Hints & Tips

[planetalcatraz]

After doing some research in the game, I found something interest (correct me if I'm wrong, and sorry for my English)

SETTING UP THE CHARACTER
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Set the constitution as highest as possible. Every level, character's hit points will be added by (Constitution - 1). So, if we have 5 in constitution, then (5-1=4) will be added to the max hit points for each level. The bigger hit points, the more likely, the character will survive in the game.
I set constitution to 9, and get the perk bull, so the cons become 10. With this, my character will become a human tank, never need a food or first aid in every mission (except the last mission), so I'm getting rich for selling all the food & first aid kit.

Set the intelligence to 9. every new level, character's skill point will be added by +4 (if Int.Range between 1-5), or +5 (6-7), +6 (8-9). With botanist perk, the skill point will be added by 3 more for each level.
Say if we have 5 int., then 5+4 (+3 if have a botanist perk) = +12 skill point for each level.
if we have 7 int., then 7+5 (+3 if have botanist) = +15 skill point for each level.

I don't need perception, since I always fight in the front line with great armor & great weapon like chucundra shotgun (can be set to burst mode) or kain machine gun. Only sniper's like need high perception. I set this skill to 1. The idea of knowing the enemy location is not necessary for me.

With charisma only 1, I can get all the team member and survived the game. I haven't try playing the game with high charisma.

I set the Strength to 9, and the rest to agility (6, as I remember).

Remember the game will provide Main Skill upgrade, after you reach StoneGuard. After you want to get Demon (the last member of a team).
But the price is really high, 1.000.000 for each upgrade. Each main skill can be upgraded just once.

TRADE
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Don't set trade skill more than 150, it is wasted.
The buying & selling rate doesn't change after 150 point in trade skill.
With 150 point in trade skill, we have a buying & selling price at a same rate.

So before each mission, we can prepare by buying all the latest armor & weapon at a market place and consider it as a "borrow".
After the mission, we can sell it back to the trader, and receive the money which is the same with the money we spent (don't forget to repair it first, and load it with ammo).

How to get high trade skill in the beginning of the game. When setting up the character, choose trade skill as a favorable skill, to get higher trade skill.
In the game, set thief skill to 50, steal all the people & lock pick all the chest (but not all the chest will be available to pick), to gain exp. more quickly. after get enough free skill points, set trade skill to 132 (assuming you have 9 in intelligence), and before we leave the industrial zone, sell all the item left. In the northen city, we can learn trade skill from the master in the market place. He can add our trade skill by 18 (if we have 9 in intelligence & botanist perk) for only 25.000 (hope you get this amount in industrial zone by stealing every one & sell all the item when you have 132 trade skill)

In industrial zone, don't rush to sell the item, safe all the item in the available chest before we sell it, because some item will be needed for the mission, and the rest we sell it when we have 132 in trade skill (to get more money). I use building beside main office, there is 3 cupboard downstair & 5 upstair. (don't use the chest in shooting area, after a mission, it will be lock forever)

to be continued...

[planetalcatraz]

Which member on a team that I want to be my repair man
Kruger has a higher starting repair skill than the other (49). So better add 51 skill point more to Kruger than the other (find a master to learn a repair skill, so we can add free skill point less then 51 to kruger depending his intelligence).
The complex item such as Full T Jacket or Machine gun only need 100 in repair skill, so there is no need to set more than 100 in repair skill.

[planetalcatraz]

For me, better have a completed team first, then do the sub quest. Four people in a team can make mission easier, especially when you get minimum 1 full T jacket, it's very strong armor (like ironman or robocop in the movie).
Some mission, like thief in the warehouse, next to Blacky's office, is not available after we are advance in a main quest. so better to start(initiate & display on a log) all the sub quest, before you followed the main quest. sub quest can be found when talking to NPC (yellow dot on a map).
To get all member's team, follow blacky's quest & finish all human encounter on a global map (no need to finish non-human encounter).

[planetalcatraz]

Just found out recently... hope this help your financial problem in the game...

