Building a character in this game can be pretty complicated so I am writing this guide hoping that it will give new players and easier time getting into the game. I've played all through the beta and have around 1000 hours at the time of writing so I feel that I can speak with some authority on what works for an effective build.

Additionally most of the info here will be geared towards combat characters as they are the most complicated to build. Plus combat in this game is generally quite hard.

For anyone having difficulty with the game I would always recommend going to the steam forums to ask for help or going to the Iron Tower Studio discord server and asking for help there. This is generally a friendly community that will offer help to new players if they ask for it.

There are two set difficulties to choose from and I recommend playing hero for you first time through. The odds are generally stacked against you so the bonuses it provides help make the game fairer. Once you are comfortable with the system you should switch to underdog. There is also now a custom difficulty where you can adjust sliders to your preference. If underdog is still too hard going custom and putting everything between hero and underdog is a good way to go.

As you gain experience you will level up. You gain experience by doing quests and solving problems related to those quests (eg. killing someone in a fight or negotiating with them). When you level up the only thing you unlock is a new feat. Feats make up the bulk of a builds strength so make sure to pick them wisely.

Quest reward experience is not divided among party members, everyone gets their own chunk of experience. Experience gained from the steps you take to solve that quest like fighting/talking/sneaking is shared among the party so larger parties get less experience individually.

It is possible to beat the game as solo character (ie. no party members). This playstyle is very difficult and requires lots of system and meta knowledge so don't attempt to make a solo character for your first build. This guide is geared more towards beginner players so I will not go into how to play though the game as a solo character.

I'm putting this section at the beginning of the guide as the breakdown of all the mechanics is a bit complicated. For a more in depth overview of stats, skills and feats look below.

Actually building a character is a bit complicated but the most important thing to note is that your character is always going to have a weakness somewhere. Fortunately unlike Iron Tower's previous game Age of Decadence you get companions who can make up for your weaknesses.

A party size of 3-4 is best for new players. It's usually best to pick a heroic feat as your starting point. Recommend constitution at 6 or higher. You should prioritise your ability to deal damage first and defence/utility second.

PARTY SIZE IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT, DO NOT DUMP CHARISMA ON YOUR FIRST PLAYTHORUGHS. The first thing I would do at the character creation screen is give yourself 6 charisma. A party of 3 is the minimum I would recommend for new players. Anything below this and the game become far more difficult as companions are very powerful. There is a feat you can take to increase your party size as well but I personally prefer just giving myself the required charisma.

The next thing is to give your self 6 constitution. Likewise I would not go below this as it gives you a nice balance of HP and implant slots. You don't gain HP on level up so it's important to start with a good value.

For your stats it is good to have at least 1 at 10 but not required. It's better to be really good at one thing than to be mediocre at everything. Having 10 in a stat also gives you access to the relevant heroic feat which are powerful feats only available at character creation. If you can't decide which to have at 10 you can take the Gifted heroic feat as this allows for a more well rounded character.

To allocate your stats think about the type of character you want to play. There are a few ways to make effective combat characters.

If you fancy a character build around precision fighting and critical hits then perception will be the most important stat for you. Many good feats for this type of character have perception requirements of 8. These are Critical Thinker (only 6 perception), Precise Strike, Sharpshooter and Big Game Hunter. I would recommend a minimum 8 perception for this type of character. Pistols, Rifles or Bladed weapons are good for this type of playstyle as they give good bonuses to your aimed attacks and critical chance/damage.

For characters build around automatic weapons like SMGs and Rifles a good strength score is useful, around 8 again. A dexterity score of 8 is also useful as it give access to the Gunfighter feat that boosts graze damage. Burst attacks tend to graze a lot so this can help their damage stay good.

If you want to make a melee fighter strength is your most important stat. Similar to before, 8 strength is the minimum I would have as the good melee feats need it plus it gives you a nice damage boost. The Berserker feat gives you a good way to do lots of attacks per turn and the Heavy Hitter feat is good to up your damage both for normal hits and critical hits. Both of these require 8 strength.

For your skill tags the most important is your weapon skill if you plan on doing any fighting. If you only have one tag it should probably go here. You may see player builds that don't tag their weapon skill. This is because they are min-maxing psychopaths (me included) who have played so much of the game and have gotten so good that they don't need it.

For a second skill I would choose one of the combat skills with armour being my first pick as it is a nice consistent defence throughout the whole game. Note that unlike Age of Decadence there is not an either/or choice to defence. Evasion and armour work well together and you'll naturally build up a bit of skill in both as you progress.

If you have more tags to spend its good to pick a science or stealth skill. Biotech is recommended but a companion like Jed or Faythe can do this for you easily. Otherwise computers or lockpick are good options as they can get you good loot and access to things you wouldn't usually get.


For the first feat feat you should basically always aim to take one of the heroics. They are far more powerful than the other options and will be far more valuable to you. If you are unsure which heroic to pick I would take Gifted as it helps offset any of your characters weaknesses by giving you more points to spend.

As you progress through the game you will get more feats and it is important to pick the more impactful ones early. The most important early feats will be a weapon specialisation feat. These give you chunky accuracy boost with your selected weapon and unlock secondary boosts for them like more reaction or crit damage that scales with your skill level. See the feats section below for the breakdown of these feats.

For crit characters Critical Thinker should be taken within the first few levels as it boost your chance and actually speeds up levelling a bit as you gain crit exp for landing crits. Otherwise taking other accuracy boosting feats like Precise Strike or Sharpshooter are good depending on your build.

If your character wants to use heavy armour I would take the feat Armoured Warfare around levels 3-4 as this is about the time you will start to find pieces of heavy armour.

Other than that it can be good to take feats like Educated early to get an extra skill or some of the generic combat feats like Charger for melee characters or Tough Bastard for frontline fighters. Captain/Sarge are good if your have the charisma as well and will give your party a solid boost. I'd take these around level 3-5 if you want them.

So a generic feat progression might look something like:
Level 1: Heroic Feat
Level 2: Weapon Specialisation
Level 3: Offence boosting feat (like precise strike, controlled burst or captain/sarge for large parties)
Level 4: Defence/Support feat (like armoured warfare, sharpshooter or captain/sarge)
Level 5: More offence/support (things like big game hunter for more damage or tough bastard for defence)
Level 6: More offence/support (capping out whatever the build is good at, master blaster, true grit, things like that)

Not the only way obviously but it's generally a good idea to focus on getting competence with weapons first and adding utility/defence later. Early in the game the thing that is most likely to kill you is an inability to deal meaningful damage.

Here are some sample builds using each of the heroic feats and one without. They aren't the only way to build characters obviously but should represent how to make an effective character (ie. focusing on one thing to be really good at). I've also thrown in some sample builds for companions as well. Generally companions are good at covering your own weaknesses or just adding more power to the party. Note these are all mostly combat focused, I haven't covered many stealth builds here outside of some for Faythe.

I'm putting these at the start as it takes ages to scroll to the bottom. For a more in depth look at each of the stats, skills and feats see the rest of the guide.



Whenever you've got a problem point your rifle at it and hold down the trigger. It's bound to go away eventually.

This is a simple automatic rifle user. Solve your problems by unloading on people. It has a decent bit of flexibility so can branch into other skills with the right implants or feat which is the main benefit from Gifted. The extra skill points aren't that important and can be put anywhere, ideally into a skill you would like to branch into. If you don't want to branch into other skills you can drop the point in INT and put it somewhere else eg. CON for more HP or DEX to meet the feat requirements without an implant.

Sample feat progression:
Level 1: Gifted
Level 2: Controlled Burst
Level 3: Gunfighter (This will require you getting a motor cortex, they are easy enough to find)
Level 4: Armoured Warfare
Level 5: Big Game Hunter (This will require you getting a bionic eye, these are also very common)
Level 6: Tough Bastard

Recommended Implants:
Spoilt for choice here as they all offer something good for this build
Bionic Eye: required for feats
Motor Cortex: required for feats
Exo-Spine: gives more accuracy for bursts plus has good upgrades for this type of character
Subdermal Armour: makes you tankier, good universal implant
Synthetic Heart: Pairs well with a tanky character
Neural uplink: good if you want more skills
Squad Leader: has some good upgrades for the party so it can be a decent choice plus if you branch into speech skills you can get a bonus to disposition with an upgrade chip





The fastest gunslinger on the ship (citation needed). A simple fast draw build that takes advantage of Evans' innately high initiative. He should go first in most fights, tossing grenades and debuffing with aimed shots. Fanning and bursts can be used to deal damage and build stagger.




Simple problems required simple solutions. Shotgun bursts deal good damage and are relatively cheap. Jed is one of the companions that starts with good biotech so he can be a solid medic and his STR and armour handling is high enough that you can get away with not tagging armour. His unique feat Punisher makes him extra tanky and gives him great accuracy with shotgun bursts.

If you take every opportunity to use science skills, tokens and training you can get to 7 in most skills. You can get lockpick and steal up as well. This is enough to some extra loot and hunter feats.

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Better to talk things out than get into fights. That being said if things get rough it's good to have devoted friends ready to die for your cause.

A nice full party character. Recommend giving all your companions the Educated feat early on. You should be able to cover all skills and negotiate/fight as needed. Best for this character to hang back and take potshots with a rifle while your friends do the main fighting.

Sample feat progression:
Level 1: Cult Leader
Level 2: Educated (gives huge EXP bonus, armour or biotech are good tags here)
Level 3: Captain
Level 4: Master Trader (most money is made from combat so this can offset the fact that you do less combat overall)
Level 5: Rifleman
Level 6: Sharpshooter (you would need to overclock a bionic eye for this)
Level 7: Big Game Hunter
Level 8: Bionic (Master Blaster is also a good choice as you only have a few hard fights left, also good around levels 6 & 7)

Recommended Implants:
Squad Leader: stacks with the bonuses from captain, makes your party super strong
Bionic Eye: required for feats plus has good upgrades
Subdermal Armour: nice boost to armour for this character
Neural uplink: can get you more EXP plus another tag if you overclock it
Synthetic Heart: helps with survivability





The human sentry gun. Evans can get very high reaction thanks to his unique feat Desperado. He is also decently tanky and has good stats for SMGs. Drop smoke on some enemies, drop Evans in the middle of them and watch him get lots of reaction shots from their misses.




Faythe the loot generating machine and textbook skillmonkey. She's not too good in combat but can be useful for tossing grenades and getting the odd shot in. You get lots of extra loot and money to make up for it. The stealth field can stop her from getting killed immediately and her unique feat Thief can get you high stealth skills very easily.




God will shield you from harm but the fancy armour and magic shield help too. Like all the faction companions he is already built for you, you just need to finish him off by adding some more damage or utility. He replaced shotgun tank Jed in this run.

