Whats your favorite traits both positive and negative?
I usually go with parkour expert, Disease Resistant, Night Vision. Sometimes Robust Genetics and one of the martial arts traits.
For negative I almost always take Glass Jaw, Insomnia, Ugly and Truth Teller. Sometimes I mix in some of the intolerence/allergy traits and Near-sighted.
Psychopath. On every single character.
For points I usually take the addiction negative ones since I never do drugs.
Fast learner is also almost a must have and fast reader helps a bit with those book that take eternities to read. I’d gladly switch it over with something that made recipes easier to learn though, spending entire days trying to learn a single recipe off a book having to read it manually can be a bit maddening.
Heavy sleeper is the best negative trait ever.
Heavy sleeper should almost be a positive trait imo. Almost.
So yeah heavy sleeper for sure, night vision, fleet footed, quick, truth teller, parkour expert, trigger happy ( by the time I start using ak’s and m16’s I’ve got plenty of ammo to burn anyways), poor hearing.
You can use a book nearby for recipes when crafting, and crafting a recipe from book has near-100% chance of memorizing it.
Pack Mule, Strong Back, Gourmand, Night Vision, all the addiction ones (addiction from 1 use of adderall to install CBMs? Never heard of it.), truth teller, ugly, trigger happy (I don’t use full-auto weapons. Ever.), quick, maybe resistances. Glass jaw if I’m feeling like extra points and dying, or extra points and starting with a helmet. Light step if I’m planning to invest in traps so I can just trap entirety of entrance to my base and walk right over.
Never took heavy sleeper, but it sounds like I should since it’s not even negative unless enemy somehow gets into your hidey-hole, and with traps… only randomly spawned. (Happened several times to me - I come back to the cabin, OOPS ZOMBIE.)
my favorite is night vison just screw up single cbm instalation or drink mutagen and it turn into high night vison but even single square give advantage over mele enemy i never take robust genetics because i do not use mutations commonly and radiation is no problem for me too
i take hard sleep too for my playstyle i allways sleep in safe places and zombie smashing my reinforced door (if managed to walk in 3 rows of spiked pits, dodge all bear traps and smash palisade/palisade gate) is loud enought to wake me up alslo i got 1 npc armed with glock what will kill everything that destroyed my reinforced door so even if smashing will do not end my sleep a npc with firearm will do it well alslo distant noises like fungaloids PUFF! or boomer explode in my pit do not wake me up
Poor hearing the the best negative trait imo, heavy sleeper is pretty good and I generally take slow healer to help grind first aid up just a little late game. I used to love glass jaw but since all the burst firing enemies came in, I avoid it pretty hard now. Other negatives I take are: Clumsy, truth teller, trigger happy, strong scent, lactose intolerant isnt too bad and I used to take wool allergy all the time, but things have gotten colder since then and I needs my woolen socks.
Night vision is my ‘must have’ trait on every char I play, stylish runs a close second, the potential to be running a constant +20 morale after hitting up a few jewelry stores is the best morale trait that you can have from what I can tell. Eagle eye/scout is a nice little buff at 1 point. Occasionally when im feeling lazy ill cheat myself in some extra points and take fast reader and fast learner to speed up the early game a bit. Robust genetics is an obvious one if I feel like playing monster man and ill occasionally pick up packmule because who the hell doesnt like hauling more stuff?
I used to take fleet footed or quick alot, but after thinking about it a bit I figured id be better off with 3 more points in str or another trait long term. You are always going to have to fight things in cata, why the hell not hit like a truck when you do?
Night Vision,
Robust Genetics,
Quick,
are almost always in, as well as,
Heavy Sleeper,
Truth Teller
I also do like Martial Arts Training or Melee Training
I find myself a big fan of Animal Empathy. Makes the early game so much more survivable because screw those Moose guys.
Also, easier hunting.
Also, im still a ‘noob’ learning the game so I’m not as concerned with the meta, I prefer RPing someone in this apocalypse and having fun for the time being. Once I get more concerned with long-term goals like making a super fortress or ultimate death car I’ll probably go for the “universally good traits” like night vision or pack mule
Fleet Footed helps me too
I tend to have a few that make my list of “MUST SELECT”. At least, when it’s applicable.
Positive: Fleet-Footed [size=8pt](if I have the points for it, I go for Quick first)[/size], Night Vision, Scout [size=8pt](Again, if I have the points, but combined with binoculars, this is ridiculous)[/size], Robust Genetics [size=8pt](if I’m planning to mutate)[/size], and Quick [size=8pt](just awesome in general)[/size]
Negative: Addictive Personality, Far-Sighted, Glass Jaw, Insomniac, Slow Healer, usually an allergy of some sort.
I tend to steer away from traits like Ugly or Truth Teller, since those tend to be cheat-y freebies. I prefer my negative traits to actually have a trade-off.
Gourmand and heavy sleeper. I like being able to store more nutrition and of course not having to mess with ear plugs when sick.
