# Character Builds + First Moves

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704>\
**Category:** The Bunker\
**Created:** [June 10, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704 "2013-06-10T22:16:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JakeAM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@JakeAM](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/JakeAM)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/1 "2013-06-10T22:16:26Z")

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Hey guys, just wanted to create a thread in which people can share their builds and what their first moves are when spawning in the evac shelter.

Here’s my archer build:

## Stats

Str 10  
Dex 12  
Int 8  
Per 8

## Positive Traits

Fleet-Footed  
Quick  
Inconspicuous  
Robust Genetics

## Negative Traits

Heavy Sleeper  
Glass Jaw  
Lightweight  
Trigger Happy  
Truth Teller  
Ugly

## Skills

Archery \*\*  
Survival \*\*

## First Moves

1. Smash two windows in the evac for 2x 3ft string and 1x heavy stick
2. Craft a longbow
3. Smash a ton of chairs in the evac and craft around 200 arrows.

Hope you find the time to write up your own, they can really help people wanting to dry different play styles! Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Izicata](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/izicata/32/70_2.png) [@Izicata](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Izicata)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/2 "2013-06-10T23:38:40Z")

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Muscle Wizard

## Stats

Str 14  
Dex 8  
Int 13  
Per 10

## Positive Traits

Night Vision  
Robust Genetics  
Martial Arts Training - taekwondo

## Negative Traits

Heavy Sleeper  
Poor Hearing  
Glass Jaw  
Lightweight  
Addictive Personality  
Truth Teller

## Profession

Chain Smoker

## Skills

None

## Plan

1. Head to town.
2. Abuse Windowframes/Shrubs/Cars, punch zombies.
3. Find sewing kit, get 3 tailoring and some actual clothes.
4. Fitted Tank Top + Fitted Under Armour = Punching takes 25 move
5. ORA ORA ORA

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**Author:** ![iceball3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c89c15/32.png) [@iceball3](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/iceball3)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 2:41am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/3 "2013-06-11T02:41:19Z")

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Am I the only one who never puts points into Dex?

Mamizou

## Stats

Str 10  
Dex 8  
Int 11  
Per 10

## Positive Traits

Fleet Footed  
Quick  
Parkour Expert  
High Adrenaline  
Light Step

## Negative Traits

Poor Hearing  
Glass Jaw  
Insomniac  
Addictive Personality  
Truth Teller

## Profession

Chain Smoker

## Skills

None

## Plan

1. Acquire fitted kevlar and two fitted under armor, and two fitted tank tops, as well as arm guards, motorcycle helmets, fanny packs, fitted sneakers, and fitted cargo pants. Layer two fitted skirts underneath the cargo pants as to provide additional defense.
2. Kite zombies like a windy day for hand to hand skill up
3. Train skills all across the board, with tailoring to reinforce my clothes, mechanics for cars, and electronics for water purifiers.
4. Find tremendous amounts of 9mm rounds and have 9mm SMG. Train SMG skill amazingly with the new badass rapid-firing animation. For lotta fun. Go through over 3000 rounds daily and harvest turrets.
5. Be a roving high speed fighter who somehow acclimated 10 dodge skill (tanking attacks still trains dodge, btw) and has amazing amounts of armor. Be a brutal at a medium and short range, making short work of everything else using rawkets.

Also, get lossa survival and electronics skill to get some CBMs~~~

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![iceball3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c89c15/32.png) [@iceball3](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/iceball3)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/4 "2013-06-11T02:45:31Z")

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Sorry for the doublepost, but it feels a bit odd just editing this in to my previous one and I am honestly a little impatient to wait until another post.

[quote=“JakeAM, post:1, topic:1704”]Hey guys, just wanted to create a thread in which people can share their builds and what their first moves are when spawning in the evac shelter.

Here’s my archer build:

## Stats

Str 10  
Dex 12  
Int 8  
Per 8[/quote]If I may suggest, perhaps taking two or three points out of dex and distributing them to perception and strength? Strength to act as a buffer against str debuffs while in pain so you can still draw your bow, and perception as it offers more ranged benefit than dexterity?

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**Author:** ![TonicEngine](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/tonicengine/32/924_2.png) [@TonicEngine](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/TonicEngine)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/5 "2013-06-11T15:34:08Z")

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re: “fitted kevlar vest”

How do you tailor kevlar? Was this added after the 0.5 release?

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**Author:** ![Nemonole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nemonole](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Nemonole)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/6 "2013-06-11T16:08:27Z")

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[quote=“TonicEngine, post:5, topic:1704”]re: “fitted kevlar vest”

How do you tailor kevlar? Was this added after the 0.5 release?[/quote]

You can’t. Occasionally you will find one that fits you.