Hang back and hit your enemies right where it hurts while your friends keep them occupied. Some might call it cowardly but I'd call it effective.

Solid sniper character. You can drop the intelligence a bit if you don't want to get another tag. I would point the extra points in DEX for more aimed shots if you do. It's good to have at least one companion built to be a meat shield for them as they are a bit squishy. Just hang back and you should be fine.

Sample feat progression:
Level 1: Dodge This!
Level 2: Rifleman
Level 3: Critical Thinker
Level 4: Big Game Hunter
Level 5: Opportunist
Level 6: Second Wind
Level 7: Master Blaster

Recommended Implants:
Bionic Eye: more accurcacy = more crits with this build
Motor Cortex: more AP for attacks
Neural Uplink: another tag, ideally tag armour to increase survivability
Subdermal Armour: can also help with survivability





The squishiest tank around! I'll be honest she's not too good at this but it is possible. The early game is a little rough but it gets better once she gets good gear. Assassin gives her good damage though. Jed is a better choice overall for a tank.





Unfortunately for Coby special operations includes babysitting yokels from the Pit now. A faction companion so she is great out of the gate. You can just up her damage a little or get some more utility out of her with a feat like Quick Fingers. As my main character is built around crits Sarge is a good choice. She replaced melee Jed in this run.

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Charming scav from the Pit with a draw as fast as his smile. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ your way to success. If they see through it, toss a grenade and dive into cover, I'm sure your friends are happy to save your skin for the 50th time.

With Fast Runner you basically always get to go first. I would try to get an extra tag skill ASAP and tag evasion as you can get it pretty high. Also good to have tanky friends to hide behind. Make sure to use cover and smoke grenades for maximum effect. Plus you should able to talk your way past the really difficult fights.

Sample feat progression:
Level 1: Fast Runner
Level 2: Educated (tag evasion, pair with a neural implant and tag armour for good survivability)
Level 3: Pistolero
Level 4: Artful Dodger
Level 5: Sarge
Level 6: Fast Draw
Level 7: Quick Fingers
Level 8: Critical Thinker

Recommended Implants:
Motor Cortex: more evasion plus initiative
Neural Uplink: another tag skill, good to get evasion or armour tag
Squad Leader: boost your friends, stacks with Sarge
Bionic eye: also a good choice, can be overclocked to give access to more feats





A righteous paladin come to beat people to death with metal clubs. Jed is solid melee fighter especially with his unique feat Punisher upping his damage and tankiness. Biotech is always useful and Jed is a natural.




A man so angry and impatient that every ounce of his being is devoted to killing people as quickly as possible. Garret is an amazing damage dealer who can pick a target and delete them. He is a little squishy though so he can get deleted himself in sticky situations. I recommend maximising his damage with Big Gamer Hunter ASAP. He replaced sniper Evans in this run.

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Lord knows how you've manged to stumble into such extreme regenerative ability, maybe it's the drinks the bars offer rewriting your genetic makeup. Who cares though? Being nearly invincible is sure to come in handy.

Good tanky build. A bit slow so you will need some fast friends to help you out. You should have no problems with survivability. Crank up your health, armour and regeneration and you should be able to take any punishment the game throws at you.

Thanks to having lots of implants you can rely on your STR for armour and accuracy with bursts so you don't need to tag armour. You can save a biotech tag as well. Although in order to get 10 biotech you will need Skill Monkey plus taking extra tokens to train biotech when you can the chance. Being a murderhobo helps as well as you'll get more implants to extract over the course of the game.

Sample feat progression:
Level 1: Healing Factor
Level 2: Educated (I'd tag a science/stealth skill for more loot)
Level 3: Controlled Burst (Thanks to high STR you can skip weapon specialisation with shotguns)
Level 4: Armoured Warfare
Level 5: Skill Monkey (needed to get max biotech without a tag)
Level 6: Tough Bastard
Level 7: True Grit
Level 8: Quick Fingers

Recommended Implants:
All of them, you can take it!





Big man with little gun. Jed is a solid SMG user thanks to his high starting skill and STR. I recommend going for high accuracy instead of grazes as his unique feat Punisher gives him massive recoil control when paired with Controlled Burst so you should hit most of your shots.




He's fast, he's accurate, he's tanky and he even brings his own pots and pans! Knurl is a good all rounder with balanced stats. It's good to go in for crits as he has a high skill and good crit damage bonuses from his unique feat Outcast. The Heater pistol is a good weapon for him due to its cheap energy cell usage. He replaced pistols Evans in this run.

Guns are so uncivilised with all those pops and bangs, it's much more honourable to hack your enemies to pieces.

Run around hitting people with machetes. It's a simple playstyle that's pretty effective. Your accuracy might not be stellar so use your companions to shoot your enemies legs to give yourself an easier time. You also save a tag on armour thanks to the skill bonus from Juggernaut. Faythe's science skills also meant access to the different hunter feats for a nice bonus.

Sample feat progression:
Level 1: Juggernaut
Level 2: Warrior
Level 3: Charger
Level 4: Berserker
Level 5: Armoured Warfare
Level 6: Heavy Hitter

Recommended Implants:
Exo-Spine: more damage, more armour handling
Bionic Eye: helps with accuracy
Subdermal Armour: really good for Juggernaut, lets you stack huge DR
Synthetic Heart: helps with poison and regen works well with high DR
Motor Cortex: also a good option, helps with mobility + AP





A lot harder to get filled with holes when your hiding on the other side of the room isn't it? A solid straightforwards damage dealing build for Evans. His unique feat Sniper is one of the better feats for damage dealing and debuffing enemies. You can also build a sniper using pistols as well which trades the higher crit damage of rifles for higher crit chance of pistols plus cheaper attacks.




Critically hitting pistolero that is very good at crippling enemies. Faythe has good initiative by default so it doesn't take much investment to get a solid value and her high DEX lets her get in lots of actions per turn. Assassin's crit bonus also works very well with pistols thanks to the stacking crit chance. Skill Monkey gives enough of a bonus when paired with tokens that she can still get respectable skill levels for extra loot, still need tags to get the best stuff.

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Smart people know that understanding the ship's systems is a good way to make money. Smarter people know that while you crawl through the ship, learning about its systems, you should keep your weapon fully loaded and on your person at all times, with a few friends to watch your back.

Good character for covering skills. Your extra feats can make you pretty strong. The extra skills available will get you access to better loot and can make some fights easier. Also not very tanky so it's good to have friends that can soak up hits for you.

This character used persuasion skills and generally avoided combat so I could be more liberal with my items when fighting.

Sample feat progression:
Level 1: Mastermind
Level 2: Educated (I would probably tag Biotech or Lockpick. Persuasion/Streewise can be good too.)
Level 2: Shotgunner
Level 3: Skill Monkey
Level 4: Sharpshooter (Need a bionic eye for this)
Level 5: Fast Draw
Level 6: Quick Fingers
Level 6: Bionic
Level 7: Master Blaster
Level 8: Big Game Hunter (Also need an eye)
Level 9: Tough Bastard

Recommended Implants:
Neural Uplink: more EXP and can be overclocked for another skill
Bionic Eye: gets you access to more feats
Motor Cortex: more AP and initiative
Subdermal Armour: this can help a bit with survivability
Squad Leader: can also be a good choice to help your companions





Kill people without even having to fight them, very efficient. She can help out in fights but can get killed easily if you are not careful. A cloaking field can protect her for a few rounds while she uses precise attacks to cripple enemies.





Best friends whether she likes it or not. Like Knurl, she has good balanced stats and some solid bonuses. Unfortunately it's hard to get high disposition without being a charismatic talker so she generally starts with lower skills and you might not get the second bonus until the end of the game when it doesn't really matter. Just focus on getting her more damage with rifles and she'll be good. She replaced sniper Evans in this run.

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Some people are born great. The rest of us have to compensate with grit, determination and gear looted from great people.

Here's an example of a character that completed the game as a psychopath without a heroic feat just to show that it's viable. In this case the character is build around high volume of shots with SMGs by using Controlled Burst paired with high reaction through Opportunist. You'll still be better of picking one of the heroics but it is very achievable.

Sample feat progression:
Level 1: Sprayer
Level 2: Opportunist
Level 3: Gunfighter (Need to get a motor cortex for it)
Level 4: Controlled Burst (Requires getting an exo-spine)
Level 5: Sharpshooter (Need to overclock a bionic eye, helps with SMGs reaction shot having poor range)
Level 6: Big Game Hunter (Also need to overclock a bionic eye)

Recommended Implants:
Motor Cortex: for Gunfighter plus more AP and initiative
Bionic Eye: can be overclocked for feats plus improves reaction and accuracy
Exo-spine: needed for Controlled Burst
Subdermal Armour: helps with survivability
Synthetic Heart: pairs well with good armour and helps with tankiness





Channelling the spirit of Jed. Evans is a great burst shotgun user as he has high AP and get out lots of attacks per round, especially when pairing Quick Fingers and Controlled Burst.




Fight smarter, not harder. Assassin's bonuses work well with rifles thanks to their inherently high penetration and good crit damage. Adding in science skills allows for some juicy loot and hunter feats. Could potentially drop the rifles or crit tag for lockpick as well for some more goodies, it only really hurts the early game.

There are 6 stats the you can allocate points to during character creation. You have 16 points to spend and can allocate points to any stat from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 10.

These are:

• Strength (STR)
  
• Constitution (CON)
  
• Dexterity (DEX)
  
• Perception (PER)
  
• Intelligence (INT)
  
• Charisma (CHA)

There are many feats that have stat requirements. The amount required is usually 6 or 8 depending on the feat. The more specialised feats tend to require 8 in a stat so it is important to look over the feats during character creation an make sure you will meet the requirements.

Effects:

• Melee damage, +1 minimum on even values, +1 maximum on odd values
  
• Armour Handling, +2/point
  
• Recoil Control, +5/point

For characters focused more on precision fighting/sharpshooting STR is not as important. A character with low STR should generally try to keep their distance in combat as the lack of armour handling can make it difficult for them to survive. STR is probably the most important stat for melee fighters as good melee feats require 8 STR to get. The additional damage boost is useful as well.

It is occasionally checked outside of combat to move heavy objects or climb to new areas, though these can usually be bypassed with skill checks. Some can be bypassed by having party members with you as it checks the combined STR of your party.

I would consider STR as a stat that can be dumped safely in some combat builds. If you do dump it you won't get the ability to wear heavy armour so you need to be careful with your placement in combat. As long as you keep your distance and use cover/grenades/gadgets you should be fine. It can also be worth tagging armour with low STR to make up for lack of armour handling.