One member in a team must have 150 in trade skill to achieve maximum benefit.
Goto market place in northen city. Trade with Martha (the only one who sell modified weapon).

1. Buy pipe rifle (we call it PR from now) or heavy pipe rifle (HPR). Buy a telescope (T). The weapon's price is always random, try to get 18.026 for PR or 162.062 for HPR. Telescope's price is always 44.999.
You spent 63.025 for PR & T or 207.061 for HPR & T.
(Note: re-load saved game, if you don't get that price).

2. Attach the telescope to the weapon (PR or HPR) and sell it back to get 108.026 for PR-T or 252.062 for HPR-T.

3. Notice, that you will get 45.000 instantly.

4. Save game & reload it, to reset item on Martha. if you want to reach some amount for your money, repeat this, go back to number 1.

10 times doing this, you will get 450.000 (almost half million)
20 times doing this, you will get 900.000 (almost one million)

So you don't have to collect all cheap item in the game such as mushroom, pitchfork, clothes, pants, axe, knife, and others for money.

I can't get more than 45.000 for other item, if you found profit more than 45k for other item, please let me know. Thanks.

[planetalcatraz]

Just found out recently, I play this game for the second time, I used Terminator grenade launcher (get that from Abandon mined, after get demon), which have 6 loaded 30mm grenade, so it doesn't need so much time to kill someone.

Anytime, anywhere... when you look at on someone, you can kill it, by throwing a grenade beside him (not in purpose to kill him, make it accidentally). And the you can loot his weapon & armor. (kill someone who is can't talk with you, for safety). you can try to steal the person first, to look what is he/she carrying.
If the character is so important to the game, don't worry, the game will end immediately, and you know, you can't kill it. just re-load the saved game.

Warning: I didn't know whether this will give the negative effect to the game... I mean for example, the game will give an error message, if the character we killed is needed by the game.

So about the best weapon....
After arrive on cannibal village, when we want to get kruger.... (better get kruger first, the third team member).
There is four people on the entrance of village cannibal, far behind the ELDER, beside two tower, on a fire place.
They all carry ACHTUNG MACHINE GUN. very powerfull weapon which only available on nearly end of the game, and there is no trader who sell this kind of weapon. unfortunately, it is required min.STR:8, and there is no trader sell this kind of ammo (14mm). So use it wisely.

In a cannibal village, there is about 7-8 people carry Kain Machine Gun (you can get only 1 on Abandon mined), and 1 people carry Shaitan Bazooka (you can get only 1 on Tobacco Plantation mission).
I think, Kain Machine Gun is really useful, get it, to make your life easier. Many trader sell 9mm ammo for Kain Machine Gun, so don't worry about the ammo.

[Skuff]

Thanks for all this info its been a huge help :D keep up the great work !

[planetalcatraz]

Don't set this skill more than 200, it is wasted.
The healing rate doesn't change after 200 point in first aid skill.
with 200 point, we can get the maximum benefit for each first aid kit (small or big).

[planetalcatraz]

If the overseer is really annoying, just kill it by using terrorist mask, so the game will not end when we are killing the overseer. But I can't kill overseer in the market place.

We can get OGRE SHOTGUN & MAD BULL PISTOL from the overseer, but we can not loot their armor. Be careful, the overseer is very strong.

[planetalcatraz]

Better get all the team member, before doing skill upgrade from the coaches, or the other member will lose the chance to upgrade their skill.

Except for trade skill, thief skill, & repair skill. these skill are consider as a party skill, meaning, the game will looking one member in the team who has the highest point.

When we increase our skill, the skill will require 1 free skill point for every point in the skill, up to 100. after that the skill will require 2 free skill point for every point in the skill.
So before going to coaches, better upgrade all the character up to 100.
The coaches will give 2xINT increasing.

That means, if I have 9 in INT. I will receive 18 points from the coaches. If I already have 100 in the skill. I will get 118 in the skill. 18 which need 36 free skill point normally.
If I only have 50 in the skill, the coaches will add 18 to 50, that will be 68. which only need 18 free skill point normally. I hope you understand. sorry for my english.

