Uriel's Guide to Hellmoo
THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION, I'LL UPDATE IT WHENEVER THE FUCK I FEEL LIKE IT
This is a page of little tips and tricks that'll help you kick the fuck out of hellmoo, because why the fuck not.
Okay, let's talk builds. What build should I do? is probably one of the most common questions I hear because you dumbshits don't bother even trying to figure this crap out on your own. OKAY, FIRST STEP. What do you want to do with your hellmoo life? Most people just minmax to kill shit, but I find that INCREDIBLY FUCKING BORING, but w/e it's up to you. Let's talk weapons.
Contents
Weapons
Clubs : Pretty reliable, and some of its top weapons can be gotten for free off chumans or the punisher. Clubs only uses two stats for everything; damage is brawn, speed is reflex, and skill is brawn+reflex. This makes clubs one of the most versatile weapons for doing other shit since it leaves you more wiggle room with your stats. You can choose endurance as a third main stat and be a crazy fistfighter, you can pick cool and be great with guns or blades, or you can even go brains and be a brainy clubmaster. Also is amazing for people who want to headbutt crap. (please note that clubs have apparently been nerfed recently)
Blades : Not the fastest weapon by any means, but it's got some MEAN weapons, the penultimate example of which being the Shiver Sword, a weapon capable of doing over 40 slash damage in one hit. In any case, to be fuckamazing at blades, you need reflex and cool. Brawn adds a bit of damage, but unless you're using a springsteel or a kukri it wont show a whole ton. Most people go shiversword at the end, and if you have high skill it's got a crazy high random damage range, but the base damage is still low enough that on an unlucky roll your powered shiversword might fail to one-shot an orphan. High risk, high reward I guess. The springsteels scale amazingly well with brawn, and with good brawn you can put out over 17dps with one. However, the bruce is slow as FUCK, and the boss is a bit less accurate than most, so not ideal for taking on dodgy fuckers unless you can feint them. Or knock them out, might work well with headbutt. They also have recently gotten a lot of new weapons which rock.
Guns : Okay, guns are fuckin' mean. They pretty much ignore dodging, they have their own speedcaps, they usually do kickass damage, and fucking rifles have a custom stun called 'duck and weave' (which isn't as effective as it once was). This means with a sufficiently fast rifle, you can keep people from moving just by shooting at them. Also they can't be parried. Did I mention many armors are weak to bullets? Plus with different ammo types, you can do pretty much any kind of damage you want, including the all powerful wasting damage which ignores armor. For speed, you want some brawn, and for skill you want some cool and reflex. Due to them ignoring dodge, you don't need as much skill with guns to hit things, so you can actually safely dump cool as long as you boost it with bling and don't take too many muts that lower it. What's the downside to pistols and rifles? Well it takes some work to get started with them for one. They're probably the hardest weapon type to begin with, but endgame they're frightening. Also you need to actually buy ammo for them unless you can craft your own. If you run out of ammo, your weapon is useless since the game doesn't have gunbashing. Also you can't block, meaning you have to rely on your soaks and dodge to save your ass. Oh, and a bonus for pistols is that they're one handed so you can use your off hand for grabbing, smoking a joint, or dual wielding like some anime jackass.
Fists : Fists use brawn for damage, reflex for speed, and brawn and endurance for skill. Fist weapons are fast, do beat damage which can knock folks out, and have fairly easy to get weapons, namely knuckle busters and jawbreakers. Most people who go fists do so to murder and murder and murder some more, which generally means that they're not a very brainy group of people. Due to said murderific bit, fist players tend to go abom later on, which gives them the kickass claws and fangs weapon which is natural so they spawn with it and does radiation damage. For those not planning on joining the hordes of hideous mutant monsters, the main fist weapons are knuckle busters, jawbreakers, tesla gauntlets, and patas. Busters and jawbies are fairly similar, but jawbies scale less with brawn and are faster. However, if you have mad brawn and reflex, say like if you're a vampire/abom on drugs, knuckle busters will actually outdamage the harder to get and more expensive jawbreakers just by brawn scaling. If you're not the brawniest, teslas would be the way to go. They scale on skill most of all, and are actually kinda badass. Then we have the patas, which are basically shiver swords for fists. Yes, I just said that. Scary thought, I know. Downsides to fists are that they're mostly pc0, meaning they can't parry for shit. The pata completely ignores this, as it can parry any parryable weapon. The other downside is that there's not a wide variety of weapons as you go up in ranks until the end, so those knuckle busters of yours are gonna be around for a while.