STR can be increased by 1 with the Exo-Spine implant and 2 by overclocking the implant


* Requires 10 at character creation plus installing an Exo-Spine
** Requires overclocking said Exo-Spine

Effects:

• Max implants, +1 on even values
  
• HP, +10 on odd values

For first time players I do not recommend going below 6 CON as this amount gives you a decent HP pool and implant selection. Personally I think 7-8 CON is good as you get more room for errors in combat plus an extra implant can be very substantial depending on your choice.

There is no way to increase CON after character creation so it is very important to choose a good value at the start.


* Only obtainable with the Healing Factor feat. You cannot get 11 CON

Effects:

• Action points (AP), +1/point
  
• Evasion, +2/point
  
• Initiative, +5/point

Similar to CON I would not recommend DEX below 6 for a first time build without having some way to make up for it. This is mostly because low initiative can be very painful to deal with and you get the bulk of your initiative from DEX. Low initiative means enemies get to do all of their grenade throwing, debuffing and positioning first which can make all the difference in a fight. If you PER is high this penalty won't be as bad but it's never going to be as good as a high DEX character.

Low AP is also harder to manage without understanding the systems. You need to build a character around the fact they will be doing less attacks so feats that give movement AP or reduce AP costs are valuable. Snipers and some burst attack builds don't really need high DEX and certain melee builds can also get away with it. SMGs and Shotguns have good cheap options for burst attacks and pistols have a universally low AP cost. Having your character have good accuracy in general makes up for low DEX as your less likely to waste AP.

You can also make up for own low DEX stat with fast party members and generally being tanky enough to withstand the opening volley but you should take care if making a low DEX character. It's also worth noting that both feats for increasing graze damage are tied to having 8 DEX. Depending on the weapon more graze damage can be impactful. There are also feats and implant upgrades in the game that give you AP for movement that give low DEX characters more leniency.

It is occasionally checked outside of combat for a character to perform something that requires agility or finesse.

DEX can be increased by 1 with the Motor cortex implant and 2 by overclocking the implant


* Perception also gives an initiative bonus
** Requires 10 at character creation plus installing a Motor Cortex
*** Requires overclocking said Motor Cortex

Effects:

• Initiative, +3/point
  
• Reaction, +5/point
  
• Base Accuracy, +4/point

There are many ways to gain bonuses to accuracy, especially when playing with a party. As such PER is not the most important stat in the world and you can usually get away with lower values. Keep in mind that you need to take extra steps to make up for the accuracy like making sure to tag your weapon skill and take the appropriate weapon specialisation feat. This is usually enough to get decent accuracy in combat. Obviously though, high PER characters will have an easier time hitting things.

Party members can used the Aimed:Legs attack to decrease enemy evasion to help out a low PER character. Burst attacks and weapons like shotguns and blunt instruments can apply a stacking penalty to evasion called stagger to help out as well.

PER is checked outside of combat to notice hidden things in the world, usually some extra loot or a secret passage.

It is also tied to some good feats that require 6-8 PER for both melee and ranged fighters so make sure if you want those feats you meet the requirements.

PER can be increased by 1 with the Bionic Eye implant and 2 by overclocking the implant


* Dexterity also gives an initiative bonus
** Requires 10 at character creation plus installing a Bionic Eye
*** Requires overclocking said Bionic Eye

Effects:

• Tag skills, +1 on even levels
  
• Experience Bonus, +10% on odd levels

Combat characters generally don't need to have good INT and you can get away with low int comfortably. You get feats slower though and I would say 5-6 minimum is fine, hell even 4 is fine for a trio or duo, just don't expect to get fancy loot without help from a friend. You get enough good loot from fights anyway.

If you want to build a stealthy character you need high INT as stealth sequences can have a variety of skill checks. You usually need good sneaking, lockpick and computers skill for an effective stealth build.

It is checked once outside of combat for you to notice a detail in the world.

INT can be increased by 1 with the Neural Uplink implant and 2 by overclocking the implant


* Requires 10 at character creation plus installing a Neural Uplink
** Requires overclocking said Neural Uplink

Effects:

• Neural Resistance, +5%/point
  
• Initial Disposition, +1 on odd levels (and 10)
  
• Max Followers, +1 on even levels (Max 3)

CHA is probably the most important stat for all builds. I would not go below 6 CHA for you first build as this gives you a good party selection. 8+ will probably be the easiest for you as you can cover lots of skills and combat roles with your companions. You can increase party follower limit with a feat as well so take that into account. It also effects bonding level with your companions with late game companions also being affected by their relevant faction's reputation level.

The "downside" of a larger party is that they share experience in combat so none of the characters will be super strong in the endgame. Solo and duo characters always end up with higher combat skills. It is not enough of a difference to make them useless though and more companions is far more useful than being a bit better individually in combat.

It's important for diplomatic characters as well. With higher CHA you can usually get away with only tagging one diplomatic skill as the disposition bonus will make up for any shortcomings. It is also used to give unique persuasion options that can bypass the diplomacy skills altogether and create different outcomes for quests.

There is no way to increase CHA after character creation so be mindful of that.


* You cannot increase CHA above 10

Determined by STR. Increases the minimum and maximum damage dealt with melee weapons by the amount. The extra damage isn't much but as a melee build progresses it becomes more useful. Critical focused builds focus on high crit damage which is a multiplier based on max damage dealt so it has a good impact there. Other melee builds are usually built around doing lots of hits so again, more damage is good.

Determined by STR and Armour skill. Counteracts penalties armour gives to evasion, initiative and reation. Each piece of armour has a penalty associated with it. All of the penalties add together to make the total penalty. Eg. four pieces of armour with -4 armour penalty means -16 total. With an armour handling of 8 the penalty would be -16 + 8 = -8 total penalty to evasion and initiative. The heaviest armours will reduce your AP as well and the feat Armoured Warfare is required to counteract this. The evasion/reaction penalty is not too bad but initiative penalties are nasty so its best to avoid losing too much initiative from high penalties.

Determined by STR. Counteracts penalties to accuracy from burst attacks. If I use a rifles long burst attack I get a -50% accuracy penalty. With 30 recoil control I get -50% + 30 = -20% penalty instead. You need good recoil control for any ranged burst attack to be effective. SMGs have a special reaction attack that is considered a burst so it is effected by recoil control.

Determined by CON. HP is also very important for all types of combat character. The way the combat system works it can be very difficult for a character to avoid taking damage. Even with high evasion you can still get grazed a lot and a small HP pool can be deadly. Unlike other games you do not gain HP on level up so the value you choose at the start is very important as this will most likely be your HP value for most of the game.

Determined by CON. Governs how many implants a character can have installed. Implants can become very powerful as they can be overclocked and upgraded so limiting the amount that you have can have a big effect on combat difficulty.
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Determined by DEX. Used to perform actions in combat and in stealth. Very important for combat characters and it essentially governs the types of weapon you can use. Different weapons have different costs so low DEX characters can be more limited with their effective weapon selection. With low DEX you will need to compensate for your lack of actions points by taking feats that decrease the action point cost of attacks or by dealing lots of damage in one shot. You can also get movement AP which are AP only used for moving around. These can make it easier to manage your regular AP.

Determined by DEX and Evasion skill. Reduces enemies chance to hit a character/turns hits into grazes. In this game evasion is mostly about turning hits into grazes rather than outright dodging attacks. It order to truly dodge attacks you will have to use cover, grenades like the smoke or flashbang and aimed shots to cripple your enemies accuracy. The distortion field gadget also helps a lot against ranged enemies. In fact the options available work best against ranged attacks. Melee fighter tend to be the hardest for evasion based characters to deal with as they receive fewer penalties.

Determined by DEX and PER. Determines turn order in combat and stealth. This is fixed at the start of combat/stealth so no random rolls for good/bad turn order. Probably one of the most important stats to have a good value in. Going last in combat can be very deadly so it's good to have at least one party member with high initiative as they can throw grenades or debuff enemies.

Determined by PER. Base chance to perform a reaction shot. This chance is checked whenever an enemy moves through you weapons range or when an enemy misses an attack against you. Melee weapons can perform reaction attacks when an enemy moves out of their reach. They are not large sources of damage but can add up over the course of a fight. SMGs have the best reaction shot in the game as they fire a burst rather than performing a single attack.

Determined by PER. You character's base accuracy. All accuracy bonuses and penalties are added on top of this. This is straightforwards, good base accuracy = universally better chance to hit.
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Determined by INT. Whenever you tag a skill it is given a +2 bonus to its effective level. This makes it so that you need less experience to get to a higher level for that skill. Skill tags are mostly important for "skillmonkey" type characters who focus on out of combat skills and stealth builds. Stealth requires a few different skills to be properly effective so you need a good INT stat. Combat characters can get away with 1-2 tags.

Depending on your other stats you can make up for the lack of tags in a combat build. For example high STR character might not need to tag the Armour skill and high PER can make up for not tagging their weapon skill.

Determined by INT. Increases the rate of leveling. Note that this bonus is less about getting more levels and more about getting to those levels faster. The total levels a character gets is determined more by the amount of companions in the party rather than the experience bonus as most experience is shared.

Determined by CHA. Makes you more resistant to psionic attacks. Psionic attacks are rare but deadly when you encounter them. They come in the form of rare disruptor grenades or mutant creatures. You can use a ZEN stim to boost it temporarily but only characters with decent CHA can become immune to the the attacks.

Determined by CHA and an implant upgrade. Sets the starting disposition when attempting to use speech skills on someone. Basically this makes it easier to persuade someone without necessarily meeting the skill requirements. I'd recommend at least a disposition bonus of 0 (5 CHA) to convince people while meeting the skill checks. If you have low disposition and don't meet the checks you will fail.

Determined by CHA. This is the other difficulty setting in my opinion. Playing a full party (3 followers) is the easiest way to play. 2 followers is pretty good but I would say that 1 follower and solo are very difficult and should not be attempted in the first few runs you do.
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Not effected by stats, only the critical strike skill, feats and an implant upgrade. Is the base chance, different attacks apply bonuses that will either lower or raise it.

Not effected by stats, only the critical strike skill and feats. Damage dealt on a critical hit is the maximum roll * this multiplier.
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Not effected by stats, only feats and implants. Increases all types of DR by the amount. Not effected by armour penetrating effects.

Not effected by stats, only feats and implants. Recovers HP per turn but only in combat.
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Not effected by stats, only feats, sneak skill, worn armour and an implant upgrade. Makes sneaking easier as less noise means more leeway for sneaking.

Not effected by stats, only feats, sneak skill, worn armour and an implant upgrade. Makes sneaking easier as it makes the tiles range more forgiving.

Not effected by stats, only feats and critical strike skill. Lets you kill enemies in stealth sections. The number you need to beat is based on enemy perception and current awareness level.