[str]

If I get all 200 in trading , Is it still not possible to buy something from one merchant and sell it to another with higher price ?

[persoiranian]

If I get all 200 in trading , Is it still not possible to buy something from one merchant and sell it to another with higher price ?

as far as i know you cant.

[snoopyxi33]

Please let me know how to get money thru hex editing planet alcatraz save games.

Thanks a lot in advance

[CraigCWB]

One thing nobody mentioned is not to smoke joints, drink anything or use anything that causes the ridiculous animations. They seem to be permanent and not only will your guy look totally silly as he does some gay russian jig non-stop and spams maniacal laughter, he'll drop whatever weapons he is holding onto the ground, even in combat :(

[Sneaksie]

It's not permanent, he'll sober up after rest. For example, click Rest > Until fully healed.

[CraigCWB]

It's not permanent, he'll sober up after rest. For example, click Rest > Until fully healed.

Ah, thank you! I was just debating with myself about whether I wanted to load an old save-game from before my guy started the dancing stuff. I guess now I can just let him sleep it off :)

[yuana]

Nice thread...http://freeimagestocks.com/content/20/dot.pnggood job guys :)

[vistarnh]

I just wanted to add a couple things about the latest version (1.06)

1. the pipe/heavy pipe and scope money trick doesn't work anymore but it is still extremely useful to have 150 in trading since you can basically "rent" equipment. and money by this point should be rolling in just from selling guns/armor from map quests.

2. The grenade trick doesn't work so well anymore, you'll usually just get a game over if you throw a grenade to close to a guard/overseer, even if you are stealthed. However, I was able to get 6 Kain MG's from the cannibal village by using molotov cocktails _near_ the guards and lighting them on fire. It takes about 5-6 for each guard and I'd highly advise saving before starting the toss and in between each grenade as sometimes they will go hostile or you'll get a game over. The trick is to throw them far enough away to avoid this but still catch them in the fire DOT. I also hit the stealth button immediately after each throw, not sure if you have to do this but I did. the guns are 9mm and awesome but require a 7 str, so either use liftjack for your other 2 guys or sell them for over 600K each.

I also used this method to get the Achtungs from the 4 guys at the cannibal entrance map, they are actually a little easier and can sometimes be killed with a grenade launcher. The guns are uber but aren't as useful with an 8 str requirement and limited ammo but with trade at 150 they sell for 900k which makes a nice way to upgrade your Kains (1 mil each but makes Kain nearly equal to the power of Achtung) and/or increase Sullen and Kruger's str so they can use Kains too (if you just want to mow everything down).

3. Other than coaches another easy way to get a few extra skill points after 100 (since it's a 2/1 ratio after 100) is to let your guy get critical damage or wear something that lowers stats before spending points. If you have a 100 in something and it goes down to 92 after a crit, spend 8 points to get it to 100 then heal and it will be at 108 (saving you 8 points). This works with the curiass and stealing. wearing it brings your 100 to 70, spend 30 points while wearing it and then take it off and you'll be at 130, saving you 30 points.

Just fyi, if you enjoy looting and struggling to get that next upgrade or don't like cheating or messing with game balance don't do #2.

[bushwhacker2k]

Good tips.

Overall I think the game becomes a lot more fun, and interesting, when you finally get your second permanent party member. It allows for much more interesting gameplay, and it helps get through things quicker.

Check your mini-map for small green dots, these represent overseers, who punish you for doing things you aren't supposed to do. They're far too dangerous to tackle early on, so it's advised to avoid getting their attention. Fortunately they don't actively chase you unless they've spotted you in the course of unlawful acts. They attack you if: you have a weapon equipped, you are wearing a robber's mask, you attack someone who didn't attack you first(if the fight is triggered by dialogue it probably won't count) and if you try to steal from someone(pickpocketing/robbing) and are noticed. As long as you pay attention to their location they are pretty easy to avoid.