Whips : Whips mostly scale just with skill, with the exception of the chain weapons, and skill is determined by senses and reflex. Yes, the same skills as dodge. What this means is that any high class whipper worth their salt is going to be insanely dodgy. If you can't feint them and don't have a gun, good luck with that. Now since whips are mostly determined by just two stats, this makes them a versatile weapon just like clubs. As one of the prime stats is senses, and craft runs on brains and senses, this is usually a favorite weapon of crafters. Alternately, making your third prime stat be endurance means you can be a magical elf wizard with focus abilities and use tons of drugs to be even crazier at whatever it is you do. Not sure what the drugs would be great for though besides being even more accurate and dodgy. The downside of whips is that there's not a wide variety of options endgame. You basically either go flashwhip or urumi, and before that you were probably using a flame chain. Another downside is the lack of pc2 weapons, meaning engame you're gonna be relying on your dodge more than your parrying to keep you from being dead.
Spears : Spears scale with brawn for bonus damage, reflex for speed, and endurance and reflex for skill. Also, they're almost all pc2, meaning they can parry everything but guns. If you go spears, you'll probably wind up using dual assegais, a garden weasel, a chainsaw lance, or a zap brannigan if you can manage one. Assegais are easy as hell to get endgame, free, and easily replaceable. If you want, you can basically wind up swimming in these in no time. Garden weasels are also free and can be gotten right outside freedom city. This means your weapons can be super easy to replace, unlike some other weapon classes. Chainsaw lances can be crafted or gotten for free, but to get them for free you need to drop Hawthorn, and he's kinda badass. However, so are chainsaw lances. If you're on drugs, you can probably get close to speedcapping a chainsaw lance, meaning you now have a fast as fuck pc2 weapon that deals bleed damage. Ouch. Some people roll with the zap brannigan, but that's a crazy ass weapon for crazy ass people. Let me be straight with you, unless you plan on playing hellmoo for a long time you're probably never going to own one of these. They are an ass to craft, and to use one effectively you need a true power adapter and a sack full of atomicells to keep the weapon charged. On the other hand, it scales very well with skill. The main advantages of spears are that all spears are at least pc1, and a bunch are pc2 meaning if you've got skill you're gonna parry like a prick. Also, you can use drugs almost like an abom due to your mad endurance, letting you get super fast and buff on top of any mutations you have. Downside is that you are basically reliant on those drugs to be super good, as spears are a bit slower than most. Note that your reliance on parrying means you could be in trouble if you ever find yourself in a situation where you can't.
Flails : HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! But seriously, if you're considering taking flails, you better be a gimmick character because these suck. Flails uses brawn and senses for skill, brawn for damage, and reflexes for speed. Flails are a pc- melee weapon, meaning that they can't be parried or dodged, but you can't parry with them in return. This would be kickass if any good flails existed. They don't. Most flails that aren't custom also can get stuck in their target. What this means is that you have to stop swinging to yank your flail out of your opponent's flesh, which leaves you pretty vulnerable until you do. I've been told that custom flails don't get stuck, but I've not researched that much. The 'saving grace' of flails is that you can make a custom flail out of basically anything. The raw of a custom flail is equal to the flail's weight, which means that while you can make a flail out of a refrigerator, that flail's going to ask you for 60 raw to use it with any semblance of accuracy. People go on about electronics workbench flails, which weigh 15kg so they're raw 15 meaning they're usable if you somehow get 15 raw, but I doubt you will. You can also make flails out of weapons, but the damage they do is half the damage of the weapon in question if it had no skill applied and had no mods on it. Chainsaw lance flails aren't terrible, and a giant wrench flail might be okay. Upside of flails is they're pc-, meaning they hit like guns without the need for ammo. Downside is that even if you hit you're probably not going to do much damage through your opponent's soaks since flails don't have much damage output
Science : If you actually need this guide, you're not ready for science. If guns are hard to start with, science is a fucking diamond. The only readily available science weapon is the proton pack, and that normally just does EMP damage which only hurts ghosts and robots. Other science weapons have to be crafted, which is a bitch, their ammo has to be custom crafted, which is that bitch's bigger and bitchier sister, and all science weapons have a chance of exploding violently and killing you if you fail your science roll hard enough, which is some other horrible metaphor. On the other hand, if you somehow manage to get good at science, you can kill things really nicely. Science weapons are pc- too, meaning that dodgy fuckers and blockers also have to fear you. Plus to be good at science you need to be good at brains meaning you can feint. On the other hand, anyone who's really fast and folks with hooligan can probably murder you. Also, since most science weapons are gimmicky nonsense and disruptors can't aim anymore (THANKS, ADMINS), basically the only science weapon worth a damn in your day-to-day murdering is the simple yet classy proton pack (ectoblast ammunition not included).
