The BEST Wasteland 3 Starting Characters
Are you trying to figure out which Wasteland 3 starting characters are the best of the best? This is the guide for you.
If you’re playing Wasteland 3, the very first decision you have to make is which pair of characters to start with. At the beginning of the game, you’re presented with 5 different pairs of pre-made Wasteland 3 starting characters, as well as the option to make your own characters.
Obviously, everyone’s going to want to make their own characters right off the bat, but ultimately, if you’re a real min-maxer and you want the best possible start, that’s not the best option.
Why You Shouldn’t Make Your Wasteland 3 Starting Characters in the Intro
The issue is that once you create your characters, you go through a short tutorial mission. Getting the most out of this mission requires you to spread your points around into various different skills.
An optimal party in Wasteland 3 will have 3, maybe 4 skills per character that each character can specialize in. It’s not optimal to spread multiple low level skills around on two characters. So if you’re going to make two characters that can save Jodie Bell (a companion), and hit all the other skill checks in the intro, those characters are going to be terrible later since they have a bunch of wasted skill points.
Now, this isn’t such a huge deal, because the only thing you really need to make it through the intro without losing out on any major missable content is level 1 first aid on one character.
However, if you’re really trying to optimize your playthrough, it’s better to use throwaway characters for the intro and then make your real party when you get to Ranger HQ soon after.
Which Wasteland 3 Starting Characters You Should Use for the Intro
There are two schools of thought for what throwaway characters you should make for the intro. The first is that you should make two characters with Bookworm (+5% Experience) and maximum Charisma (+30% Charisma) and all of the skills that have skill checks during the starting sequence. That allows you to finish the tutorial at level 4, which means you then make level 4 characters at Ranger HQ instead of level 3 characters.
That’s an alright strategy, and one I think you should definitely be aware of. However, what I’m going to suggest is that you just pick the pre-made characters Yuri and Spence and go through the intro with those.
I think Yuri and Spence are hands down the best starting characters in the game, and I’ll explain why.
Are their attributes allocated well? No, they are terrible. Are they built very well? No, they don’t even have quirks. It’s bad. Yuri does have a unique Background (Warmonger) that gives him +5% ranged damage, which is pretty good, but beyond that, these are mediocre characters.
Yuri has a bunch of unnecessary points in Strength for an Automatic Weapons user and Spence’s points are all over the place. She has two points in Brawling, but only 3 Strength. It’s a mess. Still, they’re the best choice.
You see, each of the premade characters comes with their own individualized, unique Utility item.
Several of these utility items are extremely good, if not the best utility items in the game, and going through the intro with a premade character is the only way to get them.
Not only do Yuri and Spence have the best unique accessories, they also have the First Aid skill necessary to save Jodie Bell during the intro. In fact, they’re the only premade characters with First Aid.
Once you finish the intro, all you have to do is create 4 new characters once you defeat the robots at Ranger HQ and get the option from Greatski. Take the utilities off of Yuri and Spence, ditch them and you’ll never have to see them again.
All of the Wasteland 3 Starting Characters Utilities
As I mentioned, every pair of Wasteland 3 starting characters has their own unique utilities. I mentioned that Yuri and Spence have the best ones, but here’s the complete list so you can make your own decision:
Yuri & Spence
Yuri’s Charm: Ranged Damage Bonus +10%
Spence’s Hand Wraps: Hit Chance +5%
Bronco & Kickboy
Bronco’s Heart Pendant: +10% Critical Chance
Kickboy’s Heart Pendant: +4% Strike Rate
William & Li-Tseng
William’s Medal: +1 Penetration
Mom’s Photo: Detection Time +0.2 Seconds
Dusty & Marie
Dusty’s AA Medallion: Critical Damage +0.3x
Marie’s Wrench: Armor +3
Chris & Kris
Vintage Toaster Handle: Fire Resistance +25%
9 Volt Battery: Energy Resistance +20%
As you can see, Bronco and Kickboy also have a pretty decent set of utilities.
Making Your Own Wasteland 3 Starting Characters
If you want to go for the extra experience route (again, the utilities are better), here are the skills you’re going to want on your Wasteland 3 starting characters:
- Background: Bookworm
- 10 Charisma
- 2 First Aid (the second one is for the check with the Patriarch at the end)
- 1 Lockpicking
- 1 Nerd Stuff
- 1 Hard Ass (not necessary: you can just shoot the Dorsey before she speaks)
- 2 Melee Weapons
- 2 Leadership
- 1 Explosives
- 1 Animal Whisperer
If you get all that, you’ll end the tutorial at level 4 and you’ll be able to start your whole team off at level 4 from there.
That about covers it when it comes to the best Wasteland 3 Starting Characters. 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.
