Wiki Guides - Skill training guides

[Benedict]

Hi everyone!

I’ve got a few weeks off (one of the perks of teaching) and I was looking for a little project. I was thinking of putting together some simple guides on the wiki for intermediate players, advising them on the best way to train various skills.

I was thinking they could follow a set format, listing necessary tools, skill books, and a set of options for advancing each skill’s level. Ideally, these options would be listed as fast or efficient, so that players can make an informed choice about the best way to train (e.g. it’s faster to train fabrication by crafting shoulder straps from lvl 1 to 2, but more efficient in terms of resources to repeatedly craft and dismantle chairs).

If anyone has recommendations for good ways to train the various skills (crafting and combat), list them below and I’ll start putting the guides together in a few days

[DeWolf]

Well on the drawing board I just posted to someone that one can train their mechanics skill by repeatedly prying open closed wooden doors. All you need is a pipe a means of hammering said pipe into a makeshift crowbar and a door that is pryable and most importantly of all for this method patience as it is slow and tedious like you would not believe but it is a sure way to train mechanics to as far as I can tell any level that doesn’t require any other resources other than food and drink.

[Benedict]

Nice! That’s a great example of an efficient option

[DeWolf]

Nice! That’s a great example of an efficient option

It’s only efficient in materials and the amount of skill required to start everything else it is rather inefficient at.

[_k1]

My autohotkey macro for makeshift crowbar prying door:

F11::
face = 6
loop 50{
Send, +a
Sleep, 100
Send, %face%
Sleep, 500
Send, +c
Sleep, 100
Send, %face%
Sleep, 500
}
Send, +
Sleep, 100
Send, 3
Sleep, 100
Return

Wield a crowbar, stand west to the door, and press f11.

[Benedict]

[quote=“Benedict, post:3, topic:14110”]Nice! That’s a great example of an efficient option

It’s only efficient in materials and the amount of skill required to start everything else it is rather inefficient at.[/quote]

Fair point. If anyone can think of a better word than “efficient” to describe a method which uses fewer resources but takes longer, I’ll definitely use it.

[DeWolf]

Another note and I was rather disappointed when I figured this out but you get the same amount of experience for crafting one item as you do when bulk crafting. The moral of the story don’t bulk craft to train skills at least in my experience it doesn’t work.

[deoxy]

Another note and I was rather disappointed when I figured this out but you get the same amount of experience for crafting one item as you do when bulk crafting. The moral of the story don’t bulk craft to train skills at least in my experience it doesn’t work.

Unless you are wanting to train NPCs also, then bulk craft exactly two at a time.

[Bill_Chompski]

I remember seeing somewhere that you can really grind your computers skill by hacking eyebots. I mean, you’d need the hackerman laptop though, and I’m not sure just how easy that is to make. Not very, I think.

[DeWolf]

I remember seeing somewhere that you can really grind your computers skill by hacking eyebots. I mean, you’d need the hackerman laptop though, and I’m not sure just how easy that is to make. Not very, I think.

I think you do need decent computer skills and the hack pro software to make it + battery power. Although I think you may have misread it I am pretty sure you don’t hack the eye bots but rather the robots that spawn when they take your picture.

[Mantar]

If anyone can think of a better word than “efficient” to describe a method which uses fewer resources but takes longer, I’ll definitely use it.

I’d call it miserly. Like that guy who hung wet paper towels to dry so he wouldn’t have to buy a new roll, it’s cheap with resources (money) but lavish with the spare time.

[DemAvalon]

I trained my unarmed skill a bit by attacking an amebic mold, so I imagine that if you encounter one, equip the weakest weapon of the category that you want to train and just go to town on it, they are not aggressive and won’t fight back, I also thought of the idea of equipping a really strong suit of armor (plate mail) and fighting a shogoth, since they regenerate, if you have a piece of armor they cannot get through you could easily train your weapon skill and melee (I haven’t tested this but I imagine they can’t beat power armor, not sure if the plate is enough tough…)

[DeWolf]

I trained my unarmed skill a bit by attacking an amebic mold, so I imagine that if you encounter one, equip the weakest weapon of the category that you want to train and just go to town on it, they are not aggressive and won’t fight back, I also thought of the idea of equipping a really strong suit of armor (plate mail) and fighting a shogoth, since they regenerate, if you have a piece of armor they cannot get through you could easily train your weapon skill and melee (I haven’t tested this but I imagine they can’t beat power armor, not sure if the plate is enough tough…)

Also probably good for training dodging.