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**Author:** ![vultures](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/vultures/32/69_2.png) [@vultures](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/vultures)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/7 "2013-06-11T19:48:10Z")

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My one and only advice can and will be to start with a lvl 2 mechanix skill; collecting some supplies and tools plus creating a stash followed by setting up a base comes naturally, only to have time to practice survival, construction, some ass-kicking skills and again, vehicle build-up. Pay mind to wrecks that abound in the fields and push some hard and spiked plating followed by a 5.0 v6 and don’t hesitate to engage into melee, as it is often followed by an increase in first aid skill that increases your encounter rating and success chance for CBMs greatly. Always leave markers on your map, and plan a few days ahead; keep in mind your battle stance (regarding outfit) and choice of weapons, and you’ll do fine.

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**Author:** ![i2amroy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/i2amroy/32/909_2.png) [@i2amroy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/i2amroy)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/8 "2013-06-13T03:50:43Z")

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> [@iceball3](#):
>
> If I may suggest, perhaps taking two or three points out of dex and distributing them to perception and strength? Strength to act as a buffer against str debuffs while in pain so you can still draw your bow, and perception as it offers more ranged benefit than dexterity?

Small note here, but it is possible to draw a longbow with less then 10 strength, it’s just that you get major range penalties when below that (-2 range for each STR point below 10). You can still draw it until you get under 5 STR…

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**Author:** ![Justice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Justice](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Justice)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 5:50am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/9 "2013-06-13T05:50:24Z")

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[quote=“Nemonole, post:6, topic:1704”][quote=“TonicEngine, post:5, topic:1704”]re: “fitted kevlar vest”

How do you tailor kevlar? Was this added after the 0.5 release?[/quote]

You can’t. Occasionally you will find one that fits you.[/quote]

Well, you can with one minor, but realistic, adjustment to [tt]items.json[/tt].

[spoiler]Before:  
[tt]“material” : [“kevlar”, “null”],[/tt]

After:  
[tt]“material” : [“kevlar”, “cotton”],[/tt][/spoiler]

Kevlar vests are made of kevlar and cotton, in the real world.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xLemor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ea5d25/32.png) [@xLemor](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/xLemor)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 6:00am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/10 "2013-06-13T06:00:08Z")

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yeah you should go for higher perception instead, it boosts firearms skills by a LOT, dexterity doesnt do much beside +to hit which firearm skills boosts it much higher.  
you could drop inconspicious (wich is next to useless i think) and raise your perception and lower dexterity.  
10 str, 12-13 int, and 12+ perc. Necessary skills would be first aid and driving to start off with altho you can do without driving but first aid is really good to have, other skills are easy to train early from books and basic actions (like survival and butchering corpses). I usually go for First aid, cooking, survival and archery if i play archery just for the beginning until i find a good gun and some ammo. When you get good at the game just go for driving skill (driving is hard to train to level 4 to stop fumbling the wheel) and first aid. Also pick the robust genetic trait, its one of the most valuable trait you can have once you start playing with mutations

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**Author:** ![Raital](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d26b3c/32.png) [@Raital](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Raital)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 7:54am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/11 "2013-06-13T07:54:21Z")

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Strong, perceptive practical-learner. (0.6)

## Stats

Str 14  
Dex 8  
Int 7  
Per 14

## Traits

Quick  
Fast Learner  
Robust Genetics

Heavy Sleeper  
Poor Hearing  
Insomniac  
Lightweight  
Trigger Happy  
Wool Allergy  
Truth Teller  
Ugly  
(usually prefer to be alone in these games so Ugly and Truth Teller wouldn’t bother me even if NPCs worked)

Profession: Chain Smoker  
Skills: None

## First Moves

1. Break Locker, grab pipe.
2. Go to town.
3. Break fridge in house, grab rubber hose. Kill anything that aggros in the process.
4. Get heavy stick (window or nearby forest), make slingshot, break stones for pebbles.
5. Level archery to 1 on rabbits/crows/squirrels/zombies.
6. Use String and heavy stick to make longbow, make 90 arrows from heavy sticks.
7. Loot and pillage.

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**Author:** ![Ferodaktyl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ferodaktyl/32/56_2.png) [@Ferodaktyl](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Ferodaktyl)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/12 "2013-06-13T16:38:46Z")

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Step 1 : create random char.  
Step 2 : check basement for anything remotely useful  
Step 3 : Check char stats and deciding how to play  
…  
Step xxx : collecting anything remotely useful from the map and spending ridiculous amounts of time sorting and organizing loot i’ll probably never use

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**Author:** ![Killa\_Croc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@Killa\_Croc](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Killa_Croc)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/13 "2013-06-13T19:57:23Z")

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[quote=“Ferodaktyl, post:12, topic:1704”]Step 1 : create random char.  
Step 2 : check basement for anything remotely useful  
Step 3 : Check char stats and deciding how to play  
…  
Step xxx : collecting anything remotely useful from the map and spending ridiculous amounts of time sorting and organizing loot i’ll probably never use [/quote]

This pretty much sums out what I do up until I decide to rush a town and see how much damage do to a city’s zombie population before keeling over. Toss in a few personal rules like vehicles are for transportation only no crafting (yes I gather material, organize them into neat piles specifically to make crafting simpler and somewhat efficient, suicide in the nearest town, then delete my world and repeat.)

