oh ok read this and gtfo

Your Sniper, SMG, and Shotgun rangers should be all in on Coordination, Awareness, and Intelligence

Your Melee characters should be all in on Coordination, Strength, and Intelligence.

Your Big Guns character should be all in on Coordination, Awareness, and Intelligence, but it will need occasional Strength adjustments for heavier weapons.

Your Leadership ranger should be all in on Charisma and Intelligence

kthxbye

Set everyone's Luck to 2 and Speed to 1. Coordination should start at 4, and should get to at least 8 for most characters by end game.

Strength can start at 2 but you may want to buff it up to 4 for some common armor requirements. You may want to raise it early if you're dying a lot, the same way you may want to raise your Intelligence when you otherwise wouldn't if you often find yourself just a skill point short.


FAQ
Why are all the party comps just the same idea presented in slightly different ways? Why do you basically say the same thing 19 times?
On Wastelander difficulty, everything is EZ. It's just a matter of finding the laziest easiest option of them all, bc I am ur dad and I fell asleep on the couch. Do not turn off the TV tho, I was watching that

Background: Paladin
Quirk: Waste Roamer

Attributes
First: Charisma and Intelligence
Then: Coordination.
Excess: Luck.

Skills
High Priority: Leadership, Kiss Ass
Medium Priority: First Aid


what does this dude even do: casts Rally (Leadership perk) at the beginning of every combat. Throws med darts and medic crates at allies to heal them. Roots people on with the Foam Finger. Gives everyone a boost when he revives someone. Use the Demoralize (Leadership perk) to weaken enemies at a decent range. MVP for sure/

Background: Goat Killer
Quirk: Sadomasochist

Attributes
First: Awareness, Intelligence, and Coordination
Then: Luck


Skills
High Priority: Sniper Rifles, Hard Ass


what does this dame even do: shoota the monsta. MVP for sure.

Background: Lethal Weapon
Quirk: Waste Roamer

Attributes
First: Strength, Coordination, Intelligence
Otherwise: Luck

Skills
High Priority: Mechanics, Melee Weapons

what does this dad even do: applies blunt (or bladed) trauma directly to the forehead. Definitely the MVP.

Background: Disciple of the Metal/Explodomaniac
Quirk: Pyromaniac

Attributes
First: Coordination, Awareness, (Strength to 4, unless you really want heavier armor)
Then: Intelligence for when you just need an extra skill point to upgrade a skill
Otherwise: Luck

Skills
High Priority: Big Guns, Explosives
Medium Priority: Toaster Repair

what it do: fires ten billion bullets with beeg gun, or uses flamethrower. (toaster repair has a perk that increases fire damage). MVP MVP

Attributes
First: Coordination, Awareness, and Intelligence
Then: Luck

Skills
High Priority: Nerd Stuff, Automatic Weapons


what Kwon up to tho: roflstomp enemies. MVPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

Attributes
First: Coordination, Awareness, and Charisma
Then: Intelligence

Skills
High Priority: Lockpicking, Small Arms

Lucia ratio'd me on Twitter

I’m an Arizona Desert Ranger, and this is my strike team. I work here with four normal people and one harbinger of the apocalypse: Nightmare 2000. Everyone has a story and a dirt Speed. One thing I’ve learned after 21 missions of walking into landmines – you never know WHAT poor AI pathing is gonna come through that door


This is me, Angel, your friendly neighborhood combat-medic commander. I rally the squad into battle and then immediately patch them up when I inspire them into making dumb decisions. Occasionally I get to fire my gun but everyone just yells "lol don't be a DPS Mercy" and then I go back to healing...

• Background: Bookworm/Paladin
  
• Quirk: Waste Roamer
  
• Weapon: Foam Finger
  
• Coordination 4 (Raise to 10 3rd)
  
• Luck 1
  
• Awareness 1
  
• Strength 2
  
• Speed 1
  
• Intelligence 6 (Raise to 10 second)
  
• Charisma 6 (Raise to 10 first)
  
• High Priority Skills: First Aid, Kiss Ass, Leadership

That's my mentor from back in AZ, Void. She must be a million years old but she has a kill for every day she's been alive. Void doesn't put up with any of the wasteland's nonsense. I can confirm she's asked for an attacking raider's manager on multiple occasions.

• Background: Goat Killer
  
• Quirk: Sadomasochist
  
• Weapon: Sniper Rifle
  
• Coordination 6 (Raise to 10 second)
  
• Luck 2 (Extra)
  
• Awareness 4 (Raise to 10 third)
  
• Strength 2 (Raise to 4 4th)
  
• Speed 1
  
• Intelligence 5 (Raise to 10 first)
  
• Charisma 1
  
• High Priority Skills: Sniper Rifles, Hard Ass
  
• Other Skills: Sneaky

That's Fox. He's first into battle on every occasion and you have to get past him if you want to talk to or murder me and Void. Coolest dude I've ever met. He's a natural in close combat and knows everything about not getting mangled by machines. Regrettably, we have not listened to him about that much.

