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Attributes are the defining features of any character, and are the easiest to screw up if you have yet to play the game.

--DEFENSE--

Your defensive attributes pretty much dictate how you will play the game. A psionic tank is not so much different from an assault tank in the way you fight battles. There are 3 main defense setups:

Heavy tank:

Strength- 8 to 9
Constitution- 10+

The tank build puts a lot of attributes just into defense for high hit points. The variability in strength has to do with which armours you can wear. I wouldn't recommend going below 9 if this is your first time playing.

Assasin-

Agility 6+
Constitution 3-5

Assasins are probably the most fun to play, and many quests in the game have this theme to them. The idea behind the assasin is that many offensive builds are much better with higher attributes, so you stealth before battle and hit them so hard they can't fight you back effectively as you run away.

Many feats even work around this concept like hit and run, tranquility, and psionic mania. Agiilty is mostly for stealth and some barebones defensive feats like sprint, evasive maneuvers, and uncanny dodge, but you should probably not bother going very high in those skills at all (particular dodge which kinda sucks), as mostly you don't want anyone standing when it comes time for them to hit you.

Hybrid-

Agility 7+
Constitution: 10+
Dex: 3 or 7 (escape artist or no, probably best to skip it for some craftale leather boots that have the same effect later on)

I wouldn't recommend this playstyle, but you can mix constituion with high evasion and dodge to have some pretty good defense. One problem with this is that while you can avoid stun with thick skull, you can't to my knowledge avoid all immobilization even with the feat for it, which will leave you a sitting duck in many cases with poor armour.

--OFFENSE--

Psionics:

Will 12+

Using psionics as your primary offense requires enough so that you rarely if ever fail which requires a large investment.

Knife/unarmed

Dex 13+

Dexterity lowers action point costs by a flat amount, which becomes very powerful as that amount approaches 1 AP. If you're going dex, go all in.

Pistol:

Dex 8+
Perception 10+

Sledgehammer:

Str 10+
Agility 6+

Hammer builds require a lot of attributes all over the place, but also need high strength since you get a whole 10% extra damage per strength above the requirement. You should definitely have 6 agility for sprint regardless of armor choice.

Assault:

Strength 7
Perception 8+

Assaults need 7 for various assult weapon feats, and a high perception as perception affects your ranged damage. However, very high perception is debatable in worth. You can go very low if you supplement your offense with some other offense

Sniper

Strength 6
Perception 10+

Basically needed for, of course, the sniper feat. Strength needed to equip sniper rifles.

--GENERAL BREAKPOINTS--

Much of the reason for having a certain amount in attributes is to get a particular feat. In some cases, there is little point in progressing past the stat because there aren't many good feats left.

Strength:

7, 8 ,9

Basically, 7 for full auto, some defensive feats, and some end game armour. 8 or 9 for steel or titanium armor

Dex:

6-7 for extra grenades and many crossbow feats. Mostly, however, dex is an all or nothing stat.

Agility:

6-7 for defensive and stealthy stats

Constitution:

5 for conditioning, 10 for thick skull

Will:

7 for many psionic abilityes, 10 for locus of control. You can use psi with as low as 3 even, as certain psioinic abilities do not fail.

Perception:

6 for aimed shot, 10 for snipe

Intelligence-

There's really only 2 values you should ever choose. 3 or 7. 3 if you don't craft, 7 if you do.
Pure psionic players may wish to go higher for a slight boost to psi regen.

--EXAMPLES--

Heavy Assault:

Strength 7-9
Constitution 10+
Perception: 10+
Intelligence 3 or 7

^ Probably the easiest build to play. Assault rifle things to death. Optionally add on psionics, but I wouldn't raise will at all.

Cuthroat:

Dex: All in
Consitution: 5+
Agility 7
Intelligence 7
Perception: 6

^ perception for machine gun with spec ops and special ammo to take out heavies (shock or AP) Higher perception allows taking out un-immobilized evasive enemies, but at that point you're probably better off with pistols.

Light Psiker:

Will: All in
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 7-10
Con 7 (extra con for stoicism)

Heavy Psiker:

Will 13
Con: 10
Strength 7-9
Intelligence 7

Hammer:

Strength: 10
Consitution: 10
Agility 6
Intelligence: 3 or 7
Dex 5 (or whatever is for the feat)


Note: Every 4 levels you will get an extra ability point. This is both how you can get above 10 in a stat, and also what allows for later game branching into multiple offensive types.

You have a lot more freedom in skills than you do with attributes. Most of the time, you will want to max skills that you choose. It is not a bad plan at all to simply choose 8 skills and stick with them only, although I will briefly go over each skill and their general use.

---OFFENSE---

With the exception of Psikers, your primary offense skill determines how you will spend most of your feats, and every character should have at least one. There is no such thing as a pacifist character, as all characters will end up in the arena at some point.