There are seven total implants in the game and each one has a few upgrade chips that give small bonuses to your character. Your CON determines the amount of implants you can have but there's no limits on the amount of upgrade chips you can have. All together an upgraded implant is like having a feat so it is important to choose good implants.

Upgrade chips are generally found more after visiting the habitat. There's around 2-3 of each, except for the ones with high checks.

Each can be overclocked for 2000 credits in the mid game for additional bonus, doubling the effect. This comes with a stacking penalty that decreases max HP and eventually energy DR. See the feats section for the penalties.

+1 PER
+2 PER when overclocked

[Biotech 2] Fresh Corpse Extraction
[Biotech 3] Old Corpse Extraction or repair

Upgrades:
[Biotech 5] Advanced Targeting, +4 Accuracy, +2 Aimed, +2 Critical Chance
[Biotech 6] Glareshield, +20% Thermal Vision, +20% Optical Resistance
[Biotech 9] Rapid Response, +20 Reaction, +4 Initiative

Bionic eyes are very common to find in the world and on enemies so you won't have to go too far to find some. The upgrades are fairly easy to get, you should find a few while exploring.


+1 INT
+2 INT when overclocked

[Biotech 2] Fresh Corpse Extraction
[Biotech 3] Old Corpse Extraction or repair

Upgrades:
[Biotech 4] Neural Shield, +10% Neural Resistance
[Biotech 3] Bridge Officer, +10% EXP gain
[Biotech 10] Predictive Analytics, +35% Combat Skill Gain

There are some available to find early on but apart from that they are fairly uncommon. The upgrade chips are also very rare and hard to find.


Companions, +4 Initiative, +4 Accuracy, +4 Evasion, +3% Critical Chance
Companions, +8 Initiative, +8 Accuracy, +8 Evasion, +6% Critical Chance when overclocked

[Biotech 3] Fresh Corpse Extraction
[Biotech 4] Old Corpse Extraction or repair

Upgrades:
[Persuasion 4 / Master Trader] Neural Dampener: +1 Initial Disposition, +10 Neural Resistance for the party (including player character)
[Biotech 10] TAC Team, +2 AP for party (including player character)

These are very rare and the ones that are in the game can be difficult to get a hold of. Work better with larger parties obviously as you get more overall benefits. TAC Team is very hard to find and is quite late in the game.


+2 HP Regen, +25% Toxic Resistance, +1 Stat regen when HP <= 13
+4 HP Regen. +50% Toxic Resistance, +2 Stat regen when HP <= 13 when overclocked

[Biotech 4] Fresh Corpse Extraction
[Biotech 5] Old Corpse Extraction or repair

Upgrades:
[Biotech 7 / Streetwise 4 / Master Trader] Painkiller, +1 HP Regen
[Biotech 8] Life Saver, +5 Max HP
[Biotech 9] Stress Response, +1 Death Timer, +4 AP & +12 Evasion when HP <=13

They are rare at the start of the game but slowly become more common after you reach the habitat. The upgrades are hard to find and fairly limited in supply.


+1 DEX
+2 DEX when overclocked

[Biotech 3] Fresh Corpse Extraction
[Biotech 4] Old Corpse Extraction or repair

Upgrades:
[Biotech 7] Combat Reflexes, +3 Evasion
[Biotech 8] Assault Trooper, +2 Movement AP
[Biotech 9] Rapid Response. +8 Initiative

Another very common implant, there are many to be found at the beginning of the game. You should come across a few of the chips easily enough. Rapid Response is harder to get to though.


+1 STR
+2 STR when overclocked

[Biotech 4] Fresh Corpse Extraction
[Biotech 5] Old Corpse Extraction or repair

Upgrades:
[Biotech 7] Heavy Infantry, +4 Armour Handling
[Biotech 5] Machine Gunner, +5 Recoil Control
[Biotech 8] Pit Fighter, +1-1 Melee Damage

Also fairly rare throughout the game picking up a bit in the mid game. There are only a few available in the first chapter depending on your choices as most are only available from combat. The upgrade chips are generally rare and out of the way.


+1 Natural DR
+2 Natural DR when overclocked

[Biotech 5] Fresh Corpse Extraction
[Biotech 6] Old Corpse Extraction or repair

Upgrades:
[Biotech 9] Heat Absorber, +2 Energy DR
[Biotech 6] Chameleon, +5 Sneak, -1 Noise

Also rare at the start of the game but become very common starting in the mid game. In fact they are probably one of the most common implants. There's only one heat absorber and its hard to find. There should be enough chameleons though, you only really need one.

There are many different skills that are sorted into different categories.
These categories are:

• Melee
  
• Ranged
  
• Combat
  
• Science
  
• Speech
  
• Stealth

The skills you choose determine your play style and can also effect the amount of content that you can access on a single run.

You gain experience with skills by using them. In combat enemies have a fixed amount of learning points (LP) they give out when defeated and these are divided up based on how you fought them. For example if in combat an enemy hits you a few times and you get some critical hits on them you would get some weapon experience, armour experience and critical strike experience. You cannot farm enemies for experience.

It should be noted that science and speech skills can occasionally be used to bypass combat encounters or make them easier. The trade-off is that using non combat skills to solve problems means you character will be worse at fighting in the long run and vice versa.

Also the more party members you have the less combat experience they will get as they are all sharing the skill points awarded for winning fights. For non-combat skills it is best to have one person focus on a specific skill (for example lockpick) rather than have multiple people do it.

Only your character is able to use speech skills, the option is completely unavailable for party members.

As you explore the ship you'll run into NPCs that can give you some training in a science or stealth skill. This involves paying some money for a bonus, 100 LP from trainers in the first act (the Pit region) and 200 for trainers in the Habitat. None of these are hidden and you should encounter them organically throughout the game.

Skill tokens are rarer treasures you can find by exploring or as a quest reward. These give you 200 LP across three skills, usually science/stealth skills with few combat skills thrown in. Some are found by themselves on corpses and others are gotten from computers that can dispense 1 token from 3-4 variants. When given a choice I recommend going for boosting characters science/stealth skills as these can potentially get access to good loot earlier or at all. If you are doing combat you should build up enough skill naturally to be capable of defending yourself.



Note that the first level of companion bonding Content gives all companions +5% skill gain so it's actually slightly easier to get higher skill values with them. As a rule I recommend that any science/stealth skills be designated to one character so that you can give them most of the tokens you find. If you split these skills up it can be harder/impossible to get to 10.

The bladed skill gives +6 accuracy per skill level with daggers, knives, long knives and axes. Bladed weapons tend to have good accuracy and critical chance bonuses as well as decent damage.

The bladed specialisation feat is called Butcher. It gives +8 accuracy with bladed weapons, +20 critical hit chance with the bladed special attack Carve, and +1 aimed attack accuracy per skill level.

Bladed weapons are very consistent across the game and have a good variety of options available. Carve is a bit gimmicky but can be useful for finishing someone off or fishing for crits. Personally I think they are a bit easier to use than blunt initially thanks to their more forgiving accuracy bonuses.

Daggers/knives are also required to perform stealth kills but your skills with bladed weapons has no effect on this.

A triple hit swing performed with daggers and knives. Has lower accuracy but is cheaper than doing 3 fast attacks. Only one attack roll is made for all three attacks. It costs 10 AP by default and 7 with the Berserker feat making it a very AP efficient attack. Daggers deal low damage so you need high STR to get the most out of it.

A double hit performed with long knives and axes. Has lower accuracy but is cheaper than doing 2 regular attacks. Only one attack roll is made for both attacks. It costs 8 AP by default and 6 with the Berserker feat making it a quite an AP efficient attack.

A single slice that can cause bleeding on most organic targets. They take 5 irresistible damage on the next turn or 8 damage if you hit them with a critical hit.


The blunt skill give +6 accuracy per level with clubs and hammers. Blunt weapons tend to have high damage and penetration but low accuracy bonus (in some cases accuracy penalties). They also get pretty good graze chance bonuses.

The blunt specialisation feat is called Basher. It gives +8 accuracy with blunt weapons, +20 critical hit chance with the blunt special attack Knockdown, and +2% penetration per skill level.

Blunt weapons are good for dealing high damage but their lack of accuracy can be nasty. I find they tend to work well in a party as the blunt user can setup knockdowns for big damage and the rest of the party can debuff enemy evasion so they can land hits easier. Blunt also has two-handed weapons which can attack diagonally. I still think bladed is a slightly better choice as it is a bit more consistent, at least that's what I've found.

A double hit performed with all one handed hammers. Has lower accuracy but is cheaper than doing 2 regular attacks. Only one attack roll is made for both attacks. For medium sized clubs it costs 8 AP by default and 6 with the Berserker feat. For small clubs it costs 7 AP by default and 5 with the Berserker feat. It's a pretty powerful attack especially if you build around it as it is very efficient to use. It can take a while to get the feats for it though.

A large swing with 2-handed hammers that can hit multiple enemies in a straight line. Depending on the angle the line will be like this for squares directly next to your character:


Or like this for diagonal squares:


o = the character
x = the hits the attack makes

It costs 8 AP normally and 7 with Berserker. For each enemy that gets hit a separate attack roll is made so getting a hit on one does not guarantee the others. It's a weird attack to use as there are not many situations where enemies line up like this. When they do it can be worth it though as you essentially get three regular attacks worth of damage for a comparatively cheap cost. It can even be good when two enemies line up as well as it is fairly efficient by itself, even more so with Berserker. Unlike the other special attacks you can't really build around it, though it does get an accuracy bonus from Precise Strike.

A single strike that stuns on hit (uses up 4 AP on enemies next turn). An knocks down on critical hit (enemy has to use 2 AP standing up next turn and loses all evasion bonuses). This is a good attack for use with a party as it can set up enemies to take huge amounts of damage as they cannot dodge. It quite expensive to use AP wise though so it needs to be placed well to get the most out of it.

The pistol skill gives +6 accuracy per skill level with pistols. Pistols are very versatile and there is generally an option for every occasion. Their damage tends to be a bit lower than the other ranged skills but they universally have low AP costs and good accuracy bonuses. They are honestly the hardest to talk about as they are so versatile so if you are unsure which gun to use pistols is a safe option.

The pistol specialisation feat is called Pistolero. It gives +8 accuracy with pistols, +4 reaction and +1% critical chance per skill level.

Pistols are a nice option that can be used at basically any range. They are a good choice if you don't know what to pick as their is always a good option available.

Shoots two barrels from a multi-shot pistol. Lower accuracy but a bit more efficient with AP. Costs 8 AP with big pistols reduced to 7 with the Controlled Burst feat. Smaller pistols costs 6 AP and can be reduced reduced to 5 with the Controlled Burst feat. An efficient way to deal damage provided you have the recoil control. Applies stagger on hit and extra staggers on critical hit.