• Background: Lethal Weapon
  
• Quirk: Waste Roamer
  
• Weapon: Bladed Weapons and Deployables
  
• Coordination 6 (Raise to 10 second)
  
• Luck 1 (Raise to 10 fourth)
  
• Awareness 1
  
• Strength 7 (Raise to 10 first)
  
• Speed 1
  
• Intelligence 4 (Raise to 10 third)
  
• Charisma 1
  
• High Priority Skills: Melee Combat, Mechanics

Nightmare is a 7 foot tall jacked colossus with a humongous gun that fires thousands of rounds per minute. He's also a whiz with explosives, as I think even they are too afraid to disobey him. One time, for Mother's Day, he set my dad on fire. He set everyone's dad on fire. He fathered a child and set himself on fire.

• Background: Explodomaniac
  
• Quirk: Waste Roamer or Pyromaniac
  
• Weapon: Big Guns, Flamethrowers, Rocket Launchers, ur mom
  
• Coordination 6 (Raise to 8 3rd) (Raise to 10 6th)
  
• Luck 2 (Extra)
  
• Awareness 5 (Raise to 8 2nd) (Raise to 10 5th)
  
• Strength 4
  
• Speed 1
  
• Intelligence 2 (Raise to 6 1st) (Raise to 8 4th) (Raise to 10 7th)
  
• Charisma 1
  
• High Priority Skills: Big Guns, Explosives
  
• Other Skills: Toaster Repair

Kwon is a super smart hacker, so naturally all of our combat plans involve running in head first and trying to put robots into headlocks. Kwon does not like our combat plans.

• Weapon: Assault Rifles
  
• Coordination 6 (Raise to 8 3rd) (Raise to 10 6th)
  
• Luck 2 (Extra)
  
• Awareness 4 (Raise to 8 2nd) (Raise to 10 5th)
  
• Strength 2
  
• Speed 1
  
• Intelligence 5 (Raise to 8 1st) (Raise to 8 4th)
  
• Charisma 1
  
• High Priority Skills: Automatic Weapons, Nerd Stuff

Lucia shot me in the rear and then when I started bleeding, she said "this dude's ass spillin' blood!" and then everyone laughed.

• Weapon: Revolvers
  
• Coordination 4 (Raise to 6 1st) (Raise to 8 5th) (Raise to 10 9th)
  
• Luck 2 (Extra)
  
• Awareness 4 (Raise to 6 2nd) (Raise to 8 6th) (Raise to 10 10th)
  
• Strength 2
  
• Speed 1
  
• Intelligence 2 (Raise to 4 3rd) (Raise to 8 7th) (Raise to 10 11th)
  
• Charisma 6 (Raise to 7 4th) (Raise to 10 8th)
  
• High Priority Skills: Lockpicking, Small Arms

General Perks I like: Healthy, Quick Reflexes

Weird Science is a good place to put leftover skill points if you have a energy weapon version of a character's primary weapon to put in the secondary slot. This will make you much more flexible against mixed groups of organic and inorganic targets.

Lights Out (Sneaky 10) is a good perk for whoever opens up your combats.

The Waste Roamer quirk is lowkey cracked. Immunity to most conditions is wild. Many guides write it off because it lowers your exp, but with high CHA characters you can get most of the exp back, and on Wastelander difficulty, your level curve will be absolutely fine. You're going to get there eventually.

I highly recommend using the Free Retrain mod[www.nexusmods.com] to respec as you please.

_______________

Angel
Key Perks: Rally (Leadership 3), Demoralize (Leadership 5). Physical Therapy (First Aid 7)

Angel does not need to provide any offensive output the entire game, but you can leave 1 point in Small Arms to let him use the starting pistol if you like. You could even take him to Small Arms 3 for a slightly better pistol if you want to get really crazy with it. You should craft the Foam Finger ASAP (parts/recipe found in the Bizarre), which will let him dump even more AP on the party.

After you open combat with whoever is doing your sneak attack, Angel's Rally skill should be the first thing you pop every single time. Then he adds AP to an ally with a Foam Finger, usually Void, that allows her to take a shot she would otherwise not have the AP to take. From there, he is on standby for healing, resurrection and uses of the Demoralize skill on grouped enemies.

Void
Steal the Mega Scope sniper rifle from the museum in the Bizarre. It only costs 4 ap to use, making it a great followup tool, and it can also hit multiple enemies in a line. It deals energy damage, so put a few of Void's many skill points in Weird Science when you get it.

