#Ranking the Available Characters For Each Class

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low mauve
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A probably pointless exercise for me.

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okay, so examining the characters we currently have of each class:
Agent Ex: Soren > Escaped experiment. Soren starts with some of the highest stats in the game, and is built for critting. Unfortunately he loses some hps in the process. The Escaped Experiment has a 50% chance to double any stress you take and has a choice that will make her a bit tougher than Soren, but she will not end up with as many stats as him, regardless. She is much better for cloud sword murder hoboing, but Soren appears to be better overall if you can take advantage of his crits.

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Cybersword: Zasha > Ex-Ultratek Weapons Dev. Zasha is specced in Strength and Reflexes which is slightly better than Strength and Tech for the Ex. She also has more hit points and a bit more accuracy. He hits harder which is nice, and can reduce your fab costs, but he also is going to constantly be generating stress unless you set him up for kills because he is a psycopath.

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Gunslinger: Lone Wolf > Sid. Sid also has a ton of stats to start off of, but unfortunately most of his stats are in Will whereas the Lone Wolf has a bunch of Reaction, which is more valuable for a Gunslinger. He is a bit tougher than the Lone Wolf and overall seems to be set to be more of a tank whereas, she is set to be focus on hit and run and positioning. I think they are honestly pretty close, but for this one I am giving the edge to the Lone Wolf, because she seems to exist closer to what you want to be doing, and she doesn't have an increased chance to get stress.

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Hacker: Framed UNA Hacking Specialist > Undiscovered Digital Prodigy > Dade. Dade has the worst starting attributes in the game, reduced hit points, and some otherwise pretty decent attributes. Unfortunately none of this is nearly as good as what either the Undiscovered Digital Prodigy and Framed UNA Hacking Specialist bring to the table. the Undiscovered Digital Prodigy is much more adept for field missions thanks to the additional time jamming devices, higher hit point total, and 2 more base stats. Of course both of them are ineffective compared to the very polarized statline of the Framed UNA Hacking Specialist. On top of the much higher tech score, the UNA has + 12 Matrix AP and 4 additional matrix armor. This is on top of the inherent extra matrix AP that comes with a truly astounding 10 tech. Of course she suffers with -20 hp and negative values for both reaction and strength, meaning she is not the best at live missions, but if you can keep her save with the rest of your party or keep her to pure hacking missions she is going to be a powerhouse.

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Scourge: Unknown Bioweapon > August > Terminal Retrovirus. August and the Terminal Retrovirus both mix points in a good stat with point in a less good stat for a Scourge, but August lacks the Terminal Retrovirus's built in disadvantages. The Terminal Retrovirus was clearly built to be very tough, with enhanced will and a whole pile of bonus hps, but the Terminal Retrovirus gaining stress if you leave it home and a greater chance of getting stress or wounds, leaves you somewhat straightjacketed if you want to have him as part of your roster. In contrast the Unknown Bioweapon has a startling sixteen attributes point, with the bulk of them in tech and will, and no clear disadvantages to speak of. It is not simply that the other Scourges are bad, its just that the Bioweapon is better and is perhaps one of the best characters in the game right now.

wind kayak
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One caveat for the UNA hacker is that she refuses to work for WB, so you'll have to bench her occasionally.

low mauve
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Sniper: Fireteam: Shadowolf > Liat. This is a close one. Fireteam has a bunch of will, which is frankly useless but makes up for it with an incredible amount of accuracy and bonus crit damage. He will generate more stress and will generate less xp without at least a single kill in a mission, but that seems pretty doable on any sort of mission you would be bringing a Sniper to. Liat has some bonuses for hacking, if you feel like multi-classing, but that seems to be mostly a quirk than a real benefit.

low mauve
wind kayak
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Yeah, just means my expected value from investing in her gets a bit lower. Agreed her attributes and traits are really good.

low mauve
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Soldier: Ex-Los Z Hammer > Ex-Jupiter Bodyguard > Aaron = Aitna are both set up to wield weapons which I consider to be outside the Soldier's bread and butter (SMG/Shotguns for Aitna and Sniper Rifles/Railguns for Aaron). but are otherwise very equivalent. Ex-Los has a better kit overall. More hp, more general damage, and the ability to hone in on either of those. He also has a much greater ability to manage his recoil, which is the sort of ability that is really handy for a character who wants the flexibility to run and gun. The Ex-Jupiter is also a step above the starter Soldiers, but doesn't quite the strength of kit that Ex-Los posseses. Her ability to get greater mobility is dampened a bit by her decreased reaction, but she is also the only of the four that has access to a trait that grants additional accuracy with an assault rifle.