Fan the hammer with revolvers to fire three shots. Low accuracy but cheaper AP cost and can stagger enemies. Cost 8 by default and 7 with Controlled Burst. Applies stagger on hit.

Similar to fanning but for larger pistols. 2 AP more expensive than fanning and does a bit more damage as it is usually available on heavier pistols. Applies stagger on hit.

Only available on energy weapons excluding the heavy energy pistol. Acts as a sniper shot with high crit chance but high AP cost. Stuns on hit (4 AP damage) and knocks down on crit. A good use for energy cells if you can spare them for a tough fight.


The shotgun skill gives +6 accuracy per skill level with shotguns. Shotguns are fairly versatile with options for precision vs burst attacks. Their range can be poor as you might imagine but they do good damage and usually have lower AP costs.

The shotgun specialisation feat is called Shotgunner. It gives +8 accuracy with shotguns, +6% stagger and +1 accuracy per skill level.

Shotguns are a good high damage option limited by their range. You generally want a character that can take a bit of punishment to be using them as they are likely to be in the front line. They are also a good low DEX option thanks to fairly low AP costs all around. Their feat also gives them good universal accuracy. The single shot options are also surprisingly good as precision tools thanks to high damage and penetration. You still need to be pretty close to use them though.

Shoots two barrels from a double barrel shotgun. Lower accuracy but a bit more efficient with AP. Costs 8 AP with big shotguns reduced to 7 with the Controlled Burst feat. Sawn-off shotguns cost 6 AP and can be reduced reduced to 5 with the Controlled Burst feat. One of the better ways to deal damage with shotguns as their damage per hit is high. This makes them more efficient to use and can be a very good option for lower DEX characters. Applies stagger on hit.

Three shots in a row from a big shotgun. 11 AP to use and 10 with Controlled Burst. Pretty expensive to use but is a good option for low DEX characters. Applies stagger on hit.


The rifle skill gives +6 accuracy per skill level with rifles. Rifles are high damage high AP cost options that are usually about long range precision or burst attacks. They are a good choice for squishy characters you want to keep out of the fight as they can keep out of range and use aimed attacks to assist the party. Keep in mind that not all fights will give you space do this though.

The rifle specialisation feat is called Rifleman. It gives +8 accuracy with rifles, +3% critical damage and +1 aimed attack accuracy per level of the skill.

Rifles can deal huge damage but have the highest AP costs in the game. Burst attacks are capable of mopping up lightly armoured enemies and aimed attacks can punch through armour. They can require high stat investments though and lots of feats to get the most out of them. I find sniper builds are easier that full auto builds personally but they are both very effective.

Fires three shots at a big accuracy penalty. Requires high STR/recoil control to use effectively. Costs 12 AP by default and 11 with the Controlled Burst feat. Much more efficient AP wise.

Fires three shots with an accuracy penalty. Less penalty than short first but more AP cost and less graze chance. Requires high STR/recoil control to use effectively. For assault rifles costs 14 AP by default and 13 with the Controlled Burst feat. For semi-automatic rifles costs 15 AP by default and 14 with Controlled Burst. More accuracy but less efficient. Deals solid damage thanks to the better accuracy and can actually get decent crit chance compared to the other two bursts.

Fires five shots at a huge accuracy and critical chance penalty. Requires high STR/recoil control to use effectively. Costs 16 AP by default and 15 with the Controlled Burst feat. Much more efficient AP wise but still requires at least 7 DEX to use without stims or a very rare late game implant upgrade.

Only available on regular rifles. Acts as a sniper shot with high crit chance but high AP cost. Stuns on hit (4 AP damage) and knocks down on crit. A good way to disable a problematic enemy in a fight. Also deals massive crit damage and is capable of almost one-shotting some enemies.


The SMG skill gives +6 accuracy per skill level with SMGs. SMGs are all about burst attacks and staggering enemies. They are also very good at dealing with high evasion targets thanks to their higher graze damage and penetration.

The SMG specialisation feat is called Sprayer. It gives +8 accuracy with SMGs, +3% graze damage and +1% penetration per skill level.

SMGs are decent as they are a good low AP cost option for doing burst attacks. They also have the best reaction attack in the game as it is also a burst. They have pretty low damage however so struggle against heavily armoured enemies. The bonus graze damage is nice for dealing with high evasions enemies. SMGs are probably my last pick but they are good if you build around high graze damage and penetration.

Fires three shots at a big accuracy penalty. Requires high STR/recoil control to use effectively. Large SMGs cost 10 AP by default and 9 with the Controlled Burst feat. Smaller SMGS cost 8 AP and 7 with Controlled Burst. This is a very AP efficient attack, especially on smaller SMGs.

Fires three shots with an accuracy penalty. Less penalty than short first but more AP cost and less graze chance. Requires high STR/recoil control to use effectively. Large SMGs cost 12 AP by default and 11 with the Controlled Burst feat. Small SMGs costs 10 AP by default and 9 with Controlled Burst. Similar to rifles, more AP but better accuracy so generally more damage.

Fires five shots at a huge accuracy and critical chance penalty. Requires high STR/recoil control to use effectively. Large SMGs Costs 14 AP by default and 13 with the Controlled Burst feat. Small SMGs costs 12 AP by default and 11 with Controlled Burst. This allows for 5 DEX minimum for large SMGs long bursts so this is a good low DEX option.


For all burst attacks including triple shot and fanning an attack roll is made for each shot. In the case of double shot only one attack roll is made for both shots.

These are universal combat skills that are important to everyone. They are usually built up naturally throughout the course of the game. For combat characters I would generally recommend tagging at least one of them depending on the build.

Increases your base critical hit chance by 2%, critical damage multiplier by 0.01 and takedown by 10 per level. Pretty self explanatory, makes you better at doing critical hits. The skill is also used outside of combat to either stealthily kill someone or kill take out an enemy at the start of a fight. You gain skill points by landing critical hits, killing enemies before they deal any damage to you, performing stealth kills and using it in dialog.

Combat character's will naturally build up decent critical strike skill as the game progresses (I've found around 3-5 depending on the weapon and fighting style) but for powerful crit builds you need to tag it. Many of the checks in dialog end up pretty high as well so you would need to tag it to get them. Companions can also do these checks for you if they are present.

Takedown is used to kill enemies in stealth sections. Basically depending on the enemies alertness and PER they have a threshold you need to beat in order to stealth kill them. If you don't have enough takedown skill the stealth attack instead does a big chunk of damage and starts combat.

Increases your evasion by +6 per level. Also self explanatory. It's worth noting that evasion is less useful the more party members you have as it is hard to get a good value due to shared experience. Armour is generally a more consistent option for large parties. It does effect enemies choice of target sometimes so high evasion characters can be a bit more safer. For smaller parties tagging it is generally required to get a competitive value.

You gain evasion skills point by dodging or getting grazed by attacks. It's also checked once outside of combat.

Gives +4 armour handling per level of the skill. Again, this is very straightforwards. You need a high skill to wear the heaviest armour without harsh penalties. You can offset this with high STR but generally tagging is the best way to get access to heavy armours. Tagging early also makes it easy to wear better armours sooner.

You gain skills point by getting hit.

Science skills are used to interact with various systems on the ship allowing for various interactions that can bypass combat encounters or give access to more loot. You need to tag them in order to get though the highest tier checks.

Used to interact with the implant system. Required to extract implants from corpses in the world and repair implants from defeated enemies. Repairing implants isn't too important and depending on your choices you might only have to repair a few throughout the course of the game. You also get the bulk of implant upgrade chips from corpses. It is occasionally used for non implant related checks, usually to do with general biological matters. Sarah in the Pit can train a character in biotech and you can get additional training from the Habitat train station merchant.

Additionally it increases the amount of healing you get from med kits by 2 per level of the skill (10 + (2 * level)) which doesn't seem like much but it can save you a good bit of money as you won't need to restock on med kits.

I would consider this a mandatory tag skill, someone in the party needs to tag it. You gain so much from implants that not having them sucks. Each implant ends up being a mini feat it terms of power so you miss out on a lot by not being able to access implants and their upgrades. The implants you don't use are also a good source of money.

Used to interact with computers, obviously. Mostly used to unlock doors and forcefields giving access to more loot. It's used a few times to hack/disable turrets before a fight giving you an advantage in the following combat. Nice to have as their is some good loot behind checks and turrets can be annoying but it isn't mandatory. Maryam in Hydroponics Green section can train a character in computers.

Computers is sometimes used in stealth sequences so it is a good pick for stealthy characters.

Used to repair the ships systems and doors. Similar to computers it gets you access to more loot. It's also used to bypass a few combats. Usually if you use electronics to bypass combats it will completely avoid it, computers can be either avoiding a combat or giving yourself an advantage. Also nice to have but not mandatory. Computers is probably a little more useful overall as some of the better loot is locked behind computers checks. A trader in the Brotherhood's habitat section can train a character in electronics.

Note. As companions get a 5% skill bonus when they are content it's easier to get higher values with them. If you use skill tokens and take advantage of every opportunity you get get to 7 without a tag. If you take Skill Monkey you get to 8. Obviously this will come at the cost of potentially lowering combat or speech xp gained.

The speech skills are used to convince people. They are used in conjunction with initial disposition to talk your way past problems. For lower CHA (4-6) characters it can be harder to pass checks with only one tagged. The higher your CHA you don't really need to tag more than one. Only impersonate breaks this rule as it is the least used throughout the game.

With disposition based checks you don't necessarily need to pass the checks outright. If you have less skill than a check requires you will gain less disposition, and if you exceed the check you will gain more. Relevant faction reputation and certain decisions made in the story can provide additional modifiers to disposition.

It worth noting that some checks are purely based on skill. If a check does not have the disposition bar down the bottom then your CHA will not play a role.

Used to convince people to do what you want. Probably the most used in the game. It's often written in a way that your character is outright convincing someone without having to lie or trick them. It's the more honest speech skill.

Similar to persuasion except that it is written differently. Using streetwise is generally more about saying what someone wants to here or not telling the whole truth to get your way. It's used very slightly less but I prefer it to persuasion because of the flavour. It's also used a few times for your character to read someones behaviour ie. detect if they are trying to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you.

Pretend to be someone else in order to trick them. Not used very often but can be good when it does come up. I wouldn't just tag impersonate, usually pair it with one of the others. With high CHA you don't need to tag it as you usually follow up impersonate checks with either persuasion or streetwise checks.


Basically for speech characters you should pick persuasion or streetwise, you don't really need both. The only real difference is flavour, unless you have low CHA as sometimes you will need to make alternating checks in a row. eg. persuasion then streetwise then persuasion again a pure streetwise character with low CHA might fail this check.

Stealth skills are not entirely related to stealth sequences and are often used outside of these sequences as well. You will need to tag them to get past the highest tier checks.