I often have one party member pickpocket an NPC, while the other 'robs' him, allowing the pickpocketer to take the items for maximum experience gain. Note that only the main character seems to be able to talk to NPCs. One thing I do to speed up my mass thieving runs is to pickpocket all the items I can from an area, store them in nearby chests(in case I get too many items), have my secondary party member sit next to a chest, and talk to the merchant with my main character. Then, as soon as I sell all the excess items I can have my secondary character open the chest, then I fill their inventories with loot and I can immediately sell them to the merchant right next to the main character.

When you get training at a skill coach, it levels the ability for everyone in your party. So, except for skills like repair or trade, which work with the highest value in the party, it's recommended to get more permanent party members before using skill coaches at things like melee combat.

Armor worn on the body(meaning not leg or head armor) can significantly slow movement speed, so if you're in an area where you're confident you won't be attacked it might be helpful to temporarily remove it.

You may notice that some corpses' clothes can't be removed, but if you destroy the body (with a grenade, for instance) then all the items stored on the body(which includes clothes) are dropped on the ground. The trick is getting the grenade to land on the body, even though it doesn't let you directly target corpses with grenades. Against enemies like Overseers, who have expensive body armor, this is definitely worth a cheap grenade. Note that grenades landing on or near bodies DO damage equipment, so a high repair skill would be beneficial as well (unfortunately most Overseers wear body armor, which utilizes replaceable plates, rather than something that can be constantly repaired, but it's still profitable). Note: Overseers in the Cannibal Camp and the south-easternmost portion of Northern city cause instant game over if they become hostile.

It's recommended that at least one character have some skill in a long-ranged firearm, flying creatures can hit absurdly hard and aren't easy to deal with otherwise.

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Controls

By holding down Ctrl you can left click a neutral NPC to attack him/her. If you are targetting an ally it opens the trade window(trade, not barter), allowing you to freely exchange your party members' gear. If you are targetting the ground and holding a grenade then you can choose to throw a grenade to a specific point, instead of targetting an enemy.

By holding down a numpad number key you can target specific parts of an enemy's body(doesn't work on non-humans). This allows the player to selectively target unarmored parts of the body. Critical hits always seem to disarm and knock the enemy down(if you're close, this allows you to take their weapon to prevent them from using it further!), but the debuff caused by a critical hit appears to change depending on the area targeted. I don't have proof that enemies suffer from this the same way players do (permanent, until healed, stat debuffing injuries) but nevertheless critical hits are powerful and critical hits to the head can instant kill (even you. save often).

Alt + Left-Click allows you to pickpocket an NPC (there is a button, but hotkeys are faster).

By holding down shift when clicking things to give orders to your party members, you can give multiple orders for them to follow in succession. By doing this you can tell them to loot multiple things, move to specific places in a row, or move to a position then attacking an enemy. I learned this purely by chance but I love hotkeys and how convenient they make things so this is awesome.

R causes the currently selected party member to reload whatever gun they are currently holding. Note that on handmade weapons and flintlock rifles this doesn't work during combat, but, as with any gun, you can click and drag ammo onto the firearm to automatically reload, this happens instantaneously, so there's no reloading action, and it allows constant use of a single handmade gun/flintlock rifle (though you have to pause right after each shot or your character automatically stores the handmade gun/flintlock rifle).

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Stats

Agreed on stats, both Intelligence and Constitution are the most important (you're epically gimped(permanently weakened) if you skimp in either stat).

Skills are the main way you augment your characters abilities and intelligence directly affects how many skill points you get so it's absolutely vital.

Low constitution causes you to have really, REALLY low health, so you can't skimp and expect to be able to take many hits. Also the upper levels of constitution give some armor(direct damage reduction), which is a great bonus.

Strength is quite important as well, most weapons/armor require 4+ strength. I'd recommend keeping strength at a minimum of 4, otherwise you'll find yourself severely under-armored, and you won't be able to use many guns. From where I am 6 strength is the highest value I've seen required for anything, that's not to say there aren't pieces of equipment with greater requirements though.