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Emille > Ex Los Z Recon > Street Smart Climber. Emille just does everything the Ex Loz Z Recon does but better. There are a few areas where you can perhaps get a little bit legwork success or decreased detection radius, but this doesn't make up for Emille's raw stats, though admittadly its close. Unforutnately it is not close with the Street Smart Climber who is one of the worst characters in the game as far as hps go, has lower base stats than the other two, and a weird combination of 0 strength and the potential to get a bonus to melee accuracy. She does have the advantage of getting bonus xp, a positive story beat, and the potentially best legwork bonuses, but none of these make up for the stats and hps she leaves behind.

wind kayak
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Close-Quarters accuracy works on Urban Assaults. I think they're on average weaker than regular assault rifles, but not by much after the recent buffs.

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Also, you can instantly consider any Solider a Sniper in disguise, since the multiclass is free, and Soldier is Sniper's best 2nd class IMO. That's maybe not fair to grade Aaron as a Sniper, but it's a reasonable option.

low mauve
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yes

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I don't feel comfortable grading them by all the possible multi-classes though

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its tough now and will get tougher as more classes get released

wind kayak
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Oh yeah that would be ludicrous lol. I feel you

low mauve
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even people are like lol, mc everything with soldier for savagery.

wind kayak
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Hahahahaha yeah it's good 🙂

viscid sinew
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I value the -1m detection radius option much more highly than you do on a Vanguard. Especially when stacked.

low mauve
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and in which case you could move up the Ex Los Z Recon

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my ultimate conclusion is to take that one anyway

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because I feel the amount Emille is better than the Ex Los Z Recon is less than how much better Soren is than the merc Agent Ex

viscid sinew
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The closer I can get before needing to reduce to sneak speed the better.

low mauve
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though he is a lot tougher and has pure damage bonuses

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but he also is a stress monkey

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so yeah, I think she is just slightly better

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45 hp difference is a fair bit

heavy mountain
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Aaron is a Sniper in disguise. His raw snipy stats are worse than the Uhub merc, and he is not getting as much accuracy. However you start with him right off the bat and so can level him up a bit easier to then multiclass into Sniper once you have the decent rifle and enough skillpoints. From how I ran it you get most from the Sniper at lvl 13ish+ to get either max Nest or some of Recoup/SaVagery combo going. He also brings a useful contact from Arrowtech security that has 2 funky leverages: reinforcements delay and 2 turn disable all cameras which can be very handy (and is cheap).

heavy mountain
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Any merc with a chance to gain double stress is a no-go for me. Getting critted once + probably another hit = 50% chance for a negative stress break. Too much of a risk.

sick karma
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@low mauve this exercise gave me great joy, so hopefully it didn't feel too pointless in the end!

low mauve
sick karma
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Note that Traits that risk double Stress reduce their % when upgrading

low mauve
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or at least the upgrade message does not indicate that

sick karma
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Ok, will check that

low mauve
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Plus I like doing this analysis to interrogate my biases and perspectives

low mauve
sick karma
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From this, I am going to take a look at Street Smart Climber 🙏

low mauve
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regardless 1% increase in crit chance is pretty bad

sick karma
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Interesting, I am AFK (still sick) but will check, likely it starts dropping at level 3 and 4 which is lame and lacks signposting

low mauve
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💯

low mauve
sick karma
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If you took a break, would it be for a while?

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Seems like you dove back in and swam deep fast

low mauve
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the last time I played was July

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so probably, lol

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but yes I did dive deep

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I have had more time in the past two weeks than the rest combined, as you can see

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lol

sick karma
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Hope it had been fun!

low mauve
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yes

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I am fairly picky about turn based tacticals but when I really fall in love with the right game then it consumes my time

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this is definitely one I've fallen in love with

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all the pieces are in place for it to be one of the best imo

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like you really have hit on something great here

sick karma
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Appreciate the analysis.

Personally, I always try to avoid the burnout unless I know it's the last time I'll play

sick karma
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The game will always need more balance and analysis, so now it's later, always valuable

low mauve
sick karma
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In 2-3 months the game is going to be pretty far evolved again

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Ok good good afk

low mauve
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Part of the reason I am at the number of hours is because this time I just started again.

sick karma
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Sorry, gotta go

low mauve
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np

sick karma
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Thanks for this lovely thread

uncut oak
low mauve
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trait reference page?

viscid sinew
low mauve
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And it looks like Adrenadline Junky increases the chance to get stress as it goes up

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feels like it should push stresss chance down but hype chance up as you more constructive with it

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Not Much Time is not on the list

uncut oak
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it probably hasn't gotten a data dump from the game recently.

glacial jewel
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it would also be nice if the existing/future reference pages contained the date of last update from the game database, so we can tell whether something is stale.