--Guns--

Guns represent a large array of weapons, but generally speaking your character will want to settle onto only one or two types depending on your attritbute spread. Tanks will want to exclusively use assault rifles, high dexterity players will want to use pistols and smgs, and sneaky characters with at least 5 strength will use snipers.

--Crossbow--

Crossbows really shouldn't be used as a sole offensive weapon. They are mainly paired either with traps or psi on characters without the strength to wield a sniper rifle, and have difficulty taking on heavily armored opponents.

--Throwing--

Also, not exactly a primary offense. Characters with no throwing at all can use grenades, as they only miss within 4 squares of their target. High dexterity targets can make great use with high throwing, however, for precision flashbangs and making better use of grenadier feat.

--Melee/unarmed--

Knife wielders may want to supplement their offense with smgs/crossbows or pistols, unarmed, potentially with psi, sledghammers with assault rifles.

---DEFENSE---

While defense is nice, defensive skills alone will not save you. Metal armor and heavy vest users should not invest in either, and lightly armored characters should note that defense skills are no substitute for armor

--Evasion--

Evasion is very useful, and is mostly an all or nothing stat. It reduces AoE damage, and is great for avoiding bullets. Still, one sniper shot can frequently still kill you and being immobilized reduces evasion to 0, so don't expect to be invincible.

--Dodge--

Dodge is not nearly as useful, as poweruful melee users are rare, not to mention a highly agile character should generally just avoid them. Still, uncanny dodge is a useful feat, so if you aren't maxing dodge, you can still get benefit by taking enough for that feat.

---SUBTERFUGE---

With only 8 skills, it's a shame there's no way to get more as all of these are great. However, in generaly stick to 3 or less here.

--Stealth--

Everyone in light armor should use stealth, period. It is so good, you may want to even take it in heavy armour users to temporarily go sneaky for a few quests or tough areas.

When to max stealth:

-Knife users
-snipers
-Completing stealth quests

Anyone else can get great benefit from going mid-high in stealth supplemented with stealthy gear.

--Hack/lock--

Generally taken together. This gives lots more loot, more experience through the oddity system, access to many additional areas, and when taken together allow you to get through tough areas without fighting. These should be maxed up until after retrieving the armadillo parts, at which point you can get a little lax with them.

--Pickpocket--

Not as useful as hack/lock, but an alternative to get extra resources and a few quests if you only want to spend points in one skill. Should not be taken with hack/lock

--Traps--

Many encounters can just be cheezed with throwing traps everywhere, and this is also useful for avoiding traps. While full traps isn't a substitute for offense as a few encounters will not allow for setting up and som enemies disarm traps, paired with an offensive weapon it can get you through just about anything


---CRAFTING---

Many characters can find benefit from maxing all 5, but usually 2 or 3 are particularly good for a given build. Characters with less than 7 int should not bother generally with the max or nothing crafts, and just buy gear (sledgehammer users being the exception with maybe finding use at 6 int), as the quality will be low and they won't get the needed crafting feats.

--Mechanics--

Great to max on anyone using heavy armor or guns or melee. So basically everyone but psikers and maybe unarmed. Everyone benefits with a little mechanics, as many things like traps and grenades require modest amounts.


--Electronics--

Max or nothing. Shields, psionic heabands, cloaking devices, shock weapons, and energy weapons all use electronics. Along with mechanics, it is useful for anyone, although especially so for psikers and melee.

--Chemistry--

Much less useful to max, although great in modest amounts. Used for grenades, acid resistant armor, and chemical weapons.

--Biology--

All psikers should have modest amounts or biology for headbands and a variety of drugs. Everyone else can see lots of benefit from biology. It offers value in mid to max range.

--Tailoring--

Great with high amounts, although not necessarily maxed. Some amount is needed for heavy armour uses for vests, usually in the "highish" range.

---PSI---

Psi is of use to anyone in modest amounts, but with the 25% reduction in health, is certainly not required for tanky builds.

--Thought control--

The skill that makes a pure psiker possible. Heavy armour users can use some to kill dopplegangers by taking the psi pill later in game after energy shields are available.

--Psychokinesis--

Hybrids can take 30 for two very useful ones: electrokinesis and force wall. Electrokiness in particular is great paired with premeditation to stun foes with high dodge before unleashing fury on them.

Unarmed users pretty much need psychokinesis, although it is not impossible to play without it. Pure psikers probably take this or metathermics, or both.

--Thermodynamics--

Hybrids should take enough for cryostasis and stop there. Pure psikers should almost definitely take this as well, particularly with pyromania.


---DIPLOMACY---

I would advice taking none of these if you're trying to make a good combatant, you only get 40 skill points per level after all and taking one means taking one less subterfuge/craft/offense. It would have been nice if these were all balled into "speech" at which point it might have been useful.

--Persuasion--

Generally exclusive with intimidation, your basic diplomacy skill.

--Initimidation--

If you want to use Yell, choose this, otherwise persuasion

--Mercantile--

Sucks. Choose pickpocket if you want money, or lock and hack if you want to spend two skills on loot.

There are a few basic tips to surviving the early game.