I usually like to take negative traits and spend the points on high stats rather than positive traits. I’ll usually take Addictive Personality, Truth Teller, Wool Allergy, and sometimes Insomnia (although that one is a tad annoying.)
However, my current character is a survivor of the “Really Bad Day” start, so he’s also got Fleet Footed and Night Vision, which are pretty helpful.
Lately I have been playing the ambush scenario and I see myself as a hunter/stalker, playing someone who lives with his inventory on his back, traveling the world.
I take packmule to enhance my ability to carry, sometimes I go with light step and weak scent so that I can pass through areas with little attention (at least in the dark!) when I have points. Lately I have been trying to live without night vision and it is going ok so far.
Negatives I take are Heavy sleeper, as it is actually handy if you are sick, as well as trigger happy (no burst fire bows!). I often take addictive personality and lightweight, as I don’t use the drugs a whole lot, and if I am playing with NPC’s I may take Ugly and truth teller (hey, there is a reason I am alone). Taking those two without NPC’s seems a little like a cheat.
well ugly and truth teller actualy do not do much about npc i have npc and i never lie alslo everyone like and follow me after i kill zombie or give america flag
Stylish.
With the right starting profession, it’s an instant morale boost, which means more focus, which means more skills early on.
That, and I like having an excuse to choose the Maid or Butler profession.
Must haves:
Night Vision: a must for melee chars and early game town raiding at night. Helps in labs, too: smg-roombas secubots can’t see you in dark.
Scout: OP, even more so with binoculars.
Fleet-footed or Quick: again, must for melee chars. Later a bit less useful, but extra movement points save your bacon when fighting sleepy, hungry, thirsty or in pain.
Cool stuff, not obligatory:
Robust genetics: for chars chugging mutagen. Bionics are usually more powerful, so I get this less frequently.
Fast Learner: less grind! I haven’t got all day to up my mechanics, for instance.
Fast Reader: ditto, but less useful IMO.
Stylish: again, less grind. Jewelry really helps. Much more powerful than Optimist or Psychopath after a bit of looting. Provides Groom, butler and Ballroom dancer with a bit of earlygame morale, too.
Packmule: useful, but costs a lot.
MA (Krav Maga): costly, but the coolest unarmed style in long term.
Poison resistant: clearing anthills and beehives for loot, surviving bloated zombies w/o a gas mask.
Disease resistant: very useful, but only for challenging builds.
Decent tradeoffs:
Addictive personality and Lightweight: drugs are semi-rare and you’ll really use them only earlygame as a panic button, later they’re more of a hassle to manage.
Asthmatic: can royally fuck you up if you can’t find a hospital or a pharmacy early and at least a couple later in the game. Otherwise, pretty harmless.
Glass jaw: still very powerful. Just wear a helmet and don’t mess with npcs or play chicken with turrets/secubots.
Lactose intolerance: few recipes actually use dairy, so it’s a free point.
Heavy sleeper: usually ok.
Insomniac: a bottle of cough syrup deals with it.
Poor hearing: even poor hearing isn’t poor at all.
Truth teller/ugly I don’t use at all because of cheatiness.
Everything else is worse than stat upgrades (Str>Int>Dex>Per for melee or Int>Per>Dex>Str for ranged). I don’t take any skills at all, leaving only profession freebies.
The absolute favorite? Savant. Since my skills end up at 10+ anyway, and Savant just sounds cool.
Truth Teller and Heavy Sleeper because those I don’t mind having in a Mary Sue character.
Of the positive ones, most favorites are Strong back, because I’m always straining under the weight, and Addiction Resistance because alcohol and drugs are the best morale boosters plus I like Ethanol Burner. Mmm, spiced mead…
Stylish and parkour expert, by far.
I cant remember playing a character that doesn’t have 12/12 traits. A set I find very effective is:
Disease resistant
Fast healer - this will save your life in the first week
Fast learner - a great trait to have from start to endgame
Fast reader - I use books a lot but this could be sacrificed for something more useful
Packmule - extremely useful if you play a nomad on foot and for looting
Parkour expert - a noticeable advantage early but less useful later
Addictive personality - I only ever use drugs for installing CBMs and stuff
Animal discord - food walking right up to you is great if you can defend yourself from it
Heavy sleeper - as others have said this can be pretty useful
Lightweight - not a problem if you don’t use drugs often
Poor hearing - your hearing is still pretty good
Sleepy - this has actually helped me sometimes
Strong scent - only attracts predators who aren’t a problem once you get armor
Ugly - kind of cheating because I play without NPCs
Alpha mutagen can remove most of those negatives with negligible downsides even if you don’t cross the threshold and they don’t cause any serious trouble if you cant get rid of them.
Schizophrenic: Apart from randomly screaming, and annoyance during crafting, this trait gives me 5 free points.
Fragile: Gives me a reason to think before fighting that hulk with bare hands.
Shaolin Adept: Dragon Style with a lot of INT and STR, even on a hard build, is awesome.