Seraphia's guide to being slightly less of a skrub.

This is the official Seraphia guide to get you out of skrubhood. We'll start with some useful links you will want to refer to:
http://hellmoo.org/wiki/index.php/Character_Creation
http://hellmoo.org/wiki/index.php/Mutations

Alrighty, so you should have just started and woken up as an orphan with no description, no gender, and basically no clue what to do. Before you can leave, you have to set a description for yourself by typing '@describe me as xxxxxx' and setting your gender with @gender. You should be carrying only a museum flyer telling you to check out the museum. After you've set your description and gender you can go ahead and follow flyer, it'll take you to your destination.

Before I continue, I should explain how stats and skills are displayed and used. Here is an example of an end game score screen:

 brawn [12.02 /23]        cool [18.00 /30]    reflexes [18.00 /26]
     brains [ 8.00 / 4]      senses [13.00 /22]   endurance [ 8.00 /10]

 Implants // discipline                         muscle juicer      [+1brw]         (8/10)
             coprocessor        [+1brn]         (7/10) hotrail            [+3ref] [-1end] (7/10)
             syntheye           [+1sen]         (6/10) muscle controller  [+3brw] [-1brn] (7/10)
             hotwire            [+1ref]         (8/10) ego synthesizer    [+3col] [-1brw] (9/10)
             LIDAR              [+3sen] [-1col] (6/10) leukocyte stimulat [+1end]
             alkatek DNI                        (7/10) ego modulator      [+1col]         (6/10)
Mutations // iron liver, fibrocartilage, twitchy nerves, superclot, brute strength, vampire, fuck
machine, writhing smoke, nimble fingers, yeti skin, hooligan, chiller, yeti fur, firewalker,
bloodhound, clairvoyance, screech, medium

       XP // 298,827 total  // 3,425 to spend
       IP // 15,327 total equivalent //  18 available for gym

Skill      Raw    +   + Total Depends Improve
dodge      15.00  +7     [35] ref,sen         The Artful Dodger. (-13 tohit)
fists       3.04  +6     [17] brw,end  1505xp Karate kid.
rifles     15.00 +10     [41] col,ref         Best in the world.
blades     10.00 +10     [36] ref,col  8035xp The Dread Pirate Roberts.
focus      15.00  +5  +3 [31] end,sen         The Buddha.
track       4.81  +9  +4 [28] sen       292xp Boba Fett.
ride        1.00 +10     [27] col,ref   420xp Fifth-best in the world.
fish        7.00  +7     [27] col,end  1302xp Best in the world.
pistols     1.38 +10     [27] col,ref   807xp The man with no name.
quickdraw   1.83 +10     [27] col,ref    71xp William Munny.
sneak       1.83  +9     [23] col,sen   142xp Fifth-best in the world.
throw       3.05 +10     [23] brw,sen  1170xp Second-best in the world.
fuck        2.87  +7  +4 [22] end,sen    68xp God, you sicken me.
persuade    1.70 +10     [22] col,brn   126xp President of Wigeria.
flails      2.00 +10     [22] brw,sen  1470xp Third-best in the world.
scavenge    7.00  +6     [21] end,sen  1736xp Junkmaster.
climb       6.00  +5  -1 [21] ref,end  1512xp Master climber.
pilot       6.00  +3     [20] brn,ref  3024xp T.C. from Magnum PI.
torture     1.00  +7     [19] col,end   336xp African dictator. (+5 crit)
wrestle     1.09  +5  +2 [19] ref,end   917xp World Heavyweight Champ!
clubs       0.08  +9     [19] brw,ref  1442xp Bashing expert.
teach      14.00  -4     [16] brn      1091xp Professor.
medic      13.00  -4     [15] brn      5000xp Call me 'doctor'.
locksmith   1.00  +2  +1 [15] brn,ref   840xp Highly capable thief.
bombs       0.12  +4     [12] brn,col   689xp Gifted amateur.
appraise    1.19  +3     [12] brn,sen   340xp Gifted amateur.
swim        3.98  +2     [11] end         8xp Recreational swimmer.
craft       7.00  -4  +1 [10] brn      3100xp Hobby shop loudmouth.
repair      6.00  -4     [ 8] brn      1889xp Can change the oil.
science     0.30  -4     [-6] brn      1097xp Creationist.