Medic : Fuck it, why not? Medic now has a weapon (just the one though), the delightful little sonic scalpel. This baby is one handed so you can dual wield, and does bleed damage which is mostly unsoakable. Downside is that it's PC0, so anything can parry it, and if you come across something that DOES manage to soak bleed, you've got nothing to fall back on.
Throwing : Uses brawn and senses. You can throw axes at people. Axes can be gotten for free from the fire station. That's really all you need to know. You're not gonna be able to block though. Used to be popular among some griefers.
Now we've talked weapons. And throwing. Throwing isn't really a weapon skill. So now you've picked your weapon. "Okay, but what else should I tag? What else is good? Tell me tell me tell me!" Fuck you. Tagging a skill makes you start with one raw in it and makes buying further raws cheaper. This means you should only tag skills you plan on taking to raw 10+. If you're gonna be a crafter, go ahead and tag craft and scavenge. Otherwise, figure it out your own damn self. Other okay tags might be hack or lockpick if you want to be a thief, or medic if you're not gonna be brainy but still want to be able to heal yourself well. Poor tag choices include appraise, fuck, sneak, torture, and fish. As for your stats, figure that shit out yourself, it's not hard.
Whatever, now let's talk grinding. Don't forget to use the grind <skill> command to grind better. You can only grind to 6 raw. After that you need to go find someone to teach you shit.
Grinding
Weapons : Grinding a weapon is fuckin' easy. Go kill shit with your weapon. Check your weapon's raw, as long as your raw is within the range listed you'll get ip from using it just fine. This is fucking elementary, if you needed me to say this do us a favor and come back when you're actually 18.
Scavenge : Skin all those fuckers you kill while grinding weapons. Alternately, find a tile with a secret door, find the door, leave the tile, go back, repeat.
Throwing : Throwing isn't a weapon, remember? You can grind it by throwing shit at npcs to kill them, sure, but you can also find a buddy who will let you spend hours in a public area chucking cigarettes at their face. Just make sure they set up a trigger or something to not murder you. Alternately just buy a few boxes of condoms and chuck them into the next tile over for a few days. This grinds pretty slow.
Dodge : Get someone to chuck cigarettes at you and try not to kill each other. It takes forfuckingever, so set up triggers and go watch a movie or something. Alternately just run away from people a lot, that does a dodge check.
Chemistry : Go make some hootch. Then take that hootch and make some molotovs.
Bombs : Use said molotovs. As a less dangerous option, you can also use firecrackers from the black guy who sells boxes of them in Gangland. To eliminate the danger entirely, just grenade shit in the orphanage. The bombs fizzle in there, so you won't die.
Hack : Go find a computer and hack it. A lot. There's one in gangland.
Locksmith : Go find a keyed lock and pick it. A lot. There's one in slagtown.
Pilot : Go drive a boat around for several hours. Bring extra fuel. Boats are bought in Botany Bay, which you get to via plane, boat, or climbing. If you have no friends, have fun in the mountains.
