First things you'll notice after starting the new game is a very bad translation from Russian to English, and some sluggish tutorial, which actually shows you all the game's basics, but doing it in some really bad way. If you haven't played other Apeiron games before, I suggest you see it on YouTube, to see how it looks in actual gameplay.
One major hint about controls is about camera movement, which is locked at the start. To fix it, just raise the "camera sensitiveness" setting from zero to twenty, at least.
You may skip the tutorial completely - but don't forget to return to the warehouse before rushing into a fight with local soldiers - and collect backpack, crowbar, and ammo...

But before you'll get to the game, you need to tune your main character, set his skills - and that's what about my guide here, really.

There are two major builds I'm suggesting. The first one will be the quickest way through the game but is quite restrained by that purpose. The other will give you more room for experimenting but will demand a bit of power-up grinding in the game process.

Okay, you've clicked the "new game" button, and see a "character creation" screen. You see a list of skills and list of parameters for our middleman we will be playing for.

Point one is that we don't need a soldier because we are not in the war.


Point two, obviously, jack of all trades is master of none, and, while you can upgrade almost every skill and parameter in the game, you'll not get enough time to tune it all. The game's very short, and not forgiving for casuals, so it's better to be prepared from the start.


Quick shooting - self-explanatory and a Must-Have for everyone. Max it to have an advantage with your shots
Accurate fire - another Must Have (what's the point in a quick shot, if it was wasted?)
Heavy weapons - skill to operate machine guns and grenade launchers - quite opposite previous, it is useless for Marauder. For the most part of the game, this skill will be unused, because of the close-quarter combat you'll be facing. Minimize it.
Sniper - ability to use scopes (which is implemented on the rifles, and also on the machine guns and assault rifles) - it is not as useless, as heavy weapons skill, but again - you'll be in CQC generally, and if you maximize Accurate fire, you'll be just as good, as any scoped enemy through all the game, if not better
Throwing - sometimes useful skill, describing, how well you'll be throwing grenades. But for most situations, the basic 10 points will be enough. If not - it is one of the easiest skills to maximize, I'll describe it a bit later
Melee combat - although it is always fun to take on knife someone who shoot in you, in that game it is very unlikely. I've played maximized melee character, but that was a very luck-based and prolonged game for constant reloads. See, even the weakest of gunners can score a hit that will stop you. And when you stopped, you're finished, no matter how good your armor and health are. But that doesn't mean that you'll be fine with 10 in melee, as for that skill describes not only hit chances for melee attacks, but also dodging from those. And in the game course, there will be several situations when you'll need dodging. I suggest to put it as 30.
Engineering - now, the signature skill of our character! He was a sapper, and still alive! That skill couldn't be lower than 50-60 points, because fate will send us on the mines again. After thorough research, I don't suggest to maximize it to 75 on the start. 95% of mines you'll encounter can be discharged with 60 points skill. But advanced (>70) engineering means more complicated traps you'll be setting yourself. And that's the point where you can really get stuck - removing your own mines after the battle is over.
Medicine - very good and useful skill in every combat, but I suggest to leave it at minimum. Why? Because skill points are scarce and it is better not to be shot at all than to patching yourself over and over.
Camouflage - useless, as we are not soldiers there. Even with camouflage on 100, once you'll be on the plain sight - you'll get a shot. And there is not enough space on the maps to make a really discreet approach.


Health, as with medicine - it's good to have it at the top, but, once you chew the first bullet, you'll be stuck and wasted, because of stun effect every hit does to you. So it's best not to get hit, so health is not really needed. Leave at a minimum of 30.
Strength, as well as Stamina and Dexterity, can be raised relatively fast from the lowest to max, through grinding process. But you should have at least some base stats there, a character with strength, stamina, and dexterity set at 30, will not ever finish tutorial.
My advice there is either set strength to 80 and stamina to 85, if you don't want grind stats at all, or, at least, leave them at 60, to update them later.
Eyesight, and Hearing, on the other hand, cannot be grinded at all. You can raise them by perks much later in the game, but they cannot be trained. So I suggest to raise them to 85 both, from the start, because good eye means good shot, and a good ear will tell you about enemies coming from where you don't see them, to be prepared.


1) quick shooting, accurate fire - 75, melee - 30, engineering - 60, other skills - at 10. Health at 30, strength - 80, stamina - 85, dexterity - 60, eyes and ears - 85.


Shoot first, strafe fast, kill all, grab the best gear, move on to the next location, repeat. Best gear will be AKSU (short AK) and Saiga for CQC, and maybe rifle like tuned Vepr or SVD for long-range, with preference to lower the distance and bursting everybody down. Oh, and leave some armed mines before the enemy attack, if possible.


2) mostly the same, but leave strength and stamina at 60, that will give you a little harder start, but 45 points to upper the skill of your desire, sniper, for example.


With this set of skills, you will do basically the same, as №1 build, but after 2-3 first missions, you gotta stop and put some time (maybe 2-4 hours) into mindless stat grinding. That will make you much more aggressive and angry, so after that grind, you're for sure will tear everyone opposing you in pieces, in every distance.

Okey, about stats raising: they grow up when you do something about them. Shoot from the hip - ans you'll get quick shooting promotion. Shoot from iron sights - and gain accuracy. Shoot with scope - and eventually, you'll grow up in sniper. In theory. Too bad, there are not enough target practice to really boost your shooting skills if they are mediocre from the start. The only skill that will raise eventually is engineering - because you'll be meeting with traps and locks all the game through.
Other than that, the only skill you can raise up from 10 to 100 is throwing. What is more, during this process, you'll raise also dexterity, some strength, and even some stamina eventually.

The grinding trick is very simple, and far from cheating. After the 3rd mission, there will be many stones (rocks) all around. What I suggest is to collect them all (there are almost 90 of them), and go to the corner of your house (opposite from where your flat is, next to the bus stop).



For 90 rocks weighs a little more than you can easily handle, you'll be overburdened. And moving while overburdened is surely raising your strength and stamina. But it's a long process.
Now, when you are at the corner, just start to throw the rocks to the wall.



The best way to do it quick is about taking two rocks in both hands and put another pair into the grenades slots. After you throw 90 rocks, your stats will be about 8-9 points higher.



By throwing, you are raising that skill AND dexterity, and sometimes even 1 or 2 points of strength are adding. So, as I said earlier, in 2-4 hours you can easily boost your stats to the max level.

That all, folks!