Perception is really only useful for snipers, as planetalcatraz mentioned. This is because it, moreso than agility, augments your sight range, which determines how close you have to be to notice enemies, which is, for obvious reasons, important to snipers(note that sniper rifles require fairly high strength as well).

I actually don't have much experience with agility, the most interesting aspect of the stat is how it claims to increase movement speed(something I intend to test in the future). It also boosts many skills and every point gives +4 to melee dodge(in addition to the 2 points that it boosts the melee skill by, which boosts melee dodge as well, so total +6 melee dodge for every agility point).

Charisma is probably the most difficult stat to define, it only seems to augment two things: the trade skill and the attitude sub-stat. As planetalcatraz mentioned, the trade stat is quite nice at level 150 because you can freely buy and sell things without any loss of profit. The attitude sub-stat determines what choices you can successfully choose in conversations, such as picking how much you want to get paid for a mission. It may not seem like much but it adds another dimension to the game which wouldn't be available to people with low attitude. I'm relatively certain that attitude determines your ability to successfully 'rob' someone, which allows you to take their belongings in the same way the thieving skill would with pickpocketing(except you only get a single experience point gain from successfully robbing them, whereas with thieving you get experience from every item stolen, generally depending on value [For best experience gain, rob and pickpocket them, but only take the items when pickpocketing]). If you want to specialize in a character who can get what he wants from conversations then I'd recommend not doing it on the first playthrough, as it detracts from necessary stats which will help you on your first time through.

The stats, from best to worse (approximately), go:

Constitution
Intelligence
Strength
Perception/Agility(depends on character build)
Charisma

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Perks

Every few levels your character gains a perk point, to be spent on special traits. The majority of traits gives a hidden +10 bonus, but some other traits are notably more unique (and generally more useful).

Before any perk points are spent, you should save up 2 perk points and buy the Botany perk, which causes your character to gain 3 additional skill points for every subsequent level. I believe the earliest this can be done is level 9.

Some other notable perks include:

Backstab - Causes double-damage if you attack from behind. I haven't tested this perk yet, but it presumably applies only to melee attacks. Extremely nice perk since it only costs one perk point, once you start getting multiple party members this will cause some serious pain.

Black Mark - +10 Critical Hit chance. I don't believe it's a percentage value, but instead I theorize that it's a comparative value check, meaning that if your Critical Hit chance sub-stat is higher than an enemy's Critical Hit avoided sub-stat then you have a higher chance of scoring a critical hit. A critical hit knocks the opponent to the ground and disarms them, it's quite effective.

Happy Ticket - +30 Critical Hit avoided. Definitely useful for 'tank' characters, who are going to be taking the brunt of most of the attacks in the game.

Anti-Pig - +50 Poison resistance. Poison isn't encountered very often but it can be annoying or heavily damaging, depending on the type. Monsters/beasts seem more prone to using poisonous attacks than humans.

Note that Black Mark, Happy Ticket and Anti-Pig are all in the same perk slot, so only one can be chosen.

Surgeon and Cheapjack actually directly add 10 points to a skill, so if you intend to get one or both of these perks, make sure the corresponding skill is over 100 to get the maximum use out of it.

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Skills

Skills are the main way you augment your character's abilities and overall power.

As was mentioned earlier:

1)Get Intelligence as high as possible. Skills = Overall power. Coaches give 2 times your intelligence stat.
2)Skill increases cost 1 while under 100 and 2 while at 100 or higher. Utilizing drugs or the Night Person trait to temporarily lower your stats below 100 allows you to increase skills for half-price while they're temporarily lowered to levels beneath 100.
3)Don't use skill coaches until your skill is at level 100 or greater (except repair and scouting, which reach maximum usefulness at level 100).

The Melee Combat skill is important, especially at the beginning, because of the lack of non-melee weapons and because the melee stat changes how often you get hit in melee. I'm uncertain of non-melee weapons, but I know for a fact that increasing the melee combat skill boosts your critical hit sub-stat.