Each stat and skill has a RAW value and a total value. The RAW value represents how experienced you are in that skill/stat and your total represents how effective you are. Each time you use a skill you have a chance to gain 1 ip. 1 ip is 0.01 RAW so 100 ip is 1 RAW. A skill with less than 1 RAW will have negatives to it, so bringing it to 1 RAW gives significant buffs. Each whole RAW after that increases the skill by 1. Each stat (Brawn, Brains, Cool, Senses, Reflexes, and Endurance) can have up to a max of 18 raw (you can only bring it to 14 at chargen) and each skill can be ground to 6 RAW and learned to 15 RAW by spending xp, but totals are only limited by how much stuff you can buff yourself with.

Skills draw their totals from 1 or 2 stats: fists       3.04  +6     [17] brw,end  1505xp Karate kid.
Fists for example uses brawn and endurance for its total. Each point of brawn or endurance will add .5 to its total. So every 2 brawn or endurance gained will be +1 fists. The same goes for 1 of each stat (1 brw + 1 end = 1 fist). Skills using only one stat get +1 from every +1 to their governing stat. Like medic gets +1 to its total for every +1 brains.

At this point you should be thinking long and hard about what type of build you should be going. Each weapon and stat has its strengths and weaknesses. I will break down the stats:

Brawn: Governs weight capacity, most melee weapon's damage scales at least somewhat to brawn, allows you to move faster.
Brains: Governs feint checks (feinting an enemy and defending against a feint), below 6 you gain a 'dumb' filter, many utility skills use brains.
Cool: Resisting running away/pissing yourself in fear, looking down and losing your grip on a climb, and resisting stress are all based on cool. Having less than 6 cool gives you a low cool filter givng random caps and hasthtags.
Senses: One of the stats used for dodge and focus (both very useful skills)
Reflexes: Governs weapon speed, not setting off traps, dodging traps, the main stat of almost every build.
Endurance: Resisting illness, drugs, radiation, bone breaks, shock, and more is based on endurance checks. Very useful stat.

In character generation there are many items to pick up (skills to tag) and it can be intimidating trying to figure out what's good and what's not. A tagged skill costs less xp to learn, as you can only grind a skill to 6 RAW (the max RAW being 15) it's best to tag things you plan on actually learning. I encourage trying different builds to see what works great for you, but I will tell you what NOT to tag: Appraise, Fish, Flails, Fuck, Persuade, Pilot, Ride, Sneak, Swim, Teach, Throw, Torture, Track. All of these are basically useless as tags because they are either not very good/don't cost much



As of 11/13/14 there are many viable builds. They can be broken down by weapon: Clubs, Fists, Rifles, Pistols, Whips, Blades, and Spears. (Flails are useless don't bother) Most weapon types have several viable tertiary stats they may use. For example as clubs you'd spread your stats out 14 reflexes, 14 brawn, and 10 in a tertiary (brains, endurance, or senses works best as clubs). But some are more limited, like fists. Fists already uses 3 stats (endurance and brawn for skill, reflexes for speed) so it isn't as flexible as clubs.

Here's a few suggested newer player builds: Brainy clubs, Fists, Brawny spears.

So you've gone all the way through character generation, you've picked your tags and distributed your points, what now? Well, now you get to do basically whatever you want. However, i'd suggest talking to MServo and joining ENEMA to start. Then you should head over to Eschatton Outfitters (EO on the map, from outside the museum it's 3 east, 4 south, 4 east, and 1 south). You should purchase yourself a bag of sorts, a canteen, and a gas mask. There's all sorts of nasty stuff in the air of freedom city and you don't want to get sick. Fill your canteen from a safe water source like someone's sink or shower.

A tip on corps: You should look around before joining a corp some stranger told you to. Some corps are full of total skrubs who will be nothing but a detriment to your learning.

Make some easy money: There's plenty of jobs around FC, you could do anything from deliver packages (See Ratzo upstairs in any port), selling crank in the crack mansion, to fixing broken transformers and water valves down in the sewers. You should also head back to the orphanage and kill all of them that you see for experience and ip. Sister Agnes will even pay you $50 per rabid orphan you kill.

How do I get off without being unsafe??: You can purchase an apartment in one of the many complexes around the greater freedom city area. Or you could log in the crash landing cube hotel (WARNING: if you have stars or an open pvp challenge you cannot log here safely).

Thus concludes Seraphia's guide to being slightly less of a skrub. Page me in game if you have any questions.

COMING SOON(tm) What should I kill and when should I kill it?: The Skrub's Handbook