I tried using the nodachi with 11 strength and it was not pretty. Every once in a while I would fumble and lose a bunch of turns, and it was getting scary.
How much strength is necessary so that you never fumble with it? I couldn’t find this information anywhere.
I realized I should mention I am not playing the nightly.
The Nodachi is (for a sword) relatively lightweight, it’s skill (Cutting skill) that helps with your ability to not lose the weapon while using it, level 3 seemed to be enough for me. I usually play at 10 strength.
That’s the thing, I heard about the “losing your weapon” thing, but that never happened to me. My cutting and melee skill and pretty high, both are over 6.
I don’t lose the weapon, it remains with me. What I lose are turns, as if I was paralyzed.
I figured it was due to my strength, but I could be wrong.
I’m not currently at home, to I can’t check the exact message that I get, but in a couple of hours I’ll post it.
You’re not wearing a bunch of clothes? Or fighting a shocker zombie? Or evil murderous deadly evil bad triffids?
I got it the first time fighting a squirrel. 
And then a couple more times against regular zombies, where it got scary.
My torso encumbrance was probably 3, so a bit but not TOO much of a penalty. Could that be it?
Nothing like that ever happened with my broadsword.
[quote=“Mamalque, post:5, topic:3653”]I got it the first time fighting a squirrel. And then a couple more times against regular zombies, where it got scary.
My torso encumbrance was probably 3, so a bit but not TOO much of a penalty. Could that be it?
Nothing like that ever happened with my broadsword.[/quote]
Torso Encumberance and Arm encumberance effect melee if I remember right… Probably more, and carried weight and volume too… I think…
…maybe
[quote=“Mamalque, post:3, topic:3653”]That’s the thing, I heard about the “losing your weapon” thing, but that never happened to me. My cutting and melee skill and pretty high, both are over 6.
I don’t lose the weapon, it remains with me. What I lose are turns, as if I was paralyzed.[/quote]
This is what happens when your weapon gets stuck in a monster and you do have enough strength to pull it free. As for reducing it, the only thing to do is increase your (weapon of choice) skill, which should make your weapons less likely to stick IIRC.
Torso Encumbrance 3 reduces melee and dodge skill by 3, and also increases the “moves per attack” by +60. This means your nodachi was using 256 moves per attack on top of possibly getting stuck, which would require you to pull it free.
Best case scenario you were spending 500+ moves on the attack, meaning any zombie nearby would get 5 free moves on you.
Lighter than a zweihander, sure. Might want to adjust the weight if it’s too low, it’s still a two-handed sword.
It seems to already have been mentioned but always make sure your torso encumbrance isn’t negating your melee skill, otherwise you’ll fumble an awful lot, ontop of taking longer to make each attack. If it still happens, I’d suggest grabbing the Deft perk in character creation. Means when you do swing n’a miss you don’t suffer all that much for it. Even with 12 str with low melee skills I see my cutting weapons get lodged in quite a lot, but they always get pulled back out.
My character’s strength is 16, if I remember right (muscle augmentation; hells yeah), but my cutting skill is at 20-something. Once I got my nodachi, I never had it get stuck, not even when fighting wood/metal/bone.
Sorry it took me so long to get back. The exact message I get is: “You miss and stumble with the momentum.”
This was against a wolf spider, with melee at 10, cutting at 8, and still an encumbrance of 3 on the torso because I can’t live without that rucksack. It took a while for it to happen again, and the spider only got one free hit, so I guess it’s not as bad as I thought.
I guess it has to do with me missing? I’m kicking myself for having purified a Deft mutation I got some time ago while I was aiming for Road-Runner.
Beast Mutagen can get you deft back, as well as insanely strong and furry tail.
Yeah, just imagine that after you miss, your sword keeps on swinging, and brings you off balance, so you have to take some time before you can swing again.
I don’t have robust genetics, sadly. I understand getting those traits mean going from stubby tail all the way to furry tail and from strong all the way to insanely strong, right? I would accumulate far too many negative mutations before I got them. I already had fleet-footed from character creation (should’ve picked robust genetics instead but oh well, this is my first successful character, I figured mutations would be harder to handle and I was having trouble not dying from thirst), so that’s why I went for road-runner. I’ll have to leave that for a next character.
I don’t have robust genetics, sadly. I understand getting those traits mean going from stubby tail all the way to furry tail and from strong all the way to insanely strong, right? I would accumulate far too many negative mutations before I got them. I already had fleet-footed from character creation (should’ve picked robust genetics instead but oh well, this is my first successful character, I figured mutations would be harder to handle and I was having trouble not dying from thirst), so that’s why I went for road-runner. I’ll have to leave that for a next character.[/quote]
Beast Mutagen, not normal mutagen.
I don’t have robust genetics, sadly. I understand getting those traits mean going from stubby tail all the way to furry tail and from strong all the way to insanely strong, right? I would accumulate far too many negative mutations before I got them. I already had fleet-footed from character creation (should’ve picked robust genetics instead but oh well, this is my first successful character, I figured mutations would be harder to handle and I was having trouble not dying from thirst), so that’s why I went for road-runner. I’ll have to leave that for a next character.[/quote]
Beast Mutagen, not normal mutagen.
I know. I meant the disadvantages that the Beast Mutagen causes. I don’t want to get Howler, Light Sensitive, Smelly, Carnivore, Fast Metabolism, and other such disadvantages trying to get Fluffy Tail and Insanely Strong, considering I have to go through various stages before I get them. The odds are not good without Robust Genetics, as I understand it. Unless you’re telling me you can get Insanely Strong without going through Strong and Extremely Strong.
I don’t have robust genetics, sadly. I understand getting those traits mean going from stubby tail all the way to furry tail and from strong all the way to insanely strong, right? I would accumulate far too many negative mutations before I got them. I already had fleet-footed from character creation (should’ve picked robust genetics instead but oh well, this is my first successful character, I figured mutations would be harder to handle and I was having trouble not dying from thirst), so that’s why I went for road-runner. I’ll have to leave that for a next character.[/quote]
Beast Mutagen, not normal mutagen.
I know. I meant the disadvantages that the Beast Mutagen causes. I don’t want to get Howler, Light Sensitive, Smelly, Carnivore, Fast Metabolism, and other such disadvantages trying to get Fluffy Tail and Insanely Strong, considering I have to go through various stages before I get them. The odds are not good without Robust Genetics, as I understand it. Unless you’re telling me you can get Insanely Strong without going through Strong and Extremely Strong.
I’m pretty sure robust genetics doesn’t even affect flavored mutagens. Rather I’m saying that the “negatives” of beast mutagen are a VERY small price to pay for the benefits.
Light sensitive is a big problem, still.
Having the perk Robut genetic help a lot when you want a “good” mutation, because it’s less likely you will get a “bad” mutation whenever it could happen.
One thing you could do, but cost some time :
Pick a lot of mutagen (craft), and purifer (not hard to found, lab).
Do so you can craft mutagen into beast mutagen, then drink untill you get all what you want.
Then pick a purifer : if it take away light sensitive, go with it. If it take away other annoying stuff, re drink. And if it take away strenght & co, pick another beast mutagen, and go step purifer.
About the strengh mutation,
saying there is 4 rank of this perk : You need 1 to get to 2, 2 to get to 3, etc.
If game pick 3 and …
You have 0 : you go at 1.
You have 1 : You go at 2.
You have 2 : you go at 3.
You have 3/4 : it won’t pick 3 in this case.
In case of tail, you need the base . same, if game pick stuffy tail, you will get base if you didn’t have it before. And if game pick another tail while you have fluffy, it will REMOVE your old tail for the new one.