How to Not Totally Fail at Wasteland 3--Some Tips

Since my first playthrough of Wasteland 3 was a bit of a hot mess, I decided that I would start fresh and try to avoid the mistakes I made the first time around.  My first playthrough was rife with disappointment--I had two squadmates who I could reliably count on getting KO'd in every encounter, I made choices that felt morally good, but which resulted in a very disappointing ending...I just didn't feel good about how things ended up.  I'm happy to report that playthrough #2 has gone much smoother and my frustration level is noticeably lower.

Tip #1:  The pre-built character duos are fine, but custom characters offer up a fun roleplaying experience.

This time around, I decided to create custom characters as my initial squad of two--I do think that the pre-built character duos offer up a good distribution of skills and are perfectly fine, but there's something kind of fun that makes custom characters feel like your own.  If I was more creative, I would also come up with a super cool backstory for my duo.  To new players, I would advise choosing one of the pre-built duos the first time around and getting a good feel for the skills and abilities.  Then, on your next playthrough, go for custom characters.

Definitely put those points in leadership!

Tip #2:  Don't skimp on leadership!

In my first playthrough I skimped on the leadership ability--I had one character who had a few points in it, but I didn't invest heavily in it.  The second time around, I decided to build one of my custom characters with leadership in mind, and it has proven to be one of the most useful abilities.  What exactly does leadership do?  It bumps up the hit chance for your squad (within a certain radius that is dependent on the number of points you've invested) and gives a squad-wide buff when your leader character makes a multi-kill or revives a downed squadmate.  I've definitely noticed the impact of the increased hit chance this time around.

Barter is another skill that can seem to have very limited usefulness, but that with the right perks can be very useful.  In particular there's a perk that gives a chance that junk items can be sold as "antiques" for a massively improved value--take it, because it's a great moneymaker.

I'm a bit torn about the usefulness of a couple of different abilities--namely animal whisperer and weird science.  One of the perks of having a squaddie with animal whisperer is the fact that your animal followers are much stronger and more durable.  There aren't a ton of encounters with animals, but the ability to tame a wild animal can help draw some attacks away from your squad.  There's also the ability to tame an army of cyber chickens (if you can keep them alive).

The other ability that I'm not completely sold on is weird science.  Weird science allows you to use a variety of whacky weapons that can do things like shrink enemies or scramble their brains and have them temporarily fight on your side.  The weapons are fun, and there's a very solid set of armor (if you can find all the pieces), but I'm finding it to be a bit limited in usefulness (there are only a few skill check encounters with weird science).  

Tip #3:  Diversify your weapons as much as possible.

Part of my struggle during my first playthrough was due to the fact that I had two characters with the small arms ability.  The downside of small arms is the fact that they have a relatively short range and require close proximity to the action (which usually resulted in one or both characters getting absolutely obliterated).  It's logical to think that the solution to this would be to simply avoid taking the small arms ability and instead opt for assault weapons.  I would recommend against that because the ammo situation can get fairly tight if you have more than 2 characters sharing the ammo pool (there can also be overlap with some heavy weapons, so you really need to pay attention).  Having a small arms spec'd character is worthwhile because shotguns are great at destroying cover and exposing enemies.  I've had success with two characters who are assault weapons spec'd but having one specialize in submachine guns and the other use assault rifles.

Tip #4:  Flame away!  (*but be careful if you have friendly fire turned on!)

This time around I've found that flamethrowers are a great weapon--especially for those times when you have numerous enemies who decided to clump up in one area.  Having your big guns expert lay down a curtain of fiery death causes a good amount of damage but also has the potential to leave enemies with lingering damage over time.  It's true that flamethrower ammo is pretty limited, but be on the lookout for opportunities to hit multiple baddies.

My trajectory for the story on this playthrough is taking a much different path and I'm hoping that I get a better ending this time around.  Fingers-crossed!