1) Grenades

While you're certainly not forced to use grenades, they do take care of just about anything.

If you must, just keep lobbing a grenades and reloading if they don't hit your target, but chances are if you have to do that you might need some work on your build.

Grenades diminish in power of the course of the game, but they are powerful throughout the early game. They can even kill end-game evasive characters if you stun them first to drop their evasion to 0.

2) Morphine

Morphine makes a lot of fights much easier when used before you engage. If used before a fight, you will take only about 2/3 of the damage you would have, much less even if you use a hypo after taking damage. They are very expensive, so save them for tough encounters.

For extremely dangerous encounters, you can take a level one or two grenade, hit up some morphine, and drop the grenade right at your feat near some enemies, and only you will be standing.

3) Arenaline

Also makes a lot of fights easier, not much to say here! Even in prolonged combat it is better to use adrenaline to pick off a few enemies early.

4) Hypos + bandages

If possible, avoid using hypos in casual encounters, as bandages are cheaper to use

5) Stealth

If a fight is too hard, nearly in all cases you can just avoid it altogether with stealth.

The first quest is more of a tutorial, and if your character is having too much trouble here with just the rathounds, you'll want to try another build out.

Two noteworthy encounters in th first quest:

1) Room with four rathounds: There are a few ways to handle this. The easiest is to stealth and shoot the explosive barrel. It will kill a rathound or two and send the rest running as you shoot them down. Additionally, if you need to power through the room, there is a wedge in the wall near the entrance were you can fight the rathounds in melee range one at a time.

2) Ratula.

One way to defeat ratula is to not fight him! You only need to light up 3 outposts to finish the quest. However, you do get more credits for lighting up all of them, so you might want to take him out.

The easiest way here is to simply toss a grenade at him. For an assured victory, you can hit yourself up with morphine and drop a grenade right next to him as the rathounds are close, then heal yourself before the morphine kills you. Psi users can simply t-punch him and then follow up with more psi or attacks.

Additionally, you may wish to throw a flare to scatter the hounds, as finding all of these guys as once might be more than you can handle.

3) Psi-beetles

Psi-beetles have one major weakness: They have virtually no movement points, and very little acion points. Furthermore, they run when you get close. The easiest way to defeat them is to walk up to them after you unload your action points on them, and they will waste at least one, maybe two of their attacks just running away.

Psi -beetles also cannot open doors. If you're fighting two at once, just run away and shut a door, and wait until lthey spread out or grenade the both of them after healing up.

Things really start to pick up fast in this game. However, there are ways of making this area much easier.

1) Tactical vest/ metal armour

The easiest way to get through both areas is to craft a tactical vest or metal armour. Either one will trivalize all the damage in this area except for hammer warriors, who you should kill first.

Unfortunately, they are both very expensive to craft and extremely expensive to buy, and usually will require selling basically everything you have to the vendors in the area (agronomics, two in engineering, ammo, even sell psi boosters in medical as a psionic). Additionally, you will probably need to head over to junkyard to find the ballistic panel or component vest. You can go to junkyard either by sneaking past the Psi-beetles past the gate where you saved newton, or by taking the docks.

Even though metal armour is more expensive, sometimes the materials end up being cheaper.

One gauranteed way to get the money is to do kolhmeiers quest in junkyard, which you can look up on the wiki. You can stun and grenade vilmer to kill him instantly, and you can shoot over the rathounds in the tunnel to kill the alphas without taking damage from them. Additionally, you can lob greanades or flares if things get out of hand.

Furthermore, if you can survive jacks quests and do the first floor of gms, you wll usually have enough money to buy/craft a vest/metal armour.

Note when crafting a vest, that it will be even more godly if you can add on psi-beetle carapace for some free plating.

The rest of this guide assumes you cannot afford the vest or armour.

2) Jack's quest.

One time consuming way to kill the three guards is to wait until some rathounds attack them. They usually spawn close enough that it will take a few minutes, but eventually, they will start to attack. If you can't do this, you can lob a grenade or sneak past, or use adrenaline. Psi-users can probably just destroy them.

3) Rathounds outside GMS

Frequently rathounds will swarm you here thanks to the new sounds system -___-. Shut yourself in a room and kill them one by one.

4) Sentry bots inside GMS.

The best way to get through this area is to trigger a camera to spot you, and then head on over the other side of the map and take the key from the corpse in the center of the room while sneaking.

If sneaking is not an option, your best bet is to kill the bots one by one by hit and running them, and closing a door behind you after doing some damage.

If you have high enough lockpick you can also open climb in the vents with an omni tool and open the lock manually, although for some reason that check is stupidly high.

5) "welcome party"

You'll want to take some morphine before this fight, but you can also take them out with a little luck without it.

6) Everything else.

Lock+hack+stealth will get you past this without fighting anything. You don't have to save the people down here if you don't want to.

With just stealth, you can grab the key from the corpse and enter one of the rooms which has the keycard. You don't even need stealth with a bit of luck and using the vents