Used to unlock doors and boxes. It mostly gets you access to more loot. In stealth sequences it can be used to bypass areas that are hard to sneak past. Like computers and electronics it's useful but not mandatory. I would take it on a sneaking character however as the hard stealth sections usually have a couple of high checks.

Steal things. Mostly used to get you extra money, ammo and combat items like stims and grenades. It's sometimes used in dialog to steal specific items like someone's key. Nice to have as you can get a good deal of money out of it but not required.

Decreases the noise you make while sneaking by 1 per level and increases the sneak value by 5 per level. Required to sneak effectively. Further into the game many stealth sequences actually require that you have a high sneak skill (around 6) to even access them. You can get some extra loot using it and avoid combat sequences by sneaking past. You can also use stealth and critical strike to pick off a few enemies before a fight to make it easier.

The noise bonus gives you more leeway when moving around and the sneak bonus makes it easier to move around without getting caught. I won't go too much into sneaking as it is pretty complex just know that if you want a character to be good at stealth then they need to tag this skill.

Each character level lets you add another feat to your character. Feats represent large bonuses to your characters ability and shouldn't be picked lightly. Depending on your INT value and total party composition your level will end up around 6-8. Solo/duo parties will generally get more EXP and can get to around 7-10. You can somewhat plan feat picks around this as you will always have as many feats as your level. You also don't need to pick feats straight away, you can wait until you meet a stat requirement by getting an implant.

Feats are broken into 11 categories:

• Heroic
  
• Combat
  
• Party
  
• Defence
  
• On Kill
  
• General
  
• Melee
  
• Melee Weapon Specialisation
  
• Ranged
  
• Ranged Weapon Specialisation
  
• Stealth

These feats are very powerful and can only be taken at character creation. You should bascially always pick one of these in my opinion as they encourage good character building (giving your character a well defined strength at the cost of a weakness) plus they are all very strong. You can still opt to pick another feat but these will give you more overall. I'd pick weapon specialisation feat as your first choice for non heroics.

Requirement: Taken at Character Creation
+3 Stat Points, +4 Skill Points

This is a good option to pick if you don't have 10 in any of your main stats. It isn't super powerful like the other heroics but is solid. It gives your character enough points to offset any weakness or double down on your strengths. Three stat point doesn't seem like much but they can get you quite a bit. You can meet more feat requirements without the need for an implant/overclock, get an extra implant slot, another tag skill, more party members. It's very versatile.

The skill points aren't super important but are nice to have. They are worth less as the game goes on. It's usually better to aim for picking one of the other heroics.

Requirement: Taken at Character Creation, 10 CHA
Party: +20% EXP gained, Easier bonding with companions, companions can become 'devoted' (+1 natural DR)

This is a solid choice for a full party. The EXP boost offsets the shared experience from a full party. It can be paired with the general feat Educated to give everyone in the party high EXP gain despite the party size. A full party without it will end up around level 6-7 and with it they will be around level 7-9.

Faster bonding is nice as the party bonuses companions give for being 'inspired' are nice. The extra devoted level is nice though not game changing. Also just because you have high CHA doesn't mean you have to use diplomacy. Full combat Cult Leader is very strong.

Requirement: Taken at Character Creation, 10 PER
20% of accuracy is converted to critical chance, +12 accuracy, +100% critical strike skill gain

This is probably the best damage dealing feat in the game. All the different sources of accuracy you gain give you a huge critical chance bonus. It's not uncommon to have 50% plus crit chance early in the game. The increased learning rate of critical strike is also nice as it makes you deal even more damage. Very good for characters focused on precision fighting and it's the best sniper feat you can have.

Requirement: Taken at Character Creation, 10 DEX
Disables enemy reaction, +6 movement AP, +24 initiative, +100% evasion skill gain

No reactions and 6 movement AP is nice. Your character can basically move to anywhere they want without much worry. The movement AP makes it a solid pick for melee as movement AP is great for melee fighters. The initiative bonus is huge. A fast runner will go first in combat 95% of the time. The evasion bonus is nice but is better in a smaller party.

Requirement: Taken at Character Creation, 10 CON
CON +2, +3 HP Regeneration, +1 Stat Regeneration, +2 Max implants, +100% biotech skill gain

CON bonus is basically cosmetic, it does give +10 HP though. The regen isn't much but can be stacked a lot. With heavy armour the character can become nearly invincible. Stat regen is nice as you can easily recover from stims unlike most other characters. Having access to all implants is huge, basically get a few extra feats worth of bonuses by the end of the game. The biotech skill gain can make it so that you don't need the tag to get a high value. It will be a bit delayed however and you might have to make up for not tagging it with a skill training token which are very rare. To get 10 biotech you need to take Skill Monkey or Mental Fortitude and dedicate some extra tokens to it.

Requirement: Taken at Character Creation, 10 STR
Knockdowns become stuns, +1 Natural DR, +2 (+3 total) when HP <= 13, +2 Melee Damage, +100% armour skill gain

Being immune to knockdowns is nice. You still lose a chunk of AP on stuns but it's still great. The natural DR bonuses are great and can make you very resistant to damage.

Melee damage is nice for any melee build though not for ranged obviously. Although the melee damage makes it seem like a melee focused feat it is great for making a tanky gunner. High STR means high recoil control so it is good for full auto characters.

The armour skill gain is actually way better than it seems. You don't need to tag armour and you will still get enough to wear heavy armour easily.

Requirement: Taken at Character Creation, 10 INT
+25% EXP bonus, extra feats at levels 2, 6 and 10

This character will level up very fast, especially if you take the Educated feat. The extra feats are nice give you a power spike early on and in the mid game. That being said you probably won't reach level 10 with a 3-4 man party. With this feat you can a make a character that's capable of fighting effectively and covering some bonus skills thanks to the high amount of tags and feats. It's also good for stealth characters as they tend to be starved of tags and feats.

Combat feats give you general boosts in combat. Depending on your build they may be very useful or not at all.

Requirements: None
+4 Movement AP, +4 Initiative

Nice little boost. Movement AP is very good for melee fighters so I may take it within the first few levels for them, especially low DEX fighters. More initiative is always good but overall this feat isn't super important.

Requirements: 6 PER
+1% Critical chance, +0.04 Critical damage multiplier, +2 Takedown per critical strike skill level

Good pick for precision fighters. Makes critical strike give +3% per level instead of 2%. The critical damage boost is very good as well. Takedown is meh, the stealth feat for takedowns is better if that is your main goal. If your doing a build around criticals I would take this as one of the first two feats as it helps to speed up critical strike levelling.

Requirements: None
+12 Initiative, +4 AP in the first turn

Great initiative stacking feat. Going first is always good so if one of your characters is the dedicated 'go first' guy give it to them. Otherwise it's can be a okay choice if you don't know what to pick and want a general power boost as the sooner you can act and kill enemies the better.

Requirements: 6 PER
+30 Reaction, 20% of reaction is added to accuracy and 50% added to graze

Makes you better at reaction attacks by making happen more and making them more accurate. Good for SMGs or Dodge This! snipers you wan't to do a bit of 'overwatch' otherwise it's ok. Without this feat reactions tend to be pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Requirements: None
Half AP cost of reload, lockpicking, belt and inventory actions, +4 Initiative

Decent pick, saves AP in a bunch of areas. Basically makes the person who takes it the designated grenade thrower. Less useful in 3-4 man parties as there is enough shared AP for this stuff to be done. It's good to give it to at least one person if you do take it. It pairs well with Controlled Burst for low AP cost guns as depending on your DEX you could get off all your bursts and reload in the same round.

Requirements: None
+1 Stim Duration, +1 Death Timer

Pretty good as stims are strong. Again it is better for lower party sizes where you want more bang for your buck. Death timer is nice as it gives you a good bit of leeway to save yourself or your companions. If your using stims a lot it can be a solid option otherwise it's just okay.

These feats are related to giving bonuses to the party based on the party size and your character's CHA.

Requirements: 9 CHA
Party: +8 Accuracy, +20 Reaction, +6% Critical Chance

Very good if you have a large party. Doesn't apply to your own character but makes the rest of the party much stronger. Stacks with the Squad leader implant for massive bonuses but doesn't stack with Sarge. If you have the CHA for it and are doing combat take this feat. I'd take it within the first few levels, probably around 3-5.

Requirements: None
While Alone: +2 AP, +12 Evasion, +16 Initiative, +6% Critical Chance, harder to bond with companions

Meant for solo characters. Really good but shouldn't interest you if you are a new player.

Requirements: CHA < 8
+1 Max Followers

If you really wan't to save points on CHA you can take this feat to get the party size you want otherwise it's not too important and personally I think you are better off just giving yourself the CHA for the party size you want rather than burning a feat. Depending on your build you may run out of good feats to pick anyway due to stat requirements so it is good in that situation.

From a meta-gamey perspective if you want to use one of the later game companions and intend to replace one of the Pit companions you can pick this up around level 5-6 as that's around the time they become available. This way you won't need to bring along the replaceable companion which gives the other party members more experience and skill points in the early game.

Requirements: 7-8 CHA
Party: +4 Accuracy, +6% Critical Chance

Solid bonus for the party, not as good as captain but is still pretty good. Doesn't stack with itself or Captain. Worth taking if you have companions that are built around landing critical hits as the crit boost is sizeable. If the party is more about raw damage then don't bother.

Self explanatory, these feats boost your defensive capabilities.

Requirements: 6 STR
Don't lose AP from heavy armour, +8 Armour Handling

Required to use heavy armour effectively. If your character is using armour a lot you should take this at some point, probably around levels 3-5 as that's when you start to run into heavy armour. Nice armour handling boost as well.

Requirements: 6 DEX
+12 Evasion, 30% of hits are converted to grazes, 70% to misses (from 50/50)

If your character uses evasion take this, probably early on. Basically it gives you more evasion and makes it more effective. Later in the game even with high evasion without this feat enemies still have high chance to graze even through smoke, this helps a lot with that.

Requirements: None
+10 HP, Enemy critical damage is halved

Solid feat for everyone. If you don't know what to pick this is usually a safe option as everyone usually takes damage in fights. The crit resistance is a nice bonus especially in the late game when enemies become more competent. Ideally though you should kill enemies fast enough that you don't need the HP buffer though obviosly if your character's whole thing is being tanky then this is a good option.

Requirements: None
+1 Ballistic DR. +6 Evasion +20 Reaction when not in cover

The weakest defence feat in my opinion. Ballistic DR is useful as guns are the most common weapon but the evasion and reaction bonuses aren't too important and they only apply when standing out of cover. Can be an okay option if you are stacking reaction and have run of of feats to pick. Otherwise this would be a last pick for me.

These apply whenever you get a kill. These are pretty situational and not the best picks in my opinion. They are generally better the smaller your party as it's easier to trigger them without everyone fighting over kills.

