User:Kurg

Background

I started with 4 accounts, one per class.

• Kurg(naturalist, now my main)
• Zap(elementalist)
• Kalios(psion)
• Zorzos(gadgeteer)

I wanted to play each of them 'fully' and with the same effort, with no preferences. That's also why I had a different forum/wiki handle(=Edivad, but finally decided to change that to avoid confusion/awkardness). However, as time went on and retcon went in...I realized that trying to play that many turns each day would drive me crazy. So I made Kurg my main, and I just don't bother to check with the other 3 - although I might use them to help spade stuff, if there's need to.

Useful items

Good stuff that is relatively easy to get(or even simply 'the best' for its level). Doesn't include IoTM yet but I'm planning to fix that eventually.

Note that I mostly do no item restrictions run, so this isn't a 'real' pull list, more like suggestions on what you might want to use at each level(and some items stay useful until much later..or until the end of your run).

Level 1
This includes stuff which stays useful through all of your run.

• Talisman: Swedish Navy Wrench(if Gadg or just going to fight with ranged weapons), Thunder in a Bottle(if spellslinging, -2 PP on skills is awesome), special wooden cup(very nice for a Naturalist)
• Transport: paradime device(+1 HP & 2 PP per turn, +5 dodge, range 3 should be enough on day 1) or Emmett McFlie's hoverboard(same range but +8 FT, if you want to be speedy)
• Shirt: hip-t shirt(+10 FT is +5 xp per fight if you can handle it) or golden poncho(+2 PP regen is quite nice)
• Pants: golden leggings(+2 HP regen might not be as useful as +PP, but still decent)
• Hat: filigreed foil hat(better than nothing)
• Offhand: rolled doll dahl(+NC is useful for most of your run), number one fan(+3 PP per turn and some +spell damage), sock puppet('cheap' UR, +15 FT is nice if you can handle it, and it gives 'no fumbles'. +strength bonus is trivial).
• Electronics: 2 positronics, personal copy of the internet, I Blog myself, Garcia traffic avoider
• Temporary Sidekick: clockwork spider(gives a lot of +XP and is pretty cheap as it lasts 180 minutes)
• Accessories: Silver and gold stars(technically donation items, but silvers are easy to get and let you stock up a lot of extra HP/PP, supersolid/heavy mettle medal(better than leaving the slots empty, and they're free pulls, but must be disassembled before 'spending'), kneepads(cheap +2 DA, not bad)
• Boots: cleats(+2 reflexes. Not much, but again, better than nothing)

Level 2

• pingerang, toxic rocker pants, shepherd's crook
  

Level 3

• boomstick or bow of hazard, stuffed shirt, security slacks
  

Level 4

• embossed emblem, foil foil
  

Level 5

• gnat gloves/badger gauntlets, sub-ma car, zion helm or vision helmet, recoil foil rifle
  

Level 6

• datapants, databelt, verse of the dodo, hammer time or zeno's bow
  

Level 7

• xentrium boots/jack boots/boots of stamping, PDA, Rook of the Cataclysm
  

Level 8

• foyal crown, sneakiers, glock, archron's staff
  

Level 9

• umbra's blaster, xentrium breastplate, pandimensional scepter
  

Level 10

• billowing blouse, relaxing flats, dainty glasses, prefontane, paper cut gloves
  

Permed Skills(26/65)

Elemental(5/15)

• Proper Hydration
• Fire Shield
• Metalmorph
• The Fire Within
• Sundowner Breeze

Naturalist(6/17)

• Echolocation
• Armadillo Armor
• Starfish Regeneration
• Trample of the Rhino
• Sinus of the Shark
• Maul of the Cave Bear

Gadgeteer(12/15)

• Basic Martial Arts
• First Aid
• Upgrade Weapons
• Metal Detector
• Advanced Martial Arts
• Improved Tinkering
• Electric Net
• Catalyze
• Shock Grenade
• Stealth
• Sniper
• Battle Armor

Psion(2/17)

• Aura: Vim
• Aura: Mental Magnetism

Other(1/1)

• Precompletion Pro

Skills to get in the future, AKA 'Gotta perm them all'

Think I'll finish perming all the Gadgeteer skills - even though some won't be that useful - before switching to another class. Of course, I want to perm everything :)

• Upgrade Armor
• Stun Gas
• Endurance

Skill Review

Most of these are skills I permed too, with some exceptions(currently Firestorm, Mystery, Vigor), for which I just looked at the numbers and compared them to other stuff.