Climb : Brucie's gym and Rolf's gym both have climbing walls. Go climb those for a few hours. There's also a bridge in crater rim you can jump off of, then try to climb back up to.
Ride : Buy a skateboard, go wild. You can only grind to 1 raw with a skateboard, after that you need a motorcycle. Have fun peeling your mangled face off the pavement.
Repair : Find a public area with no cameras and a piece of furniture. Break furniture. Fix furniture. Repeat.
Quickdraw : Stand in the street drawing your weapon and stowing it repeatedly. Pretend you're Clint Eastwood.
Appraise : Go appraise shit in a store a lot. Be sure to have some stress reduction with you. Alternately just drop a couch in public and admire your pants for hours.
Medic : Buy a massage table in Weezer, find a volunteer, massage them until they have no bones.
Track : Find someone who doesn't move much, stand one tile away, track them repeatedly. You can also track people through their apartment doors.
Swim : Walk a lot in the surf up on north beach. You can't sink, so there's no drowning involved. Be sure to stay hydrated because dying of thirst while surrounded by water is just sad. Hilarious, but sad. Watch out for lobsters at night.
Sneak : Get some stars, walk around the city a lot and try not to die. Alternately just cuss a lot in front of cameras and hope they don't notice.
Fuck : Have a lot of sex. How is this news. If you have an orgazmorator, just use it to become horny and wank a lot.
Torture : Tie someone to the bench in hellfire, menace them with a cigarette a lot. Alternately just chuck a ton of lit cigs at people.
Focus : Drop a hottub in public, sit in hottub, spew constantly for six days.
Fish : Go fishing. No shit.
Craft : Remember all those skins you got while grinding scavenge? Probably? Okay, go turn all those into leather berets. Take your time, you can only get 1ip ever 15 seconds. Done with that? Then just improv makeshift with beret. Alternately, go to jail, mine up a bunch of ore, put ore in license plate press, make plates, then, improv pick with plate. This way is arguably easier and faster, but also might get you raped and killed in prison. You can also engrave shit, then turn the shit you engraved into new shit and engrave that too. This works nicely when combined with the previously mentioned methods.
SCIENCE : Go play with a simulator for a while or shoot things with a proton pack. You need 1 raw to sim. Alternately, get sent to the Cube and calculate where you are a ton. There's a distinct lack of clone updates in there, though, so try not to die.
Persuade : Go milk a fuckton of cows out in crater rim. Alternately, practice scamming fuckers around town. (this may get you arrested). It's also possible to grind persuade by using the insult <NPC> command.
Wrestle : Go grab orphans and strip them naked. Be sure not to stress out. People grind this?
Makin' Cash
Now then, let's get to something actually interesting. MONEY. I like money. You probably like money too. But how to get money? For a newb, the easiest way is just to join a corp. In a corp you can do contracts for cash. Pretty simple. If you're a crazy murder machine, this is basically your main source of money.
Most newbs will start out with the eugenic cleansing contract once they've got themselves some weapon skill and some clothing. This usually involves murdering crackheads in the crack mansion, but if you feel lucky and have okay beat resists gear you can fight old people. Just watch out for the war vet, he's senile and has a rifle. Later on you can move on to crackfiends, who pay out more.
But how about if you don't want to join a corp/do contracts? One way is to do jobs. Some NPCs around town will pay you to do various things for money and xp, such as that nice old man Satan paying you to grind up corpses into food to eat. Look around or ask other players for tips on finding new jobs. Another way is to sell shit. If you're a crafter, you can sell items that you make from the flesh of your enemies for some extra cash, and speaking of flesh of your enemies, here's a tip for easy money.
If in a corp, get a beachcomber contract from the shop out in shoreline. At night, head to north beach. At night in north beach, the lobstros come out to play. You can kill them for some nice money from the contract, then butcher them for their meats. Take those meats and store them. Now head out to the chemical plant and kill the tuskers, butchering tusker bellies. Take those bellies and make bacon, then cook the bacon with the lobstro meat to make bacon wrapped lobstro. If you sell those to the right vendor you can get something like 1200 cash per lobstro you kill. Easy peasy.