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**Author:** ![Skates](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/skates/32/31_2.png) [@Skates](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Skates)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/14 "2013-06-13T20:16:14Z")

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All purpose crafter

## Stats

Str 10  
Dex 10  
Int 9  
Per 9

## Positive Traits

Quick  
Light Step

## Negative Traits

Ugly  
Addictive Personality  
Truth Teller  
Trigger Happy  
Smelly  
Heavy Sleeper  
Weak Stomach  
Lightweight

## Profession

Scoundrel

## Skills

Dodge  
Melee  
Firearms  
Archery  
Mechanics  
Survival

## Plan

1. Break one of the lockers and grab a pipe.
2. Run outside and find a rock, craft a crowbar.
3. Head back into the evacuation shelter and break two windows, grab two pieces of string and a heavy stick. Craft a longbow.
4. Smash some benches and make arrows.
5. Head to the nearest collection of outer homes and kill zombies one at a time with a bow and break into the homes finding supplies.
6. Once enough supplies have been collected garrison a gas station.
7. Fill it full of supplies and fortify it by creating spike pits and traps around the outside and board up the windows.
8. Survive.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DWC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f19dbf/32.png) [@DWC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/DWC)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 8:40pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/15 "2013-06-13T20:40:33Z")

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I’ve taken to making series of survivors.

The first guy, is mediocre but well rounded, with a point in every useful skill. I use him to scavenge up books and useful items and set up a base of operations.

Next guy has a lot of unbalanced traits, no skills, high attributes and I walk him over to the first guy’s safehouse to sit around and eat all his food and read books and craft stuff, work on the cars until he is a beastly renaissance man, equip him with the fine weapons and equipment gathered by the first guy then then send him forth in search of monsters to destroy.

Considering a combat oriented version of the first guy to make a sort of semi- disposable soldier that can go to the stockpile, grab up a pile of guns and stuff and go do dangerous assaults and explore hostile places without it being too much of a lost investment of time of he bites the dust in the process.

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**Author:** ![Moral\_Grey\_Area](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Moral\_Grey\_Area](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Moral_Grey_Area)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 10:20am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/16 "2013-06-15T10:20:31Z")

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NO ONE KNOCK MY SETUP UNTIL YOU TRY IT.

## STR: 7 DEX: 4 INT: 7 PER: 4

Martial Arts

- 

## Addictive Personality Jittery Savant Truth Teller

## No Job

Unarmed: \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

**_EXTREME MARTIAL ARTS_** \_\_

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rookrune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Rookrune](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Rookrune)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 4:22am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/17 "2013-06-17T04:22:12Z")

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## I call this the "Lucky 7’s build, its for when your looking for more of a challenge. Stats

Str 7  
Dex 7  
Int 7  
Per 7

* * *

Pick any perk’s you feel at the time.

Its harder, but at l east you have luck on your side (WARNING: Luck may not be on your side.)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/cataclysmdda/original/1X/21b5d044e8473b25d0bf905d60477e25f6fbe0cf.png) [@system](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/18 "2013-06-18T23:27:34Z")

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Has anyone attempted to make Joel from the “LAST OF US”?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fishy1234555](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/fishy1234555/32/50_2.png) [@fishy1234555](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/fishy1234555)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 5:27am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/19 "2013-07-03T05:27:01Z")

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Hillbilly

Str: 7  
Dex: 12  
Int: 4  
Per: 9

Traits

Positive

-Tough  
-Thick Skinned  
-Terrifying  
-Skilled Liar

Negative

-Heavy Sleeper  
-Illiterate  
-Trigger Happy  
-Smelly  
-Chemical Imbalance  
-Ugly

Profession  
-Wannabe Mechanic

Skills

Bashing Weapons \*\*  
Shotguns \*\*\*\*  
Cooking \*\*  
Survival \*\*

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zireael](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/zireael/32/956_2.png) [@Zireael](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Zireael)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2013, 9:54am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704/20 "2013-07-03T09:54:16Z")

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My setup:  
All traits to 14  
Grab some negatives and slap Fast Learner/Fast Healer on top of it

[Next page](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/character-builds-first-moves/1704.md?page=2)