Most Important Wasteland 3 Attributes for Builds
If you’re wondering which Wasteland 3 Attributes you should be putting points into during character creation, this is the guide for you.
If you’re playing Wasteland 3, the very first thing you’re going to have to do is create your character… and then create a second character… and then a little bit later on, create two more characters.
The whole process can be daunting, even for experienced RPG veterans, especially when you don’t know which attributes are going to be the most useful throughout the game. The last thing you want to do is make a mistake.
This Wasteland 3 Attributes Guide will help you ensure that you create characters that don’t need to be remade later on because you allocated your points poorly.
Let’s get into it.
Coordination – Wasteland 3 Attributes
Coordination is generally good on every character because it increases Action Points, which every character needs to perform any action from moving, to using items, to attacking.
However, on most characters it’s kind of a waste to max this out early. Generally it’s the second priority to max after your main stat and, even then, you can probably get it up to 6 or 8 and leave it there until you really think you need more.
Full Coordination will give you 11 AP total and zero Coordination leaves you at 6 AP. For an Assault Weapons user to attack twice, they only need 8 (4 Coordination). For a Pistol user to attack three times, they need 9 AP (6 Coordination). For a Sniper to attack twice, they need 12 Coordination (which is impossible without Death Wish or a +AP utility), so generally 6 coordination (12 AP with Death Wish or 9 AP without) is alright for a Sniper for most of the game.
So, generally it’s still good to max Coordination in order to get flexibility to move, but your priority to unlock the maximum number of attacks for your chosen weapon type.
A good rule of thumb is to start Coordination off at 4 and max it out after your primary attribute.
Luck – Wasteland 3 Attributes
Luck is much more useful than it would at first appear. It can give you extra turns and more crits, and the bonus Penetration is nothing to sneeze at either. Each Luck-based attack effect has a 10% chance of activating, which means you have a pretty significant chance of something good happening every attack (not to mention the other Luck bonuses).
Typically, most characters can max out 4 attributes by the end of the game. I’d suggest you have Luck be your 4th. Main stat, then Coordination, then Intelligence, then Luck.
But that’s just a general rule. As you learn more about the game, you may see the value in only getting as much Coordination as you need for your max attacks, or dumping into Luck before Intelligence.
Awareness – Wasteland 3 Attributes
Awareness is your main stat if you’re using a ranged weapon. You might be wondering which weapons count as ranged. The answer is, if it’s not a melee weapon, it’s a ranged weapon. Whether you’re using Pistols, SMGs, Assault Rifles or Shotguns, you’ll want to max Awareness first.
The real draw is the Ranged Damage Bonus. The Hit chance and Perception are just icing on the cake.
If you’re not using a ranged weapon, leave this stat at 1.
Strength – Wasteland 3 Attributes
For melee attackers, Strength is the main stat. Definitely max this first. It gives health, damage, and throwing range, which makes your melee character a particularly good candidate for Explosives.
If you’re not a melee character, you’ll want to bring this up to 2 or else you won’t gain health at all as you level up throughout the game.
Speed – Wasteland 3 Attributes
Speed is typically only useful for melee characters and certain close-ranged damage dealing builds (like Flamethrower specialists). Most characters can leave Speed at 1.
Combat Speed makes it so you can move more spaces per AP spent. Evasion is self-explanatory. Initiative is a non-factor (it allows you to take your turn if your team is surprised by combat, which should almost never happen).
If you’re a melee character, you should max out speed after Coordination. So, Strength, then Coordination, then Speed (then Intelligence or Luck for crits).
If you’re a mid-range damage dealer such as a Small Arms user or a Flamethrower user, you’ll probably want to casually bump speed up to 4-6 throughout the game.
Otherwise, you can usually treat speed as a dump stat.
Intelligence – Wasteland 3 Attributes
Unlike previous Wasteland games, Intelligence doesn’t affect the Skill Points that you gain as you level. Maxing it out gives a flat +5 skill points. Which is nice, but not the necessity that it was in Wasteland 2. The real draw of Intelligence is the Crit Chance and Crit Damage.
What you should know is that Intelligence gets a hefty bonus at level 10. It gets 2% Crit Chance per level up through level 9 and then gets 7% Crit Chance at level 10. So if you’re going to invest in Intelligence for the Crit Chance, max it all the way out.
Charisma – Wasteland 3 Attributes
Charisma is tricky. You need to max it out if you have the Leadership skill. Other than that, it’s usually a dump stat. 30% Experience is great, don’t get me wrong, it’s a significant bonus.
But, in practical terms, without 30% extra Experience, you’ll end the game at level 24-25 and with it you’ll end the game at level 26-27. Is it really worth it to use 9 Attribute Points to gain 2 Attribute Points?
You might want to also keep in mind that Leadership is very underwhelming on a character that can’t consistently get multi-kills, and investing a bunch of points early on into Charisma significantly decreases that character’s damage potential.
Up to you. I think it’s worth having one character in your party max it out (potentially with the Poindexter Quirk to take full advantage of the extra levels) while every other character leaves it at 1.
That about covers it when it comes to Wasteland 3 Attributes. Be sure to check out the Main Page or the Game Guides section for more gaming content, or click here for more content related to Wasteland 3.