Let's say you're a thief, you like lockpicking and B&Es. There's NPC hotels around the city that you can bust into and steal their TVs and other things, then sell them for cashy money. If you've got a bit more skill there's a place in corpclave you can break into for more expensive loot, too. Try not to get caught or you'll get stars, and the cops here don't accept surrenders.
Gettin' a House
Through liberal application of contracts, jobs, and selling shit, you should very soon have enough cash to start that meth lab you've always dreamed of.
But where to put that meth lab you've always dreamed of? In your house, naturally. Let's get you one. There are various housing zones around the city, though the most popular are the Bradbury in slagtown, and Sweaty Palms and the Helliday in freedom city proper. In gangland there's also the astral complex and broham gardens, but we don't talk about those. In any case, to rent a place you'll need some startup cash and a monthly rent which will be automatically deducted from your account come payment day. Out of the places I just mentioned, the Helliday Inn is the most pricey, with a monthly rent of 1000 bux. Might sound like a lot to you if you're new, but it's really not. However, the housing complexes are frequently full up since there's limited room space. So how do you get one?
Time for another of Uri's tricks. This one is how I got my first place at the helliday when it was full up. If you've got tradenet on (tradenet on, duh) every now and then you'll see an announcement from an NPC named Sargo. This sometimes means that someone just got evicted, meaning you have a chance to get yourself a house if you act fast. Using Sargo as a signal is how I got my first place at the helliday and a corp HQ in corpclave.
So now you've got some skills ground up, you've gotten some cash, and you've got a house. Aww, look, you're all grown up. And I didn't even hold your hand the whole way, maybe you learned a bit about actually relying on yourself instead of asking others to spoon feed you everything, you fuckin' babies.
So a couple of you pissheads were all, "Uriel! Help me make a build like the awesome goddess of cool that you are!" Flattery will get you everywhere, so here's a few builds for you.
Brainy!Clubs
So clubs uses only two stats for speed, skill, and damage. That means you've got a spare stat for expanding your shenanigans potential. Now you could make that third stat senses to be more dodgy and be a straight combat focused boring fuck, but that's dull and boring and piss on anyone who says this game's only about combat. So, brains it is! Note that this build also lets you use guns as a second or primary weapon if you like since guns don't need as much tohit as melee weapons.
Tagged Skills : Clubs, Craft, Scavenge, Science (alternately, swap craft and scavenge for hack and lockpick) Clubs should be obvious, it's your main weapon. Craft is the standard brain skill and lets you make badass shit for you and your little friends and crappy coworkers. Scavenge lets you find crap to make more crap with. Science is just goddamn awesome, letting you make shit like portalguns and sim up new recipes. Since you're brawny, you can even effectively use SCIENCE weapons, which are pretty awesome. If you replace Clubs with Guns, this works as a guns build as well.
Starting stats : Reflex 14, Brawn 14, Brain 10 But Uriel, I want my 14 in in brains! Well, be my guest. Just note that right out of the gate you'll have to do more combat than brainy stuff, so you'll have a tougher beginning. Higher brawn also lets you wear more armor and carry more shit.
Gymming The first thing you should gym is your reflexes. Probably shouldn't do this 'til you're done with your grinding since higher skill equals a tougher grind. "But brains!" Reflexes is more useful early on. After that you have a choice, you can gym Brawn up to be more combat effective, not a bad choice in this game, or you can gym brains to work on your craft and shit earlier. The choice is yours. Note that if you go brawn first, you'll get to start working on brains around 60k xp or so.
Mutations Like gymming, I'd say hold off on stat changing muts til you're done with your grinding. There's no set mutation list I'm going to give you, so be clever. Here's a few tips and shit though.
Brute Strength vs Swollen Brain : This is a choice between being more combat effective and easier brain shit. Personally I think that brute may be more helpful in the endgame, but earlier on swollen will help you with your crafting and shit. If you want to get swollen, then demute later or something, up to you.