Every Sniper Rifle perk is good. The Chain Ambush sniper rifle perk will allow you to use your positioning to win the game.

Fox
Melee Weapons Perks at tiers 5, 7, and 8 make you win the game. Mechanics 4 does so even more, assuming you have a steady supply of deployables.

Nightmare
The last two perks in the Big Guns and Explosive trees will greatly increase your combat effectiveness.

There is an exploding Big Gun in this game that synergizes with this build, but modding any HMG/LMG with explosive damage is fine. Keep a spare gun of a lower level when you find a good new one, as they'll often use two different damage types, and it can be hard to find a lot of .50 early in the game.

Kwon

The last three perks in the Automatic Weapons tree are highly recommended.

Lucia

Small Arms Perks at Tiers 3 and 7 are key.

People sometimes ask, "Why Charisma?" Because of Strike Rate. Lucia's unique background combined with her weapon choice is going to have you taking super special murder shots on the regular.



Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbonus Companion:
Zero
Poindexter/Moneybags
Barter/Weapon Modding/Armor Modding

This gal never leaves Ranger HQ. She just hangs out to mod your weapons and scrap your trash, which you can use to build ammo without concern for vendor stock.

________________________

So sayeth your absolute and eternal dad.

Perhaps it's 2024 or 2025 or even 3 in the morning and you're sick of Angel, Void, Fox, and Nightmare's layouts. Let's switch it up. (Except for Nightmare. You really can't beat the Big/Expl/Toast combo).

Welcome to Raptor's squad.

You're gonna have a lot more freedom with this one, plenty of room to add Animal Whisperer or Weird Science or whatever wherever. Figuring out when to adjust each attribute has mostly also been left up to you, but never a bad idea to take turns raising each key stat up to 6, then to 8, etc. If you know what you're doing, you can stall on raising Coordination for a while, since you'll need less AP to be efficient.


Coordination should start at 4 or 6, then move up to 8 or 10 by end game.

Luck should start at 2 and raise only when you're satisfied with your main attributes.

Awareness should start at 2 or 4.

Strength should start at 2 and make its way up when you have a free point, or when you're feeling fragile, or if you really want to use end-game armor. You can cap it at 4 if you really don't care.

Speed should stay at 1. If you think I'm an idiot and want to raise it anyway, please at least max out Coordination before doing so. I promise it's just better.

Intelligence should usually start at at least 4. You're going to want to have the flexibility to bump it when you need just 1 more skill point.

Charisma should stay at 1 for most characters.



Vicious Avenger/Waste Roamer

Charisma/Coordination/Awareness/Intelligence

Leadership/Automatic Weapons/Hard Ass

Raptor's an old-school Ranger, a veteran of a hundred poorly-designed alpha-strike combat encounters, so he was amongst the first to volunteer to head to Colorado, hoping to dodge any promotions that would retire him from the field for good.


Explodomaniac/Pyromaniac

Coordination/Awareness/Intelligence

Big Guns/Explosives/Toaster Repair

When his minigun starts firing up, you'll understand why they call him Hurricane. Left Arizona to follow Raptor into yet another mission where his violent intent would be valued over his distaste for careful accuracy.


Vicious Avenger/Sadomasochist

Coordination/Intelligence/Awareness

Sniper Rifles/Lockpicking/Sneaky

While you were letting your guard down by reading this blurb, Venom shot you in the face. Born to merciless raiders, Venom has shed his cannibalistic depravity but not his relentless intensity. Colorado won't know what hit it.


Jodie Bell: Coordination/Intelligence/Awareness; Sniper Rifles/Mechanics

Kwon: Coordination/Intelligence/Awareness; Automatic Weapons/Nerd Stuff/First Aid

Lucia: Charisma/Coordination/Awareness/Intelligence; Small Arms/Kiss Ass

Perhaps you think skill checks are for losers, and that any problem that can be solved with a critical hit can be solved even better with a Mega Crit. You have simply surpassed the need to lockpick things God didn't intend you to be a high enough level to lockpick for.

In that case, when looking at this guide, when a build levels Intelligence, replace it with Luck until you can no longer stand your contrarian ideology. A milder choice would simply be to put every other point you were going to put into Intelligence into Luck instead.

Similarly, you may also substitute Luck for Awareness to showcase how unaware you truly are, or split points between Luck and Awareness that would normally only go to Awareness.

Perhaps you want to level every skill, all the time, no matter how useless it is. Perhaps you understand this will make the early-game very awkward. Perhaps you are such a dumbass that you don't care.

In that case, just always level Intelligence to 10 first for every character, regardless of consequences. The consequence here of course being that, despite your Intelligence, you are very dumb.

And because you are so wise and aware, hit 10 in Awareness long before you start to level Coordination, since extra AP are obviously only for oblivious morons who make mistakes. Good luck.