Requirements: None
+50% Critical chance on kill

A bit awkward to use. Can be good to use a cheap attack to finish someone up for a big chance to crit the next attack. You'll probably tear your hair out every time you don't get a crit after it's activated. Doesn't apply on reaction shots but is triggered by them. Only applies to the first shot of bursts. Is deactivated even if you don't get a crit.

Better for solo/duo as you have a better chance of actually triggering it. In large parties it just gets awkward to manage. Can be ok for melee special attacks as they usually have a good crit chance so it should basically guarantee it. Shotgun/Pistol double shots are probably the best attack to use with this as it's just the one roll for both shots.

Requirements: None
+6 AP on kill

Decent for finishing off multiple weakened enemies as you can use cheap attacks to finish them off one after the other. Killing someone with a grenade doesn't count though. Otherwise it basically just gets you an extra attack after killing someone. It applies on stealth kills too where it is actually pretty good as you can kill a lot of people in fewer turns. Not mandatory to do this though. It technically gets triggered on reaction kills but you don't actually get the AP on the next turn.

If your build deals high damage like a critical focused power attacking melee character or a Dodge This! build with massive crit damage this feat is more valuable as you can trigger it easily due to your high damage. Some burst attacks for certain Pistols/SMGS/Shotguns are within the 5-7 AP range depending on whether you have the feat Controller Burst so depending on your DEX you may get another attack out of it.

A bunch of feats that give bonuses that can be applied anywhere.

Requirements: Doesn't have Healing Factor Feat
+1 Max implants

Gives you an extra implant. If you need another one it's great. Not needed though, usuallly better to give yourself a good CON score to start with. That being said it can save you some points plus it's good for companions as their CON is already set.

Requirements: None
+1 Tag skill, +25% EXP gain

Nice to get an extra tag skill. If you want to get extra loot or pass speech checks this can help you out. The EXP bonus is nice as well as you get to new levels faster. For pure combat builds your better off going with a feat that properly boosts your combat potential though.

Requirements: 7 CHA
Automatically succeed when haggling. 25% price discount, +1 initial disposition

Gets you some unique deals from traders and generally saves you money. The disposition helps speech characters a bit as well. More of a meta-gamey feat as you won't know what the deals are beforehand. Not really important.

Requirements: 8 INT
+35% Skill gain on science and stealth skills

Allows you to get the the max skills faster. Depending on your choices this feat can be the only way to get 10 in the relevant skills. Not required but good if you want to beat those harder checks sooner or at all. Without tags this or Mental Fortitude are required to beat some of the higher checks. I'm fairly sure you can't get the max checks without tags though. Thief Faythe potentially can.

These feats give general bonuses to melee fighting. They can completely change how a melee character has to fight so pick them carefully.

Requirements: 8 STR
-1 AP cost for regular attacks, can't make aimed attacks, +2 melee damage when HP <= 13

First gameplay changing feat for melee. Very good if you are dealing high damage with a feat like Juggernaut. Lets you do a lot of attacks for cheap and makes the usually expensive Power Attack more manageable. If you find yourself using more regular/power attacks this is a great feat to take. It also makes flurry and double strike cost 3 and 2 less AP respectively as it reduces the cost for each hit. The melee damage at low health isn't much but it can help. It is calculated before any regen effects so if you start below 13 HP and regen above you still get the damage for the turn.

Requirements: 8 DEX
+30 Reaction, Graze +10, +25% Graze damage

Decent pick at some point if you run out of melee feats otherwise it's usage is very specific. Gives you 50% total graze damage. This gives a solid way to deal with higher evasion enemies or deal with low accuracy. The reaction helps a bit as you can provoke a reaction hit when an enemy runs out of reach of you or dodge them in melee range. If your build has high accuracy though then this feat is pretty useless as your only really getting the reaction bonus which isn't really useful unless you go for high evasion.

Requirements: 8 STR
+20% Stagger, +10% Penetration, +0.15 Critical damage multiplier

Good boost to damage for any type of melee fighter and helps to debuff evasion. I wouldn't necessarily take it straight away but I think most melee builds should pick it at some point. For crit melee I would take Precise Strike and Critical Thinker before this one. Other builds should take it once you feel comfortable with your accuracy.

Requirements: 8 PER
-1 AP cost for aimed attacks, +6% Critical chance, +12 Accuracy for non-regular attacks

The other gameplay changing feat. Makes your character good at aimed attacks. Also makes you a bit better at critical hits. This one is great for giving you a huge accuracy bonus as aimed attacks are usually pretty good. If your doing crit melee this is a good option, otherwise go for Berserker as power attacks have a solid crit chance.

Additionally, it can also work well with Berserker despite losing aimed attacks as Berserker reduces the cost of flurry and double strike a lot and the accuracy bonus applies there as well.

Requirements: None
+25% Melee skill gain, +6 Accuracy, +1 Accuracy and +1 Evasion for each melee skill level

This one is just a solid accuracy bonus that stacks well at higher levels. It counts both bladed and blunt skills but you aren't meant to use both. You can use a token to get training in the other melee skill to get a nice bonus. A decent early pick as it gets skill levels faster. This plus a specialisation feat gives you a sizeable accuracy bonus.

If you are using melee you should pick the relevant one early, probably should be the first feat pick after character creation.

Requirements: None
+8 Accuracy with blunt, +20% Critical chance with 'knockdown' attack, +2% Penetration with blunt weapons per skill level

Gives blunt weapons pretty good damage. Blunt weapons generally become very good at dealing with high DR.

Requirements: None
+8 Accuracy with bladed, +20% Critical chance with 'carve' attack, +2 Aimed accuracy with bladed per skill level

Helps bladed weapons accuracy a lot. Aimed attacks are solid and this makes them very good. Plus critical carve attacks does a lot of damage plus bleed.

These feats effect all guns both regular and energy. They give general bonuses to them but don't change gameplay as much as the melee feats can.

Requirements: 8 PER
+10% penetration, +0.15 critical damage multiplier

This is a good choice for precision attacks and burst attacks as it generally increases damage dealt. A good pick somewhat early with burst weapons but with precision builds Critical Thinker should probably be taken first as it will give a similar crit damage bonus but also improve the speed at which you level your crit skill.

Requirements: 8 STR
-1 AP cost for multishots, +10 Recoil Control, 20% of recoil control is added to ranged accuracy

Useful for high STR characters focused on burst attacks. Lets you take points out of DEX and put them elsewhere. Some of the burst attacks are very expensive and this makes them more manageable. Additionally makes recoil control more effective by upping the accuracy bonus. If you built around burst attacks it's very effective and should basically always be taken, level 2-4 would be ideal. Also this feat can work pretty well on its own without the weapon specialisation feats if you have high STR as you get a massive accuracy bonus. You'll miss out on the scaling bonuses which might suck.

Requirements: 8 DEX
+20 Reaction, +10 Graze, +25% Graze damage

Makes you good at grazing enemies. Really good for SMGs and burst attacks in general, especially in the early game when accuracy is generally lower. It's nice to have at least one person who can deal with high evasion enemies and this feat can help them out with that.

Similarly to Gladiator if you have really high accuracy anyway then this feat is not very useful. That being said it is easier to get a high evasion vs ranged weapons than it is with melee thanks to smoke grenades, cover and distortion fields having a bigger effect on ranged attacks. I'd say your still better off focusing on accuracy though.

Requirements: None
+25% Skill gain with ranged, +20 Reaction, +1 Accuracy for each ranged skill level

It's okay, similar to Warrior you can use tokens to give yourself a small bonus. It's actually really good for some companions as they have decent skills in a bunch of weapons so they get a sizeable bonus. Other than that it can help with stacking reaction but isn't an amazing feat and your usually better off taking something else.

Requirements: None
+20 Accuracy, +12% Critical chance,+10% Penetration with energy guns

Very specific feat. Not very good in the early game as there isn't really enough ammo, though it can make tough fights easier as you can smash though them with the few cells you do have. Later in the game it can be an ok pick when you can afford to use them more liberally. Around level 5 is when you generally start to run into more energy cells. Only works with ranged weapons though so don't bother if you've made a melee character.

Requirements: 8 PER
+6 Aimed attack accuracy, ignore 15 points of cover, +2 Range

Another decent feat. Very good for snipers and precision gunfighters. The ignoring cover bonus is nice. Enemies tend to get around 20-30% evasion bonus in cover so it knocks a lot off. The bonus is a flat subtraction so even though Aimed:Arms and Aimed:Legs double the cover bonus the reduction is still 15. The range bonus is solid and is actually pretty good for low range weapons as most fights don't take place at long range. Range also applies to reaction shots so it lets you make an attempt on targets that are further away.

Again, like melee specialisation your should probably take these at second level as they unlock a weapons full potential.

Requirements: None
+8 Accuracy. +3% Graze Damage, +1% Penetration per SMG skill level

The SMG feat. Makes them very good at grazing. Given how weak SMGs are on their own you should take this feat ASAP. Pairs well with Gunfighter and Big Game Hunter. I'd usually take this then Gunfighter afterwards as early game enemies have lower DR and are more susceptible to graze damage. Later in the game as armour gets better Big Game Hunter is a good choice to keep your damage up.

Requirements: None
+8 Accuracy. +4 Reaction, +1% Critical chance per pistol skill level

The reaction bonus isn't too bad but generally, unless you specifically build around them reaction shots are pretty crappy. Pistols tend to have lower damage but the crit chance can help with debuffing using aimed attacks. If you go all in on crits they can get very strong.

Requirements: None
+8 Accuracy. +0.03 Critical damage multiplier, +1 Aimed attack accuracy per rifle skill level

This one is interesting as it is good for sniping/precision fighting but not really useful for a burst attack character. If your going rifles and full auto attacks you don't really need this feat and are better off going with stuff like Controlled Burst, Gunfighter and Big Game Hunter. It's amazing for snipers though.

Requirements: None
+8 Accuracy. +6% Stagger, +1 Accuracy per shotgun skill level

Nice solid accuracy boost all around. Staggering helps with this even more as you essentially get +5 accuracy per stagger.

These feats only apply to stealth sequences. In some cases they are basically required to succeed the harder stealth sections. For a stealth character I would basically take all of these back to back, maybe delaying some of the less important ones for you're build.

Requirements: None
-1 Noise generation, actions generate half noise (except takedown)

Usually my first or second stealth feat pick. Unlocking stuff is pretty loud so it gives your more room to move around before being discovered. Plus the noise bonus is nice.

Requirements: None
+5 Sneaking, yellow tile ranged increased to 30 (from 20)

Hard to explain but it makes it much easier to move around without getting caught as it effects the way the tiles work in sneaking. Essentially required to get through some later stealth sections. Don't need to take it straight away though. Tunnel Runner can be a better choice as paired with a cloaking field you can move fast enough to not be bothered by yellow tiles.