Leapfrog/Flight vs Clair : This build likely won't let you have good focus. Leapfrog and Flight don't run off focus, though, they run off brawn and reflex, reflex for the rolls and brawn so you can fly while carrying more shit. Helpful for getting around, but you could also get Clair to be able to see in the dark or whatever, though projecting won't work all that well. You might also consider clair if you go with Lithodermis for synergy with the next mutation option. Of course you could just fly a plane somewhere and take clair, but if you want to fight chupacabras then flight helps. Otherwise you'll need a jetpack.
Hooligan : Didn't think of this with a brains build, did you? Guess what, with your high brawn (and possibly lithodermis if you forewent flight) your headbutts will hurt like hell. Go have fun with it, you rugby bastard.
That's about all there is to say about this in a basic outline form. Have fun changing how the world sees smart people.
Brainy!Blades
Blades is normally seen as the domain of combat specific characters. Piss on that, let's make a blade user who's smart and shit. This build focuses on blades skill, meaning your endgame weapon is the motherfucking shiver sword, which runs on skill to do massive hurts. Considering you'll be smart, you can make your own swords and atomicells for a power adapter to run the damn thing.
Tagged Skills : Blades, Craft, Scavenge, Science (alternately, swap craft and scavenge for hack and lockpick) Blades is your weapon, craft is how you make shit, scavenge finds you bits to make shit with, and SCIENCE is goddamn SCIENCE for crafting and simming. Note that since you're not going to be brawny, SCIENCE weapons and guns will be slow.
Starting Stats : Reflex 14, Cool 14, Brains 10 "But I want more brains in the beginning!" Bully for you. By all means, do so, but your blades skill wont be as high. Less weapon skill may make the early game tougher, but it's doable.
Gymming Gym your shit after you grind or the grind will be harder. First gym your reflexes, then your cool. This'll make you more dangerous, which is useful. "But I want brains first!" Then do brains first, I'm not your damn mother. Just note that if you gym whichever you put the other 14 into first, you'll be able to start working on the last stat by about 60k or so. However, one of those two skills will end at 17 instead of 18, and the better one for that is brains imo.
Mutations I'm not going to make a list for you, but I'll mention a few things about some muts you probably will want to consider. Swollen Brain : This mutation is pretty useful, you'll be trading 1 point of cool for 3 points of brains. However, this may throw your blades skill permanently off a point if it makes your cool and reflexes not both be odd or even numbers. Remember, for the best skill point the two stats involved should either be odd or even, but not one odd and one even.
Enigma : Boosts your cool. That's great! However you can't be diagnosed (not that big a deal) or analyzed (a much bigger deal), and you can no longer brag (the BIGGEST GODDAMN DEAL OF ALL). If you feel those extra two points of cool or hiding your muts is worth getting stuck with mentals (unless you're buddy buddy with an empath) and being unable to strut your braggy stuff, then go for it.
Fuck Machine : May be harder to use if not focus-y, and let's face it, your focus won't be amazing. Could help you control your horniness to maintain your blade skill or to increase your carrying capacity, and the +1 cool fixes the -1 from swollen brains.
That should help you figure things out well enough. Have fun swordfighting.
Brainy!Whips
This is what most people will tell you is your best option if you're playing brains. Whatever. It's really not, and they're just unimaginative, but if you really want to, here's a quick thing on it. For a more 'in depth' guide, Makoto did one somewhere on this damn wiki.
Tagged Skills : Whips, Craft, Scavenge, Science (alternately, swap craft and scavenge for hack and lockpick)
Whips is your weapon, craft is how you make shit for you and your 'buddies', scav for finding shit to make fancier shit with, and science for making those awesome gizmos like portalguns and shit.
Starting Stats : Reflex 14, Senses 14, Brains 10 If you want to start with 14 brains instead of 14 senses, be my guest. Works either way, but I think brains requires less points overall.
Gymming Gym your reflex first, then your senses or brains. If you gym the one you put 14 into, it'll hit 18 and let you start on your 10 at around 60k xp or so.
Mutations I'm not giving you a mutation list to do, but I'll mention some stuff you might want to consider.
Focus Muts With your high senses, you'll be alright at focus. Not quite as good as a build using endurance as well as senses, but better than your average prick. This means you can get mutations like screech and writhing smoke and use them effectively.