low mauve
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going to do a run based on this analysis: Soren (and pick up the merc Vanguard), Sid or one of the soldiers (it doesn't matter, both have better/good recrutiable options), and Zasha (and pick of the merc Sniper and the Bioweapon)

low mauve
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Gender breakdown of mercs:
Male -11
Female - 9
Could be either: 1

sick karma
sick karma
sick karma
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Will fix

tidal fox
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just like grading systems in real life, ease of grading trumps accuracy 😉

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at least we don't have a feedback cycle where people then go on to game the grading system

tidal fox
tidal fox
sick karma
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Cool to see counter opinions with reasons

low mauve
tidal fox
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depends on playstyle I guess, but yeah, four kills every mission happens pretty naturally for my cyberswords

low mauve
# tidal fox I prefer the LZ vanguard to Emilie because she has decent strength and I plike t...

I feel that vanguards are just as naturally made into silencer crit pistol killers and Emille fills that role well. It may be that sword vanguard > pistol vanguard but I have seen no evidence of that. With all that being said, I do feel that some of these categories are fairly close, and if it turns out in net that the Ex Los Z Recon is actually slightly better than Emille I wouldn't be thaaaaat surprised.

low mauve
boreal notch
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For the record, I also find it difficult getting 4 kills on him simply because I tend to pair him with either my very lethal sniper or my very lethal vanguard

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I'm not saying he can't kill, just that 4 kills per mission is lofty

low mauve
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💯

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same

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I am usually killing with whomever I can to silence someone

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and he just brings a little bit more murder to the mission to help with that

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hitting the 4 requires specific circumstances that aren't frequent

glacial jewel
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i didn't realize the hub cybersword requires four kills every mission. really, he can't go out the door and come back in unless he killed four people? please don't send him out for groceries.

low mauve
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but I appreciate the play in doing it to stop from people sending him for groceries

boreal notch
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THAT being said, I don't want it changed?

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I like the slight gruffness represented by him not getting his bloodlust slacked

sick karma
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what about 3 instead of 4?

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those are some sloppy groceries

boreal notch
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Triple kill

tidal fox
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how do y'all have problems getting four kills for the dude? on those super small maps maybe, but on the two bridges map...

heavy mountain
boreal notch
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@tidal fox Because it's first come, first serve. Snipers gotta reach advantage over the cybersword

tidal fox
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ah well, okay, I guess if you don't want to change your tactics at all to accommodate him, it might come up

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only fair that he gets stressed then, though

sick karma
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definitely the point of the trait is that he needs to be ... accomodated

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he probably hates your sniper 😄

tidal fox
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stress break special variant: murders the merc with the most kills in their sleep

boreal notch
boreal notch
tidal fox
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Regarding the LZ vanguard, I think I was misremembering their background trait, or maybe it used to be something different? At least as it's now, it's a measly +1 to strength, and yeah that's not better than Emilie. So I retract my disagreement there

low mauve
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I mean the LZ vanguard is sneakier

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and the smaller detection range is perhaps better than what Emille has to offer

tidal fox
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once the missing vanguard talent goes in it'll be nice to get really low detection range with it, enough to get surprise attacks on targety you run behind

wind kayak
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10% move speed is hard to beat early game

low mauve
wind kayak
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Yep, the eventual scaling is likely better.

low mauve
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and Thief 2 pushes the move detection radius to -3

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which is p. nice

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you give up move if you go that way

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but either option seems decent

viscid sinew
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If I understand correctly, swords have 2n reach, normal detection range is 10m, and sneak halves the distance. So if you get to -8m, you can silent stab, and at -6m you can sneak stab.

uncut oak
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sneak stab?

viscid sinew
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There is -2m in the Vanguard talent tree, so if thief gives -3m, you only need to find one more.

viscid sinew
uncut oak
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you actually need -7m, because it would be nigh impossible to get exactly the 2m melee range without triggering noise with -6m

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I'm not convinced that is possible

tidal fox
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you can sneak up to the detection range where sneaking won't help, then sprint past the target so you end up behind them as they turn around. They'll be suspicious, but may not have spotted you and still qualifiy for a sneak attack. Easier the more move speed and less move detection radius you have.

uncut oak
boreal notch
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Another one is to abuse the clip to walls mechanic to get within range. Very temperamental and also requires the guard to be within ~3m of a wall in the first place

viscid sinew
wind kayak
low mauve
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so the conclusion is you can't get into sword range?

viscid sinew
uncut oak
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if it is not halved, I believe that is a bug because @sick karma said way back that it is halved

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I believe I checked with him before putting it in the wiki

low mauve
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Well Ex-Los Z Recon can certainly get to it with little trouble

uncut oak
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I suggest submitting an F10

viscid sinew