Requirements: None
Takedowns cost 3 AP (from 5) and generate half noise, +10 Takedown

Takedowns are very loud so this is required for assassins. Basically impossible to fully assassinate everyone in a stealth section without this.

Requirements: None
Stealth movement costs 1 AP (from 2), can use movement AP in stealth

This ones pretty good. Makes stealth pretty easy as in general as you get more AP to work with. By itself it isn't super useful as you still generate a lot of noise doing stuff, especially killing. It's a good second pick I think. Pairs very well with high DEX. Fast Runner is absurd when combined with this.

Each companion has a unique feat that usually defines their role in the party. In the case of Evans and Faythe they get a choice between two feats.

Additionally their is a bonding system for companions that unlocks small bonuses for them. Doing things companions like, completing quests with them and aligning yourself with relevant factions increases this loyalty and unlocks new levels of the feat. The levels are:

Unhappy : -35% Skill Gain
Displeased : -10% Skill gain
Indifferent : Nothing
Content : +5% Skill gain
Engaged : Unique self buff
Inspired : Unique party buff
Devoted : +1 Natural DR

Only Engaged and Inspired are unique bonuses. The rest are always the same. This wiki page https://colonyship.fandom.com/wiki/Followers has a good breakdown of how loyalty works.

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Engaged : +4 Initiative
Inspired : +3 Party Accuracy

Evans bonuses are ok. He is good at stacking initiative but the party accuracy bonus is pretty small, every bit helps I suppose.

When you get to the maintenance deck in the habitat you can get a quest that involves killing some powerful security robots for one of the monks so you can get some tech for him. When you engage them Evans will complain about the suicidal nature of the mission and after a discussion he ask how you want to proceed. You can then choose between two options which gives him one of two feats:

When in cover: Ballistic Resistance +2, ranged aimed attacks -2 AP cost and +6 accuracy

This is one of the better damage dealing feats in the game. Ideally you would pair Rifles or Pistols with Critical Strike and some other bonuses like Sarge/Captain and a squad leader implant to give him high crit chance. Shotguns can also work well but SMGs get very little out of it. The ballistic DR is good but not super important. Note that even if an enemy flanks him he doesn't lose the bonus. The only downside is that some fights have awkward cover or in some cases no cover so you don't get any bonuses.

When not in cover: AP +2, +4 Initiative, +25 Reaction

A more universal feat for any Evans build, especially burst builds. Also good for initiative and reaction stacking. With an overclocked motor cortex Evans can easily get the highest base AP of any companion apart from Harbinger, but her bonus is significantly harder to get.

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Engaged : +6 Evasion
Inspired : +2 Party Initiative

Okay bonuses. Evasion helps keep her alive and more initiative is always good.

When you first recruit Faythe you have a conversation about how you dealt with Foley. If lean towards telling her that killing is good/necessary then she gets Assassin otherwise she will get Thief. An easy way to pick is all top dialog options for Assassin and all bottom for Thief.

Melee Damage +2, Critical Chance +8%, Penetration +10%, Takedown +15

Good universal damage boost. Obviously if you want her to use melee then this is good but the penetration bonus is good for all weapons as is the crit chance if you go for precision fighting. The takedown is nice and paired with Throat Slitter she should have no problems assassinating.

-1 to Noise generation per tile, +25% skill gains in Sneak, Lockpick and Steal. Evasion +6 when in cover

Makes her better at sneaking around and generally being a skillmonkey. As of writing you still need to tag lockpick and steal to get the highest checks in the game. You don't need to tag sneak though. She'll probably hide behind cover in most fights so that bonus is nice.

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Engaged : +6 Accuracy
Inspired : +3 Party Armour Handling

Accuracy is always nice, essentially like +1 to a weapon skill. The armour bonus is surprisingly good and can be the difference between wearing good and mediocre armour.

If you bring Jed to The Heart you will need to resolve his quest to unlock his feat. If you don't he leaves the party.

Initiative +4, Natural DR +1, Recoil Control +15, Melee Damage +2

Really good unique, boosts everything Jed is setup to be good at. Jed should generally use either melee or burst weapons so you get a solid boost there. He's also very tanky so it just gets upped even more. The initiative is icing on the cake.

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Engaged : +0.05 Critical Multiplier
Inspired : +3% Party Critical Chance

Nice boost to crits, it pretty hard to please Garret though so you might not even see the bonuses.

All faction companions start with their unique

Critical Chance +4%, Critical Damage +0.15, Stagger +20

It's great, not much to say. Makes him good at what he is already good at.

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Engaged : +20 Reaction
Inspired : +3 Party Evasion

Not that interesting, reaction is good on SMGs but the evasion bonus is pretty small. She's also a bit hard to please but it is a bit easier to get high Protectors reputation.

All faction companions start with their unique

Evasion +18, Reaction +20, Penetration +10%

Gives her absurd evasion. Again, reaction is good for SMGs as is the penetration bonus.

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Engaged : +1 Ballistic DR
Inspired : +10% Party Resistances

Solid boost for tankiness. The main boost for resistance in neural as this is the hardest to get bonuses to. Optic and Toxic are fairly easy to resist.

All faction companions start with their unique

All Resistances +30, +1 Ballistic and Melee DR, +1 Regen

Quite good. It takes very little investment to make Mathias super tanky, too bad you can't overclock his heart and subdermal armour.

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Engaged : Critical Chance +3
Inspired : +0.05 Party Critical Multiplier

Knurl is already setup to be good with crits so this is a nice boost.

Both mutant companions start with their unique plus a special mutant feat that all mutants in the game have.

Critical Damage +0.15, Evasion +18, Regen +1

Regen +1, Stat Healing +1, Toxic Resistance +75

Nice universal boost, Knurl is good with crits and tanking so it just ups it even further. Mutant works a bit better with him than with Harbinger as it helps with regen stacking and all around tankiness.

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Engaged : +20% Skill Gain
Inspired : +1 Party AP

Really good bonuses but its very difficult to get Harbinger to like you without being a cult leader who's friendly with the covenant.

Both mutant companions start with their unique plus a special mutant feat that all mutants in the game have.

Experience Bonus +20%, +30% Neural Resistance, Party Initiative +4

Regen +1, Stat Healing +1, Toxic Resistance +75

Everyone loves more initiative and she gives it to the whole party. The neural resistance is nice too and offsets her low CHA. Exp bonus is nice too, Educated plus Cult Leader and a neural implant can get her to a very high level for a companion. She doesn't get as much out of Mutant as compared to Knurl as her stats place her more toward being a sniper so she shouldn't need to be tankier if you position her well.

These are feats that cannot be acquired via levelling and are instead obtained by other means.

These feats are acquired by completing a quest that you can get during the first act. There are 3 that each correspond to one of the stimulants. After using the relevant stimulant 2 times it will be upgraded. After using 3 more stims it will reach its final upgrade. Most of the benefits of the feat come when using the relevant stim

Cellular Regeneration

This feat is for the green regeneration stims
Tier 1: +1 HP Regeneration
Tier 2: +1 HP Regeneration, Regen Stim +3 HP healed
Tier 3: +1 HP Regeneration, Regen Stim +5 HP healed and +1 Natural DR while active

This feat is the only way to reach maximum HP regeneration. It is pretty good but a bit too reactive. Ideally you should try to fight in a way that minimises regen stim usage. It's still a good option to save yourself. It can pair well with a heart implant plus heavy armour as you can recover a huge amount of HP while taking minimal damage.

Accelerated Reaction

This feat is for the red aggro stims
Tier 1: +20 Reaction
Tier 2: +20 Reaction, Aggro Stim +1 AP
Tier 3: +20 Reaction, Aggro Stim +2 AP and +20 Evasion

Probably the best combat option. Aggro stims are already very good and this just boosts them even further.

Mental Fortitude

This feat is for the purple zen stims
Tier 1: +5% Neural Resistance, +15% Skill Gain
Tier 2: +5% Neural Resistance, +15% Skill Gain, Zen Stim + 15% Neural Resistance
Tier 3: +5% Neural Resistance, +15% Skill Gain, Zen Stim + 30% Neural Resistance and no PER penalty

This one is ok, the skill gain is the main benefit. Zen stims already do a good job of protecting you and there aren't that many fights where they are needed.


Each feat gives you a bonus against certain types of enemies. You can acquire these feats by interacting with terminals in the world. Some of them are hard to get to and require high science skills.

Frog Hunter

Party gets +12 Accuracy, +12 Evasion, +6% Critical Chance against frogs

Creeper Hunter

Party gets +12 Accuracy, +10% Penetration, +6% Critical Chance against creepers

Machine Hunter

Party gets +12% Critical Chance, +10% Penetration against machines


When you talk to people you are sometimes given the [Initiative Bonus] Attack dialog option. Every 5 times you pick this will give you a feat representing the reputation your character has for suddenly flying off the handle and murdering people. If you don't plan on talking your way past people you should basically always pick the [Initiative Bonus] Attack option.

Ask Questions Later

Tier 1: +2 Party Initiative, -1 Initital Disposition
Tier 2: +4 Party Initiative, -2 Initital Disposition, +10% Combat skill gain
Tier 3: +6 Party Initiative, -3 Initital Disposition, +20% Combat skill gain


These are gained each time you overclock an implant. The HP decrease is small enough at first to be worth it but be careful with going all the way. You don't face energy weapons that much but they hurt when you do so less energy DR is not nice.

Overclocked (1 Implant):
-1 HP
One More Won't Hurt (2 Implants)
-2 HP
Small Price to Pay (3 Implants)
-4 HP
Worth the Price (4 Implants)
-6 HP, -1 Energy DR
No Gain without Pain (5 Implants)
-8 HP, -1 Energy DR
Power through Sacrifice (6 Implants)
-10 HP, -1 Energy DR
No Longer Human (7 Implants)
-10 HP, -2 Energy DR


Whenever a character is downed in combat but doesn't die before combat ends they get a special feat. The more times they die the more the feat gets upgraded. Overall the feat makes it easier to keep them alive in the long run at the cost of a slight max HP malus.

Still Alive:
Fallen 1 time, -1 HP, +1 Evasion, +1 Death Timer
Not My Time Yet:
Fallen 3 times, -2 HP, +2 Evasion, +1 Death Timer
Hard to Kill:
Fallen 5 times, -3 HP, +3 Evasion, +1 Death Timer
Back from the Dead:
Fallen 7 times, -4 HP, +4 Evasion, +1 Death Timer
Revenant:
Fallen 10 times, -5 HP, +5 Evasion, +1 Death Timer


You get this for siding with Braxton, doesn't do anything.