Junkrat Good for crafting, and gives you some senses. The minus to cool isn't much, but it may have a slight impact on your stress gains, so consider that if you're rolling with focus. Honestly though, the change isn't that large.
Blink It's goddamn blink. If you can get over 30 focus, take this. Seriously.
Hideous Freak This is a game changing mutation. You'll no longer be able to live in FC or shop there, and the cops will murder you on sight. You also can only have 2 implants (or 4 if you micromanage your bleach intake). On the other hand, you get stat buffs, and here's the big deal, reverse stress gains. This means that using focus muts actually destresses you. If you're planning on using a lot of focus muts, you may want this, but it'll make it tougher to get your supplies because shopping.
Have fun whipping shit, you dirty bastard.
Brainy!Medic
I know what you're thinking. "But Uriel, what the shit do you mean brains and medic?" Guess what, sonic scalpels are medical weapons now! That means that medic is capable of being weaponized. BADASS. Just remember that scalpels are PC0, so anyone can block you. Better get that stat total HIGH. Let's get unconventional.
Tagged Skills : Medic, Science, Craft, Scavenge (alternately, swap craft and scavenge for hack and lockpick) Medic and SCIENCE are gonna be your weapon skills. AWESOME. Craft is for making shit, and scav is for getting shit to make shit with.
Starting Stats : Reflex 14, Brains 14, Brawn 10 "Uriel, why am I doing anything with brawn?" Because SCIENCE weapons work like guns in that brawn is used for speed. Any other stupid questions? No? GOOD.
Gymming Guess what? You get to gym your brains first. Then, depending on if you want to focus on Scalpels (medic) or SCIENCE, either gym reflex or brawn next. You actually only need about 15 brawn to speedcap a proton pack, so monitor it and swap to another stat when you notice it hit 5 speed.
Mutations Once again, not giving a list, but discussing a few.
Swollen Brain I shouldn't need to tell you to take this.
Flight vs Clair Flight will let you fly around like you have a jetpack without having a jetpack, and being somewhat brawny will let you fly with more weight. On the other hand, you're brainy so you can fly a plane. Clair lets you see in the dark. Pick one or neither, up to you.
Hooligan If you pump a lot into brawn, this can work very well for you (assuming you have the wrestle to grab an opponent). Works even better if you forgo flight and get lithodermis.
Have fun with this unconventional brains build if you try it.
Brainy!Guns
Sweet fuckin' jesus, this one got requested a ton. FINE, HERE. GOD. Brainy guns, knock yourselves out.
Tagged Skills : Gun of Choice, Craft, Scavenge, Science (alternately, swap craft and scavenge for hack and lockpick) But Uriel, I want both kinds of guns! Then drop scav or something if you're that anal about it. You're gonna want science, though. Science weapons are BOSS and you'll have the brawn to wield that shit.
Starting stats : Reflex 14, Brain 14, Brawn 10 Don't even bother with cool. Just wear bling. You don't need to minmax as hard to hit shit with guns, after all. If you want to make brains minor and go rifles straight up, you could swap brains and brawn. Remember though, Hammies only need about 12 brawn or so to speedcap when modded. The brains will help you craft and shit early on.
Gymming Reflex gives you more to hit and damage with guns, brains does that for SCIENCE weapons, brawn gives speed to both. YOU DECIDE. Takes about 15 brawn to cap a proton pack, and about 12 for a hammerhead pistol. Rifles take a bit more than pistols.
Mutations Whatever, here's a few ideas for muts. Blah blah, don't fuck up.
Enigma : Gives you a boost to cool, enough for a +1 to guns. Up to you if you want it. It also prevents you from being analyzed for mental illnesses and you can't brag right.
Fuck Machine : Gives a boost to cool and lets you control your horniness. Sorta useful.
Swollen Brain vs Brute Strength : Depends if you want to be more brainy or be able to more easily dual wield pistols or use heavier rifles. Swollen also drops cool by one point, reducing your gun skill. Fuck Machine can make up for the loss. Brute will probably be more helpful in the endgame, since getting to 15 raw science or craft will basically let you do whatever you please, but it's up to you.
Now get out there and do your best Nikola Tesla as a cowboy impression.
