered in blood could be useful to you.

Avoid:

• Anything not mentioned above that lowers your reflexes or cool!

Clubs

Must-haves:

• Brute strength -- +3 brawn, -1 end
• Bleeder -- +4 brawn that you can turn on whenever you need it, plus constant destress.
• Twitchy nerves -- +2 reflexes, no downsides.
• Nimble fingers -- +2 reflexes, hefty downsides, still worth it.

Optional cool stuff:

• High density -- good to offset the beat resist penalty from nimble fingers.
• Hooligan -- hb is a very powerful thing with high brawn and wrestle.
• Vampire -- +4 brawn, awesome for pretty much everything, but penalizes brains heavily and requires a lot more micromanagement than other characters (can only go outside half the time, can't be hungry or you get mental illnesses, etc) mutually exclusive with hideous freak.

Avoid:

• Anything not mentioned above that lowers your reflexes or brawn.
• Hideous freak -- acid blood does not synergize well with bleeder.

Spears

Must-haves:

• Brute strength -- +3 brawn, -1 endurance.
• Twitchy nerves -- +2 reflexes, -1 senses.

Optional cool stuff:

• Nimble fingers -- +2 reflexes, -2 endurance, -beat soak. Doesn't change your skill but makes you faster.
• Bleeder -- +4 brawn that you can turn on whenever you need it, plus constant destress. mutually exclusive with ultraclot. Not good with hideous freak.
• Ultraclot -- +2 endurance passively, and immunity to bleeding. mutually exclusive with bleeder.
• High density -- good to offset the beat resist penalty from nimble fingers.
• Hooligan -- hb is a very powerful thing with high brawn and wrestle.
• Hyperimmune -- +2 endurance passively, and immunity to pretty much all sickness. Mutually exclusive with vampire.
• Vampire -- +4 endurance +4 brawn, awesome for pretty much everything, but penalizes brains heavily and requires a lot more micromanagement than other characters (can only go outside half the time, can't be hungry or you get mental illnesses, etc). mutually exclusive with hyperimmune and hideous freak.
• Hideous freak -- +1 endurance, +4 senses, dramatic change to the way the game plays. mutually exclusive with vampire. not good with bleeder.
• Abomination -- +1 endurance, +1 brawn, even more dramatic change to the way the game plays. This requires hideous freak, fuck machine, and ripper. I recommend you do some serious thinking about if you really want to be an abomination. Also, get it LATE in your build or you will die to cops and hawthorne over and over again.

Avoid:

• Anything not mentioned above that lowers your reflexes or brawn or endurance.

Rifles

Must-haves:

• Fuck machine -- +1 cool, ability to control your horniness with ~20 total focus is good too if you get focus, no downsides.
• Twitchy nerves -- +2 reflexes, minor downsides.
• Nimble fingers -- +2 reflexes, hefty downsides, still worth it.
• brute strength -- +3 brawn, good luck speedcapping rifles without it.

Optional cool stuff:

• Iron liver -- you'll probably have enough brawn to carry around the liquor, so this is basically an amazing source of healing (and revival sickness removal).
• High density -- good to offset the beat resist penalty from nimble fingers.
• Enigma -- +2 cool, but inability to be diagnosed can suck (mostly if you're a vampire) I would take this unless you are taking vampire.
• Vampire -- +4 cool +4 brawn, awesome for pretty much everything, but penalizes brains heavily and requires a lot more micromanagement than other characters (can only go outside half the time, can't be hungry or you get mental illnesses, etc).

Avoid:

• Anything not mentioned above that lowers your reflexes or cool or brawn.

Pistols

Must-haves:

• Fuck machine -- +1 cool, ability to control your horniness with ~20 total focus is good too if you get focus, no downsides.
• Twitchy nerves -- +2 reflexes, minor downsides.
• Nimble fingers -- +2 reflexes, hefty downsides, still worth it.

Optional cool stuff:

• High density -- good to offset the beat resist penalty from nimble fingers.
• Enigma -- +2 cool, but inability to be diagnosed can suck (mostly if you're a vampire) I would take this unless you are taking vampire.
• Brute strength -- +3 brawn, you'll probably want this to speedcap your hammerheads unless you're going vampire. If you are going vampire you might still want it to speedcap super shorties.
• Vampire -- +4 cool +4 brawn, awesome for pretty much everything, but penalizes brains heavily and requires a lot more micromanagement than other characters (can only go outside half the time, can't be hungry or you get mental illnesses, etc).

Avoid:

• Anything not mentioned above that lowers your reflexes or cool or brawn.
• Stuff that relies on high stats you don't have (i.e. hooligan).

Fists

Must-haves:

• Brute strength -- +3 brawn, -1 endurance.
• Twitchy nerves -- +2 reflexes, -1 senses.

Optional cool stuff:

• Nimble fingers -- +2 reflexes, -2 endurance, -beat soak. mutually exclusive with ripper.
• Ripper -- +1 fists, gives kind of shitty claws. A whole heap of downsides. mutually exclusive with nimble fingers.
• Bleeder -- +4 brawn that you can turn on whenever you need it, plus constant destress. mutually exclusive with ultraclot. not good with hideous freak.
• Ultraclot -- +2 endurance passively, and immunity to bleeding. mutually exclusive with bleeder.
• High density -- good to offset the beat resist penalty from nimble fingers. still good even if you don't take nimble fingers.
• Hooligan -- hb is a very powerful thing with high brawn and wrestle.
• Hyperimmune -- +2 endurance passively, and immunity to pretty much all sickness. Mutually exclusive with hampire.
• Vampire -- +4 endurance +4 brawn, awesome for pretty much everything, but penalizes brains heavily and requires a lot more micromanagement than other characters (can only go outside half the time, can't be hungry or you get mental illnesses, etc). mutually exclusive with hyperimmune and hideous freak.
• Hideous freak -- +1 endurance, +4 senses, dramatic change to the way the game plays. I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're going abomination. mutually exclusive with vampire. not good with bleeder.
• Abomination -- +1 endurance, +1 brawn, gives you irad damage on your claws and makes them way better, even more dramatic change to the way the game plays. This requires hideous freak, fuck machine, and ripper. I recommend you do some serious thinking about if you really want to be an abomination. Also, get it LATE in your build or you will die to cops and hawthorne over and over again.

Avoid:

• Anything not mentioned above that lowers your reflexes or brawn or endurance.

This page was originally made by Vayra, credit to them.