[Azrad]

If you got the dielectric capacitance system bionic, or anything that’ll protect your survivor from electricity - plus a gas mask for smoke protection, I found that training melee skills (and perhaps ranged combat as well) can be rather easy by farming police and riot bots.

Punch a vending machine, wait for the eye bots, pose for their camera, and wait for the other bots to come. They got a tazer attack and a tear gas weapon, both of which can be protected against rather easily.

[Benedict]

Ideas for farming combat skills are good here. Thanks guys.

Anyone got any ideas for getting around focus limitations? I find that letting a weak monster attack you to train dodge is highly limited by focus and almost no better than simply engaging in normal combat.

[KiBoy]

Not sure what you can do about focus tbh.

Start as a spiritual gourmand cannibal and carry human-made food around? The problem would be getting enough though…

As for the guide, don’t forget to mention how lethal and easy to train Throwing is.

Throwing Sticks which require 1 survival ( and 1 fabrication ) to craft only require some wood and a cutting tool. In return, at 0 throwing skill a headshot will deal about 20 damage with 8/8/8/8 character, which means 4-5 throws to fall a normal tier zombie.

At 5 throwing which my character currently has, the damage jumps to around 40-45 on headshot. I don’t even need obstacles, I can weaken a small group of zeds enough that 90% of the time the headshot at 1 distance will kill them.

Another good thing about throwing is you can wear highly encumbering ( read: good armor ) clothes as long as your hands, arms and eyes are low.

As for the cons, 30 throwing sticks weigh over 17 kg and have 3.75 volume, but this can be mitigated by a shopping cart.

tl;dr
Throwing early game is low-cost, low-risk, high-reward if used properly.

[DeWolf]

Not only that but unlike archery you have a 100% chance of retrieving your thrown weapons. Unless obviously they explode.

[Benedict]

[quote=“KiBoy, post:16, topic:14110”]Not sure what you can do about focus tbh.

Start as a spiritual gourmand cannibal and carry human-made food around? The problem would be getting enough though…

As for the guide, don’t forget to mention how lethal and easy to train Throwing is.

Throwing Sticks which require 1 survival ( and 1 fabrication ) to craft only require some wood and a cutting tool. In return, at 0 throwing skill a headshot will deal about 20 damage with 8/8/8/8 character, which means 4-5 throws to fall a normal tier zombie.

At 5 throwing which my character currently has, the damage jumps to around 40-45 on headshot. I don’t even need obstacles, I can weaken a small group of zeds enough that 90% of the time the headshot at 1 distance will kill them.

Another good thing about throwing is you can wear highly encumbering ( read: good armor ) clothes as long as your hands, arms and eyes are low.

As for the cons, 30 throwing sticks weigh over 17 kg and have 3.75 volume, but this can be mitigated by a shopping cart.

tl;dr
Throwing early game is low-cost, low-risk, high-reward if used properly.[/quote]

This is really good stuff, but might go a little beyond the remit of my guides. I’m looking purely at how to train skills, rather than their relative effectiveness.

The stuff about crafting sharp sticks is smart, though. An example of efficient gameplay (minimal risk, but less “grindy” than some faster methods like chucking endless pebbles for maximum xp gain)

[Rot]

Trying listening to music while training (actual MP3 player item) it helps with maintaining focus levels so you can train longer. Problem is obviously batteries, but thankfully they don’t eat them up too fast.

Of course you can mutate and acquire apex predator which negates combat focus drain. To get this is pretty resource intensive, plus you need to break a threshold to get it.

[DeWolf]

[quote=“Rot, post:19, topic:14110”]Trying listening to music while training (actual MP3 player item) it helps with maintaining focus levels so you can train longer. Problem is obviously batteries, but thankfully they don’t eat them up too fast.

Of course you can mutate and acquire apex predator which negates combat focus drain. To get this is pretty resource intensive, plus you need to break a threshold to get it.[/quote]
Wait you don’t need to break threshold?