The Trade skill is extremely useful to get the most money out of any transaction you enter. Reaches maximum usefulness at 150. At 150 you buy and sell items at the same price. Once you get far enough in the storyline to unlock the south-western portion of Northern(getting a little confusing on the directions now...) city, you will have access to a fellow who wants you to buy boxes of vodka to supply his inn(or pub, or whatever). He warns that a good trade ability is necessary, so if you have 150 trade then this is basically free money, with seemingly no limit. Every time you bring him boxes of vodka a day passes, so the merchants that you purchased the vodka from should have a new supply.

The Thieving skill is arguably among the most useful skills in the game. It's required to pickpocket and pick locks successfully. The greater the value of an item pickpocketed or the more powerful the lock, the more experience you gain from succeeding. I'd recommend focusing heavily on this stat while in the Industrial Zone, because you won't be able to return at your leisure. The more expensive an item, the more difficult it is to steal. Some characters(such as guards) have a higher difficulty on pickpocketing, and some people are impossible to pickpocket altogether(to test: try to pickpocket someone with 0 coins, if you fail then they're immune to pickpocketing). You have to be standing behind someone to pickpocket them. You also need picks to pick locks.

The repair skill reaches maximum usefulness at 100. With the repair skill you can use a Repair kit (by clicking the repair button at the top of the screen) to fully repair an item, which passes some time and uses up 1 of the 50 uses of a repair kit. At maximum trade(150) a repair kit costs 450 and has 50 uses, so each use is worth 9, paying someone to repair an item for you generally costs far far more than this. Good skill for saving money.

Scouting is important to snipers (and anyone who wants to know what to expect in an encounter) because it boosts the sight range sub-stat, it also increases the effectiveness of sneaking. Very useful skill for snipers, I've managed to down an entire camp of enemies with one sniper without ever being attacked. It appears to reach maximum effectiveness at 100.

Non-melee combat skills (Pistols & Shotguns, Heavy Weapons, Imperial Weapons and Throwing Weapons) increase your attack (it narrows the cone that represents your possible attack trajectory, meaning you will hit what you're aiming at more often) and boost your critical hit rate with the corresponding weapons. Note that, unlike melee, there isn't a stat that affects dodging bullets, if your enemy is a good shot, you're nearby and you're stationary then you can consider yourself shot. It's possible to avoid getting shot by running perpendicularly(strafing).

The first aid skill seems to boost the effectiveness of medkits(which I, admittedly, have not yet) and gives a slight critical hit defense boost.

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Traits

Your character can select two traits at character creation. Most traits just trade some skills for some other skills, lowering one by 10 to boost the other two by 5, for example.

Bull - +1 Constitution, -4 Melee Defense per Agility

and

Kamikaze - +1 Strength, -4 Melee Defense per Agility

go quite well together if you don't plan on raising Agility above 1.

Night Person is handy because you can just wait and allow the time to pass until it's night, so you operate at maximum efficiency, and because you can raise some skills for half-cost while they're temporarily below 100. During night-time sight-range drops down by a very large margin, so this skill is quite useful for stealth snipers looking for an advantage over their foes.

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I just wanted to add a couple things about the latest version (1.06)

1. the pipe/heavy pipe and scope money trick doesn't work anymore but it is still extremely useful to have 150 in trading since you can basically "rent" equipment. and money by this point should be rolling in just from selling guns/armor from map quests.

It's possible that it just didn't work for you at the time. There seem to be a number of variations of guns that a telescope can be attached to. (speaking from the experience of someone using a character with 150 trade) Weapons bought from a store seem to have 3 price variations, regular, modified and reliability-modified. The regular one is the cheapest and gives no telescope price bonus, the modified version(meaning what appears to be any amount of modifications that don't involve reliability) gives a 15k bonus and the reliability-modified version gives 45k extra from a telescope attachment.

I might just be mistaken and it really has been fixed in patch 1.06, maybe I'm still using an older version and I just don't know.