Wasteland 2 Director's Cut - Team Building

 
Wasteland 2 Director's Cut Location Notes: Team Building

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We build our team with the goal of getting all dialogue and skill encounters in the game. Therefore, we dropped certain skills (Barter, Leadership) because there were no role-playing events related to them.

In the early game, melee skills are strong because once you are in melee, you get many chances to attack, so even level 1 skill in Bladed or Blunt Weapons can be very useful. Trading blows with enemy melee or Handgunners is still risky, but once you are a higher level and have more CON, then against easy raider encounters you can basically use melee to clear them and that way get resources without using your own (and run back to a town for free healing, which you can safely do if your party Outdoorsman skill is high enough).

The initial team was:

Perception / Sniper

• This character takes point when moving around the map because they have the Perception skill to spot dangers early.
• Takes the first shot, initiating combat. Hopefully the Sniper skill will let them kill the enemy mid-range to long-range gunner, forcing remaining members to close the gap under fire.
• Because Sniper Rifles are single-shot weapons in the short distances of this game they are generally good only as first-strike weapons, after which mid-range weapons and short-range or melee combat takes over. In which case you may just want to go with Assault Rifles for a more rounded character.
• With all builds here, Handguns is superior to melee because you get both range and point blank range bonuses but it will be very ammunition intensive unless you have enough scrap to buy a lot of ammunition.
• Skills
• Handguns 1 OR Bladed Weapons 1
• Sniper Rifles 1 OR Assault Rifle 1
• Perception 1, Outdoorsman 1
• Angela Deth has the Outdoorsman skill so you can delay taking it; if you rescue Highpool, Vulture's Cry also has this skill and you could maximize hers.
• Lockpicking 1, Safecracking 1

Hard Ass / Melee

• Hard Ass has a combat perk and Brute Force has a melee weapon perk (see our list of Wasteland 2 Director's Cut perks sorted by skill), so this is the only melee weapon character. Also has the Field Medic to aim for the Stimpak perk to help them survive melee.
• Skills
• Blunt Weapons 1, Brute Force 1, Hard Ass 1
• She is also our main melee combatant. In the early game when a lot of enemies do not have conductive armour and therefore energy weapons are not useful except when the target only has very few CON left, she advances into melee. In the late game, her melee is reinforced by the Stimpack perk from First Aid and other perks from Brute Force and Hard Ass.
• Energy Weapons 1
• Energy Weapons are weak at the start but stronger later on when enemies have conductive armor. So in the early game, she fulfills the melee role but can still use Energy Weapons against targets with very low HP left.
• Field Medic
• Weaponsmithing 1
• Angela Deth has this skill so you could delay taking it and invest in a weapon skill instead; and then have Angela Deth maximize her Weaponsmithing.

Smart Ass / Loot

• Due to skill distribution, the only character without only one weapon proficiency. If you can keep her at mid-range, Assault Rifle is a good all-rounder. Otherwise, try a Handgun with a scope to give her utility from mid to short range.
• Skills
• Assault Rifles 1 OR Handguns 1
• Smart Ass 1
• Alarm Disarming 1, Computer Science 1, Demolitions 1
• Surgeon 1

Kiss Ass

• Skills
• Animal Whisperer 1, Kiss Ass 1
• Assault Rifles 1
• Handguns 1 OR Brawling 1
• Mechanical Repair 1, Toaster Repair 1

Attributes
Attributes were ruthlessly specialized. We aimed to improve Strength (for more CON) as we acquire levels (CON gains from Strength are retroactive). In the meantime we maximized Speed for Initiative and Evasion, and Intelligence for Skill Points as we are a skill-focussed party.
Attributes are as follows:

• Coordination 1, Luck 1, Awareness 1, Charisma 1
• Strength 4
• Speed 10, Intelligence 10

An alternate build could have Coordination 4 Strength 1 and develop Coordination, to get a lot of Action Points.

For the Trait, because we won't get Leadership we could take took Raised in a Circus for the +5% Evasion bonus, which helps us maximize Evasion. However, in practice this wasn't as useful as being competent in combat and taking down the enemy quickly, so in the end we went with Delayed Gratification (-1 skill points from levels 2-10, +1 skill points from level 11+).

Early Game Skill Checks
If you want to maximize your XP and game experience by succeeding in as many skill checks as possible, you'll need to consider what to do after the Radio Tower as in the early game you don't have many skill resources.

• The Radio tower has a few easy skill checks but you will have to go back to that location later anyway.
• Ag Center has a wide variety of skills, but only a few require high-level skills (though you might end up with a miserable chance of success and a lot of reloads). Also, some opportunities to make skills checks disappear if you progress too far in the mission; for example, you can break into Rose's lab and recruit her early, or you can wait for the door to be open for you later.
• Highpool is a shorter mission with fewer checks but the skill requirements are higher. Fortunately, a lot of the checks can be delayed.
• If you don't so far enough to get the initial Highpool SOS then you are not under any time pressure to choose. Theoretically, you could grind for levels to increase your skills before going to either Ag Center or Highpool.
• You won't get a doctor to heal you for free -- you need to finish either Ag Center or Highpool to get this.
• Therefore you need to find or buy medical resources unless you are lucky enough to avoid severe injury until you can level up (whereupon you are healed for free unless you are dying).
• You will steadily run out of ammunition unless you have a lot of melee in your party, in which case you can grind the easier encounters that typically don't drop gear or ammunition.
• You can also buy the radiation suit from the Citadel early and look for caches to the north. This will get you at least two suits of armor, though you might have to run from most encounters at a low 25% chance of success. If you can handle this you also have a good likelihood of encountering Rail raiders who can drop fairly good weapon loot.
• You could use Veterans -- If your party dies they get exported and available for a new game. You lose your gear but keep your levelling.
• A quick way to do this is to find the nuclear warhead in the Ranger Citadel museum and press the button.

You can also get easy XP and Skill Points from Shrines in this area, though that is better done when you have a full roster (including NPCs) as you can only visit Shrines once for the bonus, and team members who weren't with you when you visited cannot get the benefit later.