Aura: Magnetism More versatile than Stealth or Sinus - at the cost of taking an aura slot. At lower levels, giving up to use this might make fights fairly harder especially if using significant +FT, but it seems to be worth the saved turns.

Aura: Mystery +2S + level/2 spell damage, -1 PP to cost of combat spells. For 8 PP. The +spell damage could actually save a lot of PP, by letting you use weaker spells.

Aura: Vim +10+S bonus to to-hit and dodge. And for only 4 PP. A must get!

Aura: Vigor Not exactly high priority, although the +HP% bonus can be significant. I'd rather use Vim to take less damage(and deal more), and heal with First Aid.

Battle Armor + 30 + level*(1+S) bonus to defense. An amazing passive which scales pretty well with points in it, and has no cap so it's useful in aftercore too. With 10 points in it, it provides an extra +11 defense per character level - compare this to equipment. It's pretty high.

Sniper +5 + 2S ranged damage, +10 + 2S initiative Very good for ranged weapon users, not useless for others - you still get +init.

Basic Martial Arts +10+S to-hit Decent passive, I think, but Upgrade weapons: Frickin' Sharp can give a better bonus at a decent cost.

Shock Grenade 5-15 + 3 S +level/2 electric damage, delevels to-hit and offense by 20 + 2S. Costs 13 PP. A personal favorite, with 10 skill points it delevels foe offense and to-hit by 40. It's expensive, but after weakening the foe, you can just attack with a PP-draining weapon to cover some of the costs.

Trample of the Bovine At 9 PP, I think this is a a good compromise between Maul and Charge.

Stealth +NC is very important. This is not as flexible as Magnetism, but does NOT take an aura slot and is way less expensive.

Sinus of the Shark +combat isn't needed often in run, but there are excetions, such as trying to get VIPs to show up comes to mind or levelling in the park.

Firestorm 15-30 + 10S + 2*level damage. If you like doing LOTS of damage, this looks good. Might actually be be unneeded to max this, especially with decent sources of +spell damage.

The Fire Within +(10+S)% Max PP, +S% spell damage. The bonus spell damage requires you to spend points. The extra PP capacity might be good if you have PP regen and want to store up excess PP for later. Basically, lets you store more PP, which is good if you have a source of PP regeneration.

First Aid Most efficient healing skill(usually). Although blood might be worth it if you have lots of HP, and Knit Flesh/Bone also heal some bad conditions.

Armadillo Armor Way more DA than you can get from Upgrade Armor.

Echolocation Passive +(10+S)% item drops. Might let you grab a few useful items in run, or even just junk you can sell for more chips.

Sundowner Breeze A source of extra FT, however it is quite expensive. Not high-priority unless you're sure you have both the PP and the equipment/skills to handle all that FT I think.

Proper Hydration Might look small, but shouldn't be dismissed. Remember with First Aid or another healing skill, you can turn those to HP.

Starfish Regen Passive, which is a plus. Nice for runs where you can't afford a lot of healing, but if you have a healing skill, Hydration will be better. If you have First Aid, Hydration is better - that 1 PP can be turned to way more than 2 HP.

Fire Shield Cheap, can do lots of damage, especially if you rely on high DA/defense to outlast your enemy attacks. Might work well with a finisher - a 1 PP combat skill or reusable combat item - for when the enemy is critically injuried.