I get how most of the skills increase.
First aid is one I’m not sure how it works. Does it give me xp when I use bandages/FA items, or only if I actually heal any HP with them? Could I gather tonnes of bandages and turn myself into a mummy for xp? Also, driving confuses me a bit. Is it based on distance traveled, average speed, dismount, or what actions specifically give XP for driving?
Also is it worth it to purposefully go out of my way to get my construction skill up past the 3 that is required for like every task?
[quote=“Elissia, post:1, topic:513”]I get how most of the skills increase.
First aid is one I’m not sure how it works. Does it give me xp when I use bandages/FA items, or only if I actually heal any HP with them? Could I gather tonnes of bandages and turn myself into a mummy for xp? Also, driving confuses me a bit. Is it based on distance traveled, average speed, dismount, or what actions specifically give XP for driving?
Also is it worth it to purposefully go out of my way to get my construction skill up past the 3 that is required for like every task?[/quote]
Okay, first to clear up something. Whenever you do nothing or just walk around doing nothing and your morale is above 0, you’ll start to get XP. Whenever you have XP, you can start to train a skill. So no matter how many times you apply a bandage or use a first aid kit, if you have no XP pooled up, then your first aid skill level won’t get any higher. As for the questions themselves…
Yup, every time you use a first aid or bandages, your skill level will go up (assuming you have the XP for it).
I once drove a car at full speed and afterwards a bicycle at around 5kph just to try this out some time ago. From my research, it looks like it’s based on distance traveled rather than speed.
There really are no benefits in getting your construction higher than a skill level of 3.
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.
Re leveling combat skills: Beehives are your friend for the Scarred Zombies. Slower and take less damage, so they’re safer and longer-lasting for combat training, especially if you like Unarmed.
(If you have mutation-based attacks, they’re based on Unarmed skill, so consider training it even if you don’t have Martial Arts Training.)