This is my personal experience about small team strategy based particularly on Supreme Jerk Wasteland 2 DC.

I found it’s much easier and inspiring to deploy three rangers one by one before each combat. Break in, pull out, out flank, decoy, everything is possible. It’s really tedious to do so with a team of 6, not to mention a handful of followers. They tend to take awkward position without management, particularly in tight space. Even not so, there are not enough good spots to place all of them, seriously speaking.

Unlike solo or duo, we could still enjoy more weapon combinations with 3 rangers, we won't miss most content, and by planning the non-combat skills nicely, we are not going to missing out the choices that would otherwise be concealed.

Since there are already plenty of very useful guides, please bear with me for putting focus on certain builds and for avoiding repetitive introductory information.



My preferred trio is composed of (1) Sharpshooter (2) Melee Leader and (3) Assault Specialist.

Assault Specialist could use a weapon other than assault rifles to your preference.

Melee is ideal for the leader since a leader needs to be up front for his taunting effect to cover as many enemies as possible, and that he gets huge bonus accuracy when threatening enemies in a crouch. Handguns could be a good choice too.

Combat Initiative is basically the first priority for my sharpshooter and assault specialist. I would make it as high as possible as long as the Action Points are sufficient for my plan. This is to ensure they attack and react more frequently than most enemies.



SEVEN. We need 7 skills to unlock everything.

Lock picking. Safe cracking. Alarm disarming. Demolition. Brute Force. Computer Science. Mechanical Repair.

A bit insane. To me there could be only TWO outstanding skills. Mechanical (Electrical) and Digital Hacking.

In case you can't and won't learn all of them, what are the first to discard? Consider in the following order:

1. Mechanical Repair. It a in-game save-scumming skill, but only works at level 10.

2. Demolition. You trigger a trap and get hurt. Traps are gone and you are through.

3. Safecracking. Many safe boxes are strong enough to protect their content when destroyed by explosives. Not applicable to all.

It's a calculation about the cost. Whether it's worthwhile to dispense a medical kit or a bomb to get the loot / pass.



There are three Head Skills - Smart, Kiss, Hard Heads. What they do is to spot a lie, manipulate or intimidate people, through which you could find more possibilities to solve the problem and to change what people have planned to do. Without them, the main story line and quests still could go on but we may not have a say in how it evolves.

The cost to develop these skills are low, and it’s possible to learn all the three in a 3-man party. There would be a few compromise to make. If you don’t like to miss any skills, the party would require 4 members at least. Either you could have 4 combatants with 4 INT, or you could have 3 combatants plus one skill monkey with 10 INT. The latter would be sure enough to cover all the skills.

Initial CLASSIC stats: 4 1 6+ 4 8 4 1


Sniper Rifles deal the highest damage reliably in my team (1.5 times my Assault Rifles):

(1) Two shots per turn with 12 AP and deadeye. Assault Rifles would need 14 AP

To be able to shoot twice the sniper rifles with 7AP cost, it’s necessary to have a minimum action point of 12 plus the perk Deadeye that reduces 1AP per shot. The priority for this build is to focus on Sniper skill and get Deadeye as soon as possible.

(2) Ultra high accuracy over a wide shooting range. AR suffers penalties from Burst Shot and shooting range.

With the bonus from leadership, cover, crouch and weapon modifiers, its damage output is very reliable. The accuracy could stay at 100% even for precision shot or against enemies behind cover. This ensures the effectiveness of all type of damage bonuses, Headshot (35%), Backfire (25%), Tormentor (10%) and Roboticist (20%).

(3) High penetration and high critical chance.



Basic (7) : Tinkerer - Tormentor - Deadeye - Positioning - Roboticist - Turtle - Bloodthirsty

Other (3) : Intimidating (or Affable) - Hoarder - Hardened - Healthy

* Hoarder for all the 3 would make our life much easier. If you plan to learn other perks instead, consider using builds with SSI 6-6-4 rather than 4-8-4.

* « Hardened » translates to about 20% damage reduction against low penetration weapons, when wearing a top-notch light armour.

* « Healthy » is about 10% increase in hp, cheaper and usable in general. Compared to damage reduction perk against a specific damage type, t's a safer bet, unless you could buy all types of damage reduction. Since by the time we can invest in damage reduction or hp increase it's already late in game, if you are certain what type of damages is the most crucial in late game, you could go for it instead.




Initial CLASSIC attributes (4 1 6+ 4 8 4 1)
Quirk: Brittle Bones (+2AP, -50% Combat Speed)
Perk Tinkerer (+1 AP) at level 4.

AP 12 CI15 Combat Speed 1.3

Final CI is 19 by increasing Awareness to 10 at level 40.



Ideally the SSI (Strength-Speed-Intelligence) attribute trio could be optimised at 2–10-4. This offers one more point in CI, plus a bit more evasion & mobility. However, in late game, the weapons are becoming heavier and heavier while attached with more high-end modifiers. It becomes very tedious if the two damage dealers couldn’t even carry more than their weapons and armour. SSI 4-8-4 saves me from the torture.

I would place the sharpshooter individually in the cover with best vision range, far reach, or not easily approachable, before initiating the combat. Most of the time, if things go as planned, he doesn’t need to move. When threatened, I will let him move away if I cannot make sure the threat be removed before next turn.



The only combat related Head skill is the Hard Head. Bloodthirsty at Hard Head 7 adds 1 AP per kill. We need to decide who get it. The rest take the other two head skills.

- Sharpshooter has the highest chance to get the 1-2 AP bonus per turn. It could be used for self healing or movement after the kills. Although it cannot give any free shot, it could allow the sharpshooter not to give up any precious high precision shot for self healing or movement. For example, use a 6AP Sniper rifle to finish off two low-hp enemies, and we will have 4 AP left. Other times, the bonus is mostly wasted.

- Assault specialist has the second highest chance to get the 1-2 AP bonus per turn. It could upgrade next attack from none (3AP) to 4AP, from 4AP to 5AP, or from 5AP single shot to 6AP burst shots, etc. The bonus is the extra damage coming from the difference between the stronger and the weaker weapon. We could let assault specialist focus on finishing off the enemies seriously wounded by sharpshooter and get 3 single shots in one turn for example.

- Melee Leader: For a regular melee specialist, 1 AP per kill could upgrade the next attack from 2AP to 3AP or from 3AP to 4AP. You could even get 1AP bonus 3 times in certain circumstances. Unfortunately, my melee leader is low on AP, combat speed, and combat initiative, and won't be able to enjoy the bonus often.

Conclusion:

Let’s say it’s worth roughly 1/2 ~ 1/3 damage increase of a weapon, and it happens every 2~3 turns. Estimated value of Bloodthirsty is 25% to 11% damage increase for an Assault Specialist or a Melee Specialist. At other times, it helps with healing or movement. It’s not magic, but it certainly has its use in combat.



--- Priority 86 points, reachable at around early 20s.

4 - Weapon smith 2 (Tinkerer)
44 - Sniper 10 (Deadeye)
6 - Perception 3 (Tactical Positioning)
18 - Hard Head 10 (Bloodthirsty, 6 + S1 + P2 + T1)
or - 18 Kiss 10 (LV6 +S1 + P2 + T1)
14 - Computer 5 (Roboticist)

With INT 4, he would have a total of around 150 skill points at level 41.

--- Secondary + 58 points, 144 points in total, before level 40.
+18 Demolition (LV6 + S1 + T3)
12+ Field Medic 4 / Surgeon 1
+18 Perception 10 (LV7 + S1 + T2) - for traps, treasure and Combat Shooting.
+10 Weapon Smithing 8 (LV5 + S1 + T2)

“Demolition”
In addition to the use in combat in first half of the game, the explosives could be used to open safes (avoid save-scumming), explode traps (though self contradictory, but sometimes you may find it annoying to demolish so many mines, and decide to avoid multiple save-scumming). It's convenient to give Demolition to the one with high Perception, but not necessarily so.

Field Medic
By giving up one shot, you would have 6 spare AP, meaning healing 3 times, and therefore lower level heals could also do the trick. But if you prefer to try making use of Bloodthirsty to squeeze out one heal without giving up any shot, a higher level heal is necessary.

Weapon Smithing 7~9
10 ~ 18 points. (LV4~6 + S1 + T2) for attaching weapon mods..
The toolkit is very heavy. Alternatively you could also recruit an NPC only for modding weapons then dismiss right away, if you prefer to save the skill points for other skills.



1. Level the skills up evenly as far as possible. Invest all the 2-point levels before investing 4-point level.

2. Make use of NPC's skills as far as possible until you could go independent (only 3).

3. Hold back and wait if you are not sure what skill to learn.

4. It's rewarding to get Deadeye as early as possible (say LV13, which is what I did). However, you could still have two shots from 6AP weapon without it. , If you are doing a strict 3-man party from the very beginning without using any help, level the skills up evenly is probably the better way to go, and maybe aim at getting Deadeye at LV 16~20 for a smoother experience.

To make the sharpshooter to his job nicely and safely, we need a leader that offers the 20% accuracy boost and 7% enemy’s accuracy debuff. It’d be supper useful to have a tank that attracts most of the gunfire without getting killed or without getting hurt at all. The 2AC from the Thick-Skinned quirk comes into effect from the beginning, plus Hardened and Self Defence attainable in early game, the 4 additional AC makes the leader quite tanky.

Additionally, if possible, dealing some extra damage isn’t bad. However, the leader doesn’t enjoy the above accuracy buff from himself nor the accuracy boost from Coordination, he is particularly poor at ranged weapons. Although this issue applies to melee weapons as well, plus there aren’t as many accuracy modifiers as range weapons, there is an accuracy bonus for melee attacks, which is, 100% hit against enemies in a crouch. This is useful and would usually drive the enemies out of their cover into our gun fire.

Blunt Weapons are a bit more aggressive (Charge, Slayer: 10% Free attack) while Bladed Weapon is a bit more defensive (Defence + 1 Armour, Samurai +1 Penetration). For pure Melee specialist, I’d choose blunt weapons with Reinforced Plating. For a leader whose attributes couldn’t be optimised for offensive skills, I opt for a bladed build, also considering Weapon Smithing level 8 is a bit too costly for a leader who has other skills to invest.

Blades are quite weak in the first part of the game. The blade skill training could be delayed. He is more useful in offering the leadership bonus and functions as a distraction. Or, he could use some explosives, which are very powerful in early game, but that is also the reason I seldom use explosives.

Otherwise, consider handguns, which give accuracy bonus at close range. It has got lower penetration and no bonus for AC, but could be used to finish off dying enemies nearby without moving. In that case, you may want to train Weapon Smithing to level 8 in place of Brute Force 7.



Basic (6): Hardened - Self Defence - Taunt - Enrage - Infuriate - Samurai

Utility (2): Know-It-All, Hoarder

Plus more defence (3): Adrenaline Rush - Healthy - Weathered

* Hoarder : +20% Carry weight, will save us a lot of troubles playing a 3-man party.

* Adrenaline Rush (+2 AP when low hp) : In deed it wouldn't and shouldn't happen often, but it could be a life saving perk, also functional after resurrection, allowing you to make an additional heal or attack, or escape.



Initial CLASSIC 2 1 3 6 6 4 6+
Quirk: Thick-Skinned +2 AC -30% Combat Speed
AP 8 CI 11 Speed 1.7 (2.4x0.7=1.7)

AC: 14 = Heavy Armour 10 + 2 TS + 1 Hardened + 1 Defence
-or- 11 AC for Light Armour. The good thing is the above bonus applicable to both types of armour, unlike Reinforced Plating. Particularly useful against energy weapons. I will carry both.

Final CLASSIC 2 1 4 6 6 4 9
Get Charisma all the way to 10 or put the last skill point in Awareness to get CI to 12 at level 40 and use a trinket to achieve Charisma 10 if needed.

Charisma 10 means a radius of 20 meters, or a diameter of 40 meters. The coverage in terms of area is 4 times compared to a Charisma value of 5. The exp bonus from the leader's Charisma results in 2 levels ahead of the others before or at around level 30, which means he has 6 skill points more than the others. 3 levels ahead at level 40.



STR 6 is required for ultimate bladed weapon. When using the ultimate heavy armour (STR 7), STR 6 would result in an additional but acceptable penalty of -0.2 combat speed. The final combat speed would be (2.4-0.8)*0.7 = 1.1

Using SSI 8-4-4 would result in the same combat speed (2.2-0.6)*0.7 = 1.1. STR 8 offers a great deal of more health, SPD 6 offers higher evasion plus higher combat initiative. I prefer not to get hit and react not too slow.




---- Priority 74 points, achievable before LV 30.

30 Leader 10: 8 + S1 +T1 (Taunt, Enrage, Infuriate)

44 Bladed 10 (Defence 3, Samurai 6)

----- Secondary 54+

14 Smart 10 (LV5 + S1 + P2 + T2)

12+ Field Medic 4 / Surgeon 1

24 Brute Force 7 (LV7) (expensive)

or 18 Alarm Disarming 7 (LV6 + S1)
or 18 Demolition 10 (LV6 + S1 + T3)

---- Optional 24-30

30 Computer 10: 8 + S1 +T1 (Hacking robots and turrets, suitable for melee build)

--------

Better Trinket choice: for Leadership, Charisma, Evasion, or Computer.

* Smart Head because there's a Charisma Trinket that has -1 Kiss Head.

* Computer Science : More about fun factor (combat diversity). It would be more effective on high combat initiative & high speed character. You could skip it without any problem. More defensive: Reinforced Plating from Weapon Smith at late game, particularly if you are not using blades. For more story content: Toaster Repair.

High Medic & High Surgeon

Right before very late game, it'd make your combats easier to have Field Medic up to 6. Before then, Medic 4 is enough.

“Brute Force”
is actually nice in DC in that you can save scum for a better loot after success so that you don't need to pass the skill check again, and sometimes there is no alternative skill available in DC, not even with weapons. However, there is no trinket as far as I know of and the skill book comes very late in game. No enough room for Stunning Perks. The cost to level up this skill is a bit higher.

Alternatively, you may consider:

Alarm Disarming 7
18 points: LV6 + S1 (Ghost 3, Reflex 6)
Quick Reflex plus Infuriate together offers evasion equivalent to 10%. However, Ghost doesn't trigger often and is most of the time not necessary for a tank for its high damage reduction.

Demolition
18 points :LV6 + S1 + T3
The trinket offering a bonus of 3 levels is available very late in game. It offers explosive perks. Melee leader is ideal for using explosives.

Since we are not taking any perks from the above 3 skills, it doesn't matter who learns which.



Glancing to Strategic Strikes work when the enemies on the tile that your melee weapon can hit moves away or attacks another target at a distance. It could be great if you move the melee ally next to the enemies behind cover. They (the range attackers) tend to move away, which triggers the attack of opportunity. At other times, they stay and attack others at a distance, which triggers the AoO as well.

However, the mechanism seems broken as the attack of opportunity won’t trigger with "two-handed" blunt weapons, and those high end blunt weapons that can attack diagonally happen to fall in this category. It works with bladed weapon but most of them can’t attack diagonally. The few that do attack diagonally are weaker. Moreover, our melee leader build has no accuracy boost, low AP and low combat speed. It’s not worthwhile at all.

If you really like to use AoO or Blunt weapon, consider using the mods developed by _executor. See details below:

https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=17009

Now the Assault Specialist has to do all the rest. He opts for highest Combat Initiative and assault needs mobility. While the Melee Leader or his explosives could be used to distract the enemies, the assault specialist moves from cover to cover, finding the position for backfire or away from threats. He could move to rescue allies with his additional AP to save the other’s action points.

I chose Assault Rifle build for higher penetration and higher accuracy. His precision shots in burst mode, though not always 100% reliable, mean twice the chances. The ability to shoot single shots twice (4 or 5 AP) is good for finishing off the enemies with low hp. All these possibilities make him the most flexible among the three.

However, you could choose other weapons for Assault Specialist.



Basic (6) : Tinker - Full Metal Jacket - Positioning - Tormentor - Limber - Gunner

Extra shot : Bloodthirsty

Defensive (3) : Turtle - Hardened - Healthy

Utility (2) : Affable or Intimidating, Hoarder

* Crouch to increase accuracy with 1 AP cost is useful when in open area where there is no cover, our assault specialist would usually need to move again very soon.

* Gunner can be helpful for precision shots in burst mode, particularly for this build, the specialist has to take care of many other skills and cannot focus on rifle skill like sharpshooter.



Initial CLASSIC 2+ 1 8+ 4 8 4 1
AP 8 CI 17 Speed 2.6 No Quirk

AP 9 at level 4 with Tinkerer

Final CLASSIC 4 1 10 4 8 4 1
AP 10 CI 19 Speed 2.6

The same final CLASSIC as the sharpshooter. If you plan to make use of Bloodthirsty, train Coordination to 4 first. You'll have 10 AP at level 20. Otherwise, Awareness first. It helps to make sure that you attack first and more frequently.

SSI 4-8-4 for the same carry weight issue as the sharpshooter.


Initial CLASSIC 8 1 6+ 4 4 4 1
AP 10 CI 13 Speed 2.2

AP 11 at level 4 with Tinkerer

Final CLASSIC 8 1 10 4 4 4 1
AP 11 CI 17 Speed 2.2


While AP 14 with the Quirk Brittle Bones would allow the assault rifles to shoot twice per turn, it would make the assault specialist low on both combat initiative and speed, which wouldn't work right as far as assault goes. It would function more like a turret, if the assault specialist couldn't jump from cover to cover swiftly.

Another way, which might be more balanced, is to make one shot in one turn and two shots in the next. 11 AP allows one burst shot of a 7AP weapon in one turn, carrying the remaining AP over to the next turn, reaching 13 AP. This would allow a burst shot of 7AP and another of 6AP. Coupled with the perk Bloodthirsty (+1AP), while the first burst shot kills, there would be 7AP for the next burst shot. That is, again, under the condition that he doesn't move. From my experience, it's usually difficult (in few cases possible) to keep 2 among the 3 stationary, which is boring by the way.



Handgun
Single shots cost 3 or 4 AP. High combat initiative (Build A. 10AP) works well with Bloodthirsty, giving the chance to fire a 4-AP handgun 3 times.

Heavy Weapon
All costs 6 AP per shot. If you prefer double shot, you could consider going for Build B. AP 11 (inc. Tinkerer) + Bloodthirsty.

Gamma Ray Blaster
The only Energy Weapon. AP 5/6. Better consider it only for the 4th (or 5th) recruit. You would want to always use 6AP mode. The only chance for double attacks is to go with Build B.

Shotgun
Single shots cost 5 or 6 AP. Burst shots cost 7 or 8 AP. Even with AP 11, it's difficult to make Bloodthirsty work. Higher combat initiative should be better. Take Build A.

Submachine Gun
Let's look at the high end choices - 5 AP or 8 AP. We can't fire 5AP 3 times or 8AP twice and keep substantial high combat initiative. Go for Build A.

* For AP 12
Final CLASSIC 10 1 8 4 4 4 1
CI would be 11 in the beginning, 15 at level 40.
AP is still not enough for a shotgun or Submachine gun to make burst shots twice, and surely the CI won't allow him to attack first.




When we start a fight with gun fire, we may have taken down the first target or put him close to death. Then comes the first round. The higher combat initiative ensures our shooters to attack again right away, which could finish at least 1 or 2 enemies before they even start.

With lower combat initiative, we may have to take hit first and when it’s our turn, the enemies have already found their cover. Starting with the CI of 13 would allow quite a few enemies to attack before us. It would get worse if we go for AP more than 11.



--- Priority 110 points, achievable before LV30.

4 Weapon 2 (Tinkerer)
44 Assault Rifle 10 (or other weapon skill)

24 Lock 7-S1-T2
24 Safe 7-S1-12
18 Hard Head 10 (Bloodthirsty, 6 + S1 + P2 + T1)
or 18 Kiss 10 (LV6 +S1 + P2 + T1)

6 Perception 3 (Tactical Positioning)

----- Secondary 30+
18 Alarm Disarming 7 (LV6 + S1)
12+ Field Medic 4 / Surgeon 1

--------
Put the rest into Field Medic and Surgeon.

To learn all necessary skills in time they are needed, try to level them up as evenly as possible. This won't cause any problem for combat (reasonably challenging at most) but would make other skill checks less a chore.

Now what might still be missing in a 3-man party are :

Mechanical Repair, Toaster Repair, Outdoorsman, Animal Whisper.

I might leave them behind as far as a 3-man party goes, considering the 3 Head Skills could be raised to LV 10 at a much lower cost and offers us the rights to make our own decision in which direction the story shall go. You may trade the 30 points of Computer Science for Toaster Repair. Alternatively, you could give up one of the 3 Head Skills for other skills.

The above roadmap for skill development is very tight and might be broken if you miss a few skill books and exp or skill point sources. Otherwise, It might require a certain degree of save scumming, or inconveniences in that you have to come back later for skill checks at a higher level.

If you really don’t like it, consider using a fourth member, such as an NPC with 4 ~ 10 INT, or any NPC at hand part-time for their native skills.

A super thick meat shield is very sweet for a 3-man party. It's getting more and more helpful in late game, particularly for me who doesn't use ANY rockets. Just beware how it would demand more and more healing, enormous healing, due to its ultra low armour.

You could get enormous amount of cash too before entering last few scenes, but there might not be enough supplies around for you to buy. Bear this in mind and stock medical kits whenever possible. You could try without using it but likewise you would need healing in late game even if you've managed not to get hurt at all before then.

INT 10 : 230 skill points to spend at LV 41

STR 4, 6 or 8 : Carry weight and survivability



18 Smart Head LV6 + P2 + S1 + T2 (in case you couldn’t wait)
18 Kiss Head LV6 + P2 + S1 + T1
18 Hard Head LV6 + P2 + S1 + T1
18 Weapon Smithing LV6 + S1 + T2

30 Brute Force LV8 + S1
18 Mechanical Repair LV6
18 Outdoorsman LV6
18 Surgeon LV6 + S1 + T2

156 points in total

The above is only to show that we've got plenty of skill points for basically everything, and that it would leave us carefree in terms of skill check. We don't need to put all the skills in this character.



If you prefer 3-man combat, keep this smart head away from combat, and give him some defensive skills:

+6 Bladed (3) for Self Defence.
+12 Weapon smithing (8) for Reinforce Plating
+18 Alarm 6 for Ghost & Reflex, if he is responsible for healing in the combat.

Or you can allow him to only protect the suicidal followers, but not to heal the allies.

Now it’s 192 points in total.

The rest for Field Medic.

This should ease up the tension for the rest so that they could focus more on combat skills.



Head (3) : Know - Affable - Intimidating

Defence (5) : Hardened - Self Defence - Reinforced Plating - Turtle - Healthy

More Defence (3) : Ghost - Reflex - Armour Maintenance



If you prefer to fight with a party of 4 combatants rather than 3, I'd recommend a combatant with INT 4 and a specialised weapon skill. Four is enough to learn most skills to usable levels, although the skill points might still be tight.