Yeah, that exp pool drops fast in any kind of combat. in melee combat You can drop about 300-400 exp onto a handful of zeds pretty easily because it ends up training more than one skill-- dodge, melee and your current class of melee weapon. also, handy tip-- find one zed, or kill all but one-- take off any encumbering clothing and let him take swings at you. most of the time he’ll miss and when he does hit bandage yourself up. Starting the game with a dodge of 4/5 can be insanely helpful. Dump a few hundred exp into it (200 should be enough.)
So a high morale is always handy-- Cigarettes (stat bonuses, morale bonus), recreational drugs, Mp3 players (bring some spare fyushun batts.) Good food and drink-- cooked meat and coke/apple cider etc.
Also when your exp pool drops to zero run back to your safehouse, eat, drink, smoke and read a book for a bit.
Reading increases your skills to a certain level (e.g under the hood can raise it to 3, Mechanical mastery can raise it to 5/6.) and most importantly skill gained from books doesn’t detract from your exp pool, allowing it to grow unhindered while you read. Most important books for the starting game would be the big book of first aid, under the hood, how to trap anything, pitching a tent (I think some of you devs have a rather freudian streak sometimes, ya’know.)
US weekly is good too-- it’s common, increases speech to 1 and increses your morale as well. Speech isn’t very useful, but it helps you con loot out of walking loot containe-- er… NPCs.
Try to do this in the early hours of the day-- or midday so you still have enough light to read and don’t end up with a few hundred exp left when you plan to go to sleep or raid a nearby house. (yeah, night raiding is possible too but I’m still a bit wary of doing it since you never know when a HULK with sound-supressing thermoptic camo has sniffed you out.
So far I’ve actually had pretty good luck night raiding garages and outlying bars/gunstores